Dutch Runner has finally set sail, leaving Port Hawkesbury behind
“(The owners) are hanging on to hopes of selling this ship — it’s like me trying to win the lottery,” Kruger, who captained the boat on Labrador Coast, told The Chronicle Herald last fall.
“In my view the people of Port Hawkesbury have an interest to see that boat out of there.”
But as in Souris, the Dutch Runner’s owners kept current on their rent in Port Hawkesbury.
“They were a good paying client,” said Tim Gilfoy, chief executive officer of the Strait of Canso Superport Corporation.
“From that perspective, it’s too bad they left.”
Not everyone was paid as quickly.
Six sailors from Honduras, the Dominican Republic and Peru, left the unheated ship in the fall of 2016 in protest of not getting paid by its former owners and poor working conditions.
Since then there’s been a variety of different crewmembers from South American countries and a variety of reasons for its delayed departure.
Ronalds, who also drives a cab, befriended many of the crew members as he drove them around town on errands.
“They very nice people and all they wanted was a fair deal,” said Ronalds.
“They’d leave the boat on errands but also because they just wanted some human contact. There are many people around here who have open invitations to visit them and their families in South America.”
One crewmember from Nicaragua has kept in touch with Ronalds – sending him pictures and video from the current civil unrest in that country.
“She’s gone but not forgotten,” said Ronalds of the MV Dutch Runner.