Stranded sea cadet tells of relief after return to dry land
A GROUP of Scottish Sea Cadets who were stranded in the ocean thousands of miles from land after a shipping company went bust have been reunited with their families after flying back to Scotland.
Ruaridh Hanna, David Gorniak, and Gavin McPhail have spoken of their relief after flying back home from their ordeal in the South China Sea. Mr Hanna, 22, of Beauly, Invernes-shire, hugged his mother Rhona Maclennan and sister Naiomi in the arrivals hall at Inverness Airport.
The Clyde Marine Training trio, plus another cadet, were aboard a Hanjin Shipping container ship which became barred from entering port after details of the firm’s financial difficulties emerged.
He said: “It’s good to be back. The main concern for us all on the ship was just not knowing what was going on and not knowing when we were getting home.
“There was very little in the way of communication from the people we should have been getting information from.
“Every day we would wake up and wonder if we would get some news.”
Their ship, the Liberiaflagged Hanjin Louisiana, finally managed to dock in Singapore on Wednesday after spending weeks drifting on the Indian Ocean.
Mr Hanna said at one point the vessel was drifting for over a week, while the crew listened to reports of pirate attacks in the nearby waters.
“It’s a month ago today we got word from Hanjin saying do not go into any country’s territorial waters. It didn’t say anything else – it just said wait for further instruction,” he said. “We were drifting off Colombo, Sri Lanka, for nine days. It got to the point where we only had nine days of food left and we were told to take a six-day voyage to Singapore. If something had gone wrong in the Indian Ocean I don’t know what we would have done. While we were there we were getting reports of piracy attacks nearby. It was real threat, but we took measures to prevent it. Being at anchor there is not a measure any vessel owner would take lightly – you’re a sitting duck.”
The City of Glasgow College student said he is still planning a career at sea and will be heading off again in October after catching up with family and friends at home.