- The sea is quite intimidating if you think about how huge it is and if the contact with the land is broken, you are on your own in that giant body of water.
- There was a situation in the sea where some sailors were stuck aboard a damaged ship.
- They sent panic-stricken emails for help, writing that an “urgent solution is needed before it’s too late” in a message with “SOS” in the subject line.
A recent news article published in the Wonderful Engineering site states that a Leaking Ship Full Of Hazardous Sulfur Cargo Sent An Email With ‘SOS’ In The Subject.
The life of the people are in real danger
“THE LIFE OF THE PEOPLE ARE IN REAL DANGER,” crew members wrote in an October email obtained by the Wall Street Journal, trying with no avail to get help from Sierra Leone, the country whose flag flew over their ship.
Crew stuck in damaged ship
The crew was stuck in the sea on their damaged ship. They were running out of food and the only things that were left to eat were a few potatoes and limes.
They had started to fish so they could have something to eat. Their cargo of sulfur was getting damaged by the seawater.
It was giving off dirty fumes and contaminating the vessel’s diesel fuel. To make matters worse, the ship’s owner stopped paying insurance and employee wages and stopped responding to messages asking for help.
What does the Wall Street Journal say?
Wall Street Journal states that all cargo ships have to display a flag of a country on their ships. It doesn’t necessarily have to be the flag of their country.
The flag is to summon help from the country if an emergency occurs. Crews or shipowners pay flag fees to maritime offices in their chosen country.
Flag of Sierra Leone
The MV Haj Abdullah’s crew were flying the flag of Sierra Leone. According to WSJ, the Sierra Leone Maritime Administration regulates hundreds of ships transporting billions of dollars of cargo with the help of a management company.
It is often noted that when the ships display the flag of smaller countries, these countries do not have enough resources to help them completely. This is what happened with them.
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Source: Wonderful Engineering
