Black days for stranded seamen

By MATHEW DEARNALEY

After 23 years as a seafarer, all Cleto Autor wants is to get back to the Philippines to begin a modest retirement surrounded by his 18 grandchildren.

Instead, the 67-year-old cook and six other Filipino crew members are stuck in Auckland with three German officers on Black Bart, a "flag of convenience" ship named after a 19th-century American stagecoach robber and which creditors have placed under arrest.

All except one have wives and children back home waiting for wages which have not been sent since April, including Mr Autor's son, Ronilo, who is the father of four of his grandchildren.

Mr Autor snr's hopes of using earnings from his final voyage as a downpayment on a minibus business are fading against a row between owners of the Pacific and Chatham Islands trading vessel.

Other crew members say their families are selling personal effects to pay for children's school fees. They have no idea when they will be able to return home to check their welfare.

The ship's second officer, Romeo Anoba, says his main concern is to see his family for the first time since last July, although it will be hard to return home empty-handed.

The Black Bart, known as the Ngamaru 3 before being sold last year by receivers of the failed Cook Islands National Line, has been the main supply ship to the Chathams since the early 1990s as well as serving more tropical ports.

But since April it has been tied up on the Auckland waterfront and a far smaller vessel owned by a competitor has started to clear a backlog of sheep said to be running low on winter feed on the remote islands.

Crew members acknowledge receiving cash advances of $150 at the beginning of last month for basic expenses from the ship's master, Captain Helmut Lohmann, who is effectively half-owner of the vessel through a nominee company registered in Vanuatu.

The other half is owned by a nominee of BB Shipping (NZ) Ltd, which is also Black Bart's agent and is run by Aucklander Paul McSherry.

The International Transport Federation (ITF) is trying to recover about US$45,000 ($92,600) for the crew in unpaid wages, and the Seafarers' Mission has offered to supply phone cards to keep them in touch with their families.

Other creditors are understood to have agreed to an exemption from a High Court arrest writ served on June 7 to allow a delivery voyage to the Chathams to generate cash flow but the crew refused, saying they were not being offered any backpay.

Engineroom cleaner Ronaldo Lim, who has four children, said an offer of payment just for that voyage was an insult.

Stevedoring firm Wallace Investments is expected to apply in court tomorrow for an order for the ship to be sold, although a spokesman would not confirm this yesterday.

Captain Lohmann says he is as much a victim as his crew, being owed US$91,000 ($187,000) for his services, but ITF local co-ordinator Kathy Whelan wonders why they are the only creditors not to have received a share of an advance payment for the would-be voyage.

Chatham Islands fuel distributor John Sutherland said he made the payment to Captain Lohmann rather than BB Shipping, on the captain's advice, but was now faced with spending more to recover $88,000 of diesel loaded on to the ship before it was arrested.

"He said if you pay [Paul] McSherry I won't sail because my boys haven't been paid."

But Mr McSherry said his company was itself owed $356,000 and believed the captain had "over-capitalised" the ship by spending $1 million refurbishing it after buying it for $568,000.

He said BB Shipping had met its responsibilities under Philippine law to send money to the crew members' families, and accused the captain of claiming too high a salary for himself from what was left.

Competitors on both the Chatham Islands and the ship's other Pacific routes had done everything they could to exclude Black Bart from their waters and he also blamed "political interference" from the Ministry of Transport and the Maritime Safety Authority.

This involved what he said were unsuccessful challenges to the legality of the Black Bart's operation as an internationally flagged ship on the Chatham Islands route.

Asked whether he would be prepared to help to repatriate the crew, he said he probably would if approached by the ITF.

Ms Whelan said last night that she would seek a meeting with Mr McSherry to discuss his offer.