MV Anastasia: Owner in plea for stranded coal crew

The owners of the vessel carrying Australian coal stranded off the coast of China has urged the Chinese government to allow crew to disembark.

‘Please, we just want to go home, please, please,” said navigating officer Gaurav Singh in a video sent exclusively to The Australian.

The shipping company that owns the MV Anastasia – a vessel carrying Australian coal that has been stranded off the coast of China for more than five months – has urged the Chinese government to allow desperate crew to disembark as a matter of urgency.

The international crew, who have been communicating their plight to the world via social media, have been denied permission to unload.

The reason is believed to be a trade dispute between Australian and China. China is ignoring well-established rules of maritime trade in keeping the crew on board for months on end.

“Please, we just want to go home, please, please,” navigating officer Gaurav Singh says in a video message sent to The Australian yesterday. “Please understand the seriousness of the situation on board.”

The MV Anastasia is owned by the Swiss-Italian Mediterranean Shipping Company and is flying a Panama flag.

A tweet by one of the seamen aboard a coal ship off the coast of China.

It set sail with a shipment of coal from the port of Hay Point in Queensland in July.

In a statement to The Australian, the company says it has tried to negotiate ways to get the crew off the vessel, but none had been approved by China.

“MSC is very concerned for the wellbeing of the seafarers on-board and is in contact with them,” the statement says.

“We have also been communicating actively with authorities and the chartering parties to seek a solution so that the seafarers are allowed to be relieved as soon as possible.”

The company says it has “taken a number of steps to try to relieve the seafarers on-board the vessel” and agrees that a “change of crew is long overdue and urgently needed.

“MSC has been in touch with government and intergovernmental bodies to highlight its concerns about the crew’s situation,” the statement says.

“MSC understands that the charterers have been exploring options to berth the vessel at other ports in recent days, but so far this has not happened, and we urge action to be taken as soon as possible.”

A pair of crewmen aboard a coal ship stranded near China. Picture: Twitter

While MSC is the registered owner and technical operator of the Anastasia, the vessel is not part of MSC’s cargo service network. The movement of the ship and the port calls are, therefore, being governed by the third parties that chartered the ship to make the coal delivery.

‘So, it was not MSC determining the cargo to be carried, or the commercial movement of this ship which has led up to this situation,” the statement says.

“If you wish to ask somebody why the crew has not been relieved, you should be additionally, even primarily, addressing this question to other parties.”

In the new video, Mr Singh pleads with the Indian and Chinese governments to release the crew of the vessel, which last night remained stuck in Bohai Bay, off the coast of China.

“I would request to the Indian government and the Chinese government, please show some mercy on us,” Mr Singh says.

Crew members, like those stuck aboard the bulk carrier MV Anastasia for several months, have taken to social media to plead their case. Source: Twitter / @AnnaKrien

“We haven’t made any mistake. We are just doing our job. We are physically and mentally exhausted.

“We are scared. Because of this issue, this trade war, God knows when we are going to reach home.

“Please understand the seriousness of the situation on board. Our families are worried, we are worried. Please, we just want to go home. Please, please.”