Sailor back home after being stranded at sea

● Cadet reveals crew were down to their last few days worth of supplies

One of four British officer cadets stranded at sea for almost a month is back in the UK.

The group from Clyde Marine Training were on a college placement with South Korean company Hanjin Shipping when the firm hit financial trouble.

They were among thousands of seafarers affected as ports around the world denied Hanjin ships permission to dock after the company filed for bankruptcy.

Their ship, the Liberiaflagged Hanjin Louisiana, finally managed to dock in Singapore on Wednesday.

One of the team, Ruaridh Hanna, from Beauly, Inverness-shire, has returned to the UK and spoke of his relief as he landed at Heathrow.

The 22-year-old said: “It’s good to be back. The main concern for us all on the ship

0 The sea cadets from Clyde Marine Training leave the Hanjin Louisiana in Singapore 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.

“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.

“At that point 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

RUARIDH HANNA 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 a 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.”

Mr Hanna said it was third time lucky for the crew when they put into port at Singapore, with previous attempts to dock at Colombo and Singapore having fallen through.