Days after the Dali lost power and hit the Francis Scott Key Bridge on Tuesday, the crew remains on the massive cargo ship stuck in the middle of Baltimore's harbor. Here's what we know about the people on board and their condition.
There are 21 sailors on the Dali, 20 from India and one from Sri Lanka. The two pilots have left the ship, officials with the Key Bridge Joint Information Center said Monday. That "unified command" is handling outreach for federal and state agencies involved in the disaster, as well as the company that manages the Dali.
There are seven other ships stuck in the harbor and 136 other foreign national crew members remaining on board those vessels, according to an April 3 memo by the Maryland Department of Emergency Management.
About 316,000 Indians work as seafarers, nearly 20 percent of the global total, according to data published by India's Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways. Ship companies often look to India, as well as the Philippines and Indonesia, for trained seafarers who will work for lower salaries than American or European crews. "India has a rich history in the maritime space" going back centuries, said Chirag Bahri, international operations manager for the International Seafarers Welfare and Assistance Network. And in recent years, "it has been government policy to promote Indian seafarers and Indian shipping," including through seafarer training colleges.
Companies have also been shrinking their onboard staff even as cargo ships grow in size, experts say, as more tasks are automated.
"The first ship I was on was 42 people -- it's literally cut in half," said David Ledoux, a consultant and retired ship captain who started seafaring in 1984. That ship was about a third of the size of the Dali as well, he said.
Shri Randhir Jaiswal, a spokesman for the country's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said on March 28 that one crew member was injured in the collision and had to be taken off the ship to receive stitches. Now, he said, "All of them are in good shape, good health."
Salvage crews over the weekend delivered WiFi hotspots, SIM cards, a handful of DVDs and 40 homemade muffins to mariners aboard the Dali, said Andrew Middleton, director of the local Apostleship of the Sea, and the Port of Baltimore's chaplain, Joshua Messick.
The deliveries, packaged by Middleton and Messick, went out Saturday and Sunday in response to requests made by crew members for help communicating with family back home. The muffins were flavored with poppy seed and blueberry and baked by a local mother.
"We are very much thankful for your help at the right time," one crew member messaged Middleton over the weekend.
Middleton said he planned to send out books and magazines to the mariners in the next few days. Before the crash, Middleton had taken some of the crew members shopping in Dundalk. He said the men were prepared for a month-long trip to Sri Lanka with food and other essentials.
National Transportation Safety Board Chair Jennifer Homendy told reporters that when she boarded the ship Wednesday, a cook was in the kitchen, making a meal. "It smelled very good, and I was very hungry," she said.
Messick said members of his group, the Baltimore International Seafarers' Center, had also visited each ship in the harbor to see if anyone needed to be transported to land.
Not yet, according to the Key Bridge unified command. In a statement Friday, authorities said they "do not have a plan for getting the crew members of the Dali off the vessel." Instead, unless safety concerns change, the crew "will most likely disembark when the boat is moved or taken out of the water." For the other ships, U.S. Customs and Border Protection "is allowing shore leave and coordinating with the vessels directly," Maryland emergency officials said, but "Dali crew members will remain on the ship until further notice and will report crew emergencies to" the U.S. Coast Guard.
A spokesman for the Dali management said Monday that the crew would not leave the ship until the NTSB and the U.S. Coast Guard finished investigating what caused the ship to lose power and crash into the Key Bridge.
"The crew is busy with their normal duties on the ship as well as assisting the NTSB and Coast Guard investigators on board," said the spokesman, William Marks. "At this time we do not know how long the investigation process will take and until that process is complete, the crew will remain on board."
At a news conference Friday, officials said moving the ship was a second priority, after reopening the shipping lane in and out of the Port of Baltimore. Ledoux said moving the ship would require a damage assessment once the bridge parts are removed, including divers checking for damage underwater, and then clearance from authorities to tug the boat.
The crew of the Dali is covered by an International Transport Workers' Federation (ITF) contract through the Singapore Maritime Officers Union, mandating salaries, sick pay and other standards. An inspector from the ITF has visited every ship stuck in the harbor except the Dali, said the group's coordinator of inspectors, Steve Trowsdale, and has communicated with the Dali crew by phone.
"Our inspector will try to get on board, but that's up to U.S. authorities," Trowsdale said. "We're specifically not asking what happened; our main concern is the welfare of the crew and their mental well-being."
Under the Dali's contract with the sailors, tours without leave are limited to 11 months. But Trowsdale said it would again be American authorities who decide when the crew will be allowed leave Baltimore.
Sailors from India and other countries where incomes are relatively low and work is hard to come by are often taken advantage of by shipping companies, Trowsdale said: "They are supremely scared of not getting another job if they complain." When allegations of abuse do occur, ITF inspectors step in.
But Trowsdale said reports of mistreatment are less common on big container ships such as the Dali than on smaller cargo vessels.
"They cannot afford to be held up in port" by an investigation into contract violations, he said. "They are on very tight schedules. They get in, they load or they unload, and they get out again."
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