When Ships Are Abandoned, Stuck Sailors Struggle to Get By—and Get Paid

When Ships Are Abandoned, Stuck Sailors Struggle to Get By—and Get Paid
Federico Formica November 17, 2020

“We are satisfied with little, but even that little is impossible today.”

When Captain Alexander Ovchinnikov took over command of the ship Gobustan in Istanbul, the term “COVID-19” hadn’t been coined yet, “quarantine” was the stuff of apocalyptic science fiction, and few people outside of China knew where Wuhan was. It was December 25, 2019. Ovchinnikov, 39, was still on that ship through the summer, along with 11 other crew members: The second engineer was Russian too, the cook was Ukranian, and the rest were from Azerbaijan. At least one had been on board since October 2019, and none of them had received a salary since January. The crew of Gobustan had been stuck since June 16 in the Italian port of Ravenna, on the Adriatic Sea. “We live like in prison. We get up, have breakfast, do some routine activities, then we have dinner and go to bed,” said Ovchinnikov. Their days were all the same and the stillness was shaken only by cleaning and maintenance activities. Sure enough, the ship was clean as a whistle.

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