10-Month Nightmare Ends for ‘Prisoners at Sea’

The last 12 crew members stranded aboard a rusting cargo ship came ashore Tuesday, ending a 10-month ordeal during which they caught rainwater and fish to survive.

“I’m very thankful to God,” Capt. Maqsood Ahmed said. “We were prisoners at sea without committing a crime.”

The seamen were the last of a 23-man crew from Karachi, Pakistan, to leave the Delta Pride, a broken-down freighter that, because of bureaucratic entanglements, has been anchored about four miles off the south Texas coast since just before Thanksgiving.

On Tuesday, the Immigration and Naturalization Service said the crewmen could remain for up to 30 days while they iron out travel plans and other details. They will stay temporarily in a Catholic-run refugee center.

Some crewmen cried when they were allowed off the ship. Chief officer Ahmed Shamshad bent down and kissed the pier.

“Two or three of my men thought they’d never stand on land again,” the captain said.

For 18 months, the 740-foot Delta Pride carried millions of dollars’ worth of coal, bauxite, scrap iron and grain to England, Asia, West Africa, the Middle East and Texas. After its last delivery, in May, it was sent to Tampico, Mexico.

The ship’s owner, Tri-star Shipping Lines of Karachi, went bankrupt. A financial dispute with Mexican officials followed, leading to the seizure of the ship’s documents and the crew’s passports.

SOS calls were ignored as life aboard the ship became more desperate by the day.

The seamen eventually lived off whatever rain and fish they could catch. With no clean water for bathing and washing clothes, rashes and early signs of scurvy were setting in.

By November, the men were threatening to commit mass suicide. The captain set out for the United States for help.

But U.S. officials denied the ship permission to pull into port because of mechanical problems and because it lacked a certificate guaranteeing payment if the ship caused any damage. Crew members couldn’t come ashore because they didn’t have passports.

Global Ship Services of New Orleans, a supply company, provided a fuel shipment and medical treatment. The Greater Houston Pakistani Assn. sent supplies and helped fund trips home for 11 crew members with health problems, leaving behind the 12 who were rescued Tuesday.