Note of information : substandard ship Ocean Pearl
We have been informed through a correspondent in Asia that the Indian owner Prayati Shipping devoted to buying ships to be demolished has acquired the Ocean Pearl IMO 8226650, presently in a Chinese port. Since June 2010 this general cargo carrier built in 1983 is flying the Saint-Kitts-and-Nevis flag, famous to host ships for their last trip.
The life saving and fire fighting equipments are in a very bad condition, especially both lifeboats. Bridge, crew’s cabin and engine equipments are in a deplorable state. In a sanitary point of view the worst is that water aboard is not drinkable. The internal communication system does not work, electrical wiring is not installed properly. The 22 crew members are not paid. According to Prayati Shipping usual business, they are under a nine months contract.
Hunting down the Onyx (6)
The Onyx has finished her last round of liar’s dice. The old Finnish car ferry already renamed in September before her depart from Vaasa has become too notorious under this patronymic. She was renamed “Kaptain Boris” after calling at Port-Rashid (Dubai).
Her new official owner, Red Line Shipping Ltd is hiding in the tax haven of the Marshall Islands. The ex Onyx, was previously flying a Saint-Kitts and Nevis flag which is ranked on the Memorandum of Paris’ black list as a flag of “high risk”. She has gone down a notch again and is now under a Sierra Leona flag which is listed in the Top 5, flags of “very high risk”.
The Eventful Life of a Family.
Subject: Disabled Ship in Cherbourg
Disabled in Cherbourg due to propulsion damages, the Baco Liner 1, the eldest of the family, launched in 1979, has been detained for three days in the Port of Antwerp (Belgium) in June 2009 with 34 deficiencies of which 11 are relative to the propulsion and auxiliary equipment.
The 24 Baco Liner 2 Filipino crewmembers had been taken hostage for three weeks in February 2007 near the port of Warri in Nigeria by the group « Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta ». No ransom was paid. The kidnappers declared that the ship transported smuggled weapons and ammunitions. A spokesperson from Baco Liner denied comments.
Hunting down the Onyx (4)
Prayati Shipping PVT, based in Bombay, owner of the car ferry Onyx, confirms its position as a wrecking ship owner. Asian ship-breaking yards appear to be the only destination of the vessels of its “fleet”.
Identified in the summer of 2009 for having sold the old tanker President to a demolition yard in Bangladesh, only a couple of months after having bought it, Prayati Shipping PVT had also become at the same time the owner of the Rose S, a bulk carrier built in 1976 (see “Hunting down the Onyx, February 4, 2010). Today, the owner just got rid of the Onyx which was detained in ports across the world, and which has not sailed since her purchase: the Rose S has just been beached for demolition in Alang.
Hunting down the Onyx (2)
In a letter addressed to Robin des Bois on February 3rd 2010, the Squadron Vice Admiral, Head of the Maritime Authority in the French Atlantic, subjected the departure of the old car ferry Onyx to weather permitting conditions in order to guarantee the safety of the crew members aboard. It appears as though the weather cleared up at around 10:00 am, the time when the Onyx departed. The letter also mentions that the decision to stop the detention of the Onyx would be taken “under the condition that she was taken to a port for repair”. Brest was therefore only the port of handiworks and fast repair.
