Mangalorean Ship Captain Languishing in Taiwan
Daijiworld Media Network - Mangalore (SP)
Mangalore, Aug 4: Preetha Aroza, wife of Glen Patrick Aroza from Bendore in the city, has been going through endless agony, as her husband Glen, who works as the captain of a ship, has been held up in Taiwan in the guise of investigation, since the last four months.
Glen was the ex-Master of the VLCC, M.T.Tosa owned by NYK Ship Management Private Limited, Japan. He has been working on foreign going ships since the last 19 years and is in contract with the said company for the second term.
Reportedly, the ship captained by Glen was moving towards Singapore from South Korea on April 17, when it was involved in an alleged contact with a Taiwanese fishing trawler in the International waters off Taiwan in the wee hours. The incident happened during the duty time of the second officer, Mohd. Rezaul Karim (Bangladeshi) and AB Eduardo Mallorca (Filipino) who did their best to avoid contact with fishing trawler. Captain Aroza had left his procedural Night Orders on the navigation bridge clearly stating that when in doubt, in any situation, to call the master. The second officer did not call master as he NO reason to do so. At the time of this alleged incident, the master was resting.
This alleged incident was brought to the notice of Captain Aroza after nearly ten hours when the Taiwan Coast Guards intercepted and threatened to divert the ship to the nearest port of Hualien as the alleged incident had 2 of the 13 crew members of the fishing trawler missing.
The Taiwan officials alleged that the boat capsized because the Tosa collided with it, which is untrue and the SVDR (Simplified Voyage Data Recorder) of the ship has revealed ‘no contact’ and so also the hull inspection of the ship and trawler revealed no damage or contact of any sort had taken place. Even after several inspections, the authorities there could not get any proof of the boat having been involved a collision with the ship in question. While the ship was allowed to sail on May 1, Capt. Glen, the 2 Officer and the AB have been detained in Taiwan, Preetha says.
All the three have been detained in Taiwan port for almost four months now and they have been questioned now and then. The first court hearing has been scheduled for August 20 and it is uncertain as to how long the procedure will drag on, a worried Preetha exclaims.