Troubles Strand Romanian Ship in L.A. Port

Corroding and stranded in the Port of Los Angeles, a Romanian cargo ship is being forced to stay in harbor until its dangerously decrepit condition is repaired.

The Romanian vessel Giurgiu, on its way to China from Peru, came to terms with its unseaworthiness and limped out of the high seas and into port 10 days ago. Port officials say the Giurgiu is a ship of dangers that they will not allow to pull out of harbor. Although it carries a load of fish meal for fertilizer that is highly combustible, the ship’s fire extinguishing system does not work and its lifeboats are useless because the release mechanisms are inoperative, they said.

And if that is not enough, its generator is failing, it carries hardly any food for the crew, and the rusted desk allows water to drip into the crew quarters below.

“This is exceptional because the living conditions of the people on board were very poor,” said Garrett Guinn, assistant chief of the port safety division of the U.S. Coast Guard. It is not unusual for the port to hold a ship that needs repairs, he said, but it is unusual to hold one this long. The ship racked up seven pages of international safety violations, he said.

But the $54,000 it would take to fix the cargo carrier has yet to arrive from the ship’s owners.

Representatives for the ship’s Long Beach agent say the ship’s owner--a 3-month-old Romanian partnership--has vowed to send money for repairs Monday. But they said they have heard that ever since it docked.

“Normally we get the money before the ship gets here,” said a representative for the Sunrise Shipping Agency who refused to give his name. He added that Sunrise knew of only minor problems with the ship before its arrival and has never represented the Giurgiu’s owner before.

Last month, just after the Giurgiu set sail from Peru, the vessel’s first mate complained to the captain that the vessel would be doomed if a fire ignited its load of fatty fish meal, according to the first mate who replaced him. He was fired, sent home to Romania and his replacement was not informed about the extinguishing system’s problems, the first mate said.

The new first mate, who also asked that his name be withheld, said the owner, Self Invest Maritime, was counting on profit from the ship’s arrival in China to make the repairs.

“They want to get money first and then to fix the ship. That’s the problem,” he said.

He and the crew--some of whom are anxious because they haven’t been paid in more than two months--busied themselves Friday trying to fix the ship’s generator. They also attempted to patch the badly rusted deck with a type of plastic gel.

Ray Familathe, a representative of the London-based International Transport Workers Federation, said the union has provided food for the crew members while they await the funds from Romania. He has boarded the ship and described dismal living conditions, including an infestation of cockroaches.

“[Crew members] have called this a floating prison,” Familathe said.

Port officials said they detained 55 ships in 1995 of the 5,000 to 6,000 ships that arrive in the Los Angeles and Long Beach harbors each year. The ship, which is home-ported in Galati on the Danube River, carried 31 crew member, seven of whom have flown back to Romania.