The Corona Virus fear is getting out of hand. There is nothing wrong with social distancing and these lockdown as they will prevent the spread saving the lives of a countless number of people. But throwing someone off your ship because you are worried they might be infected with the Corona Virus is next level paranoia.
“Skipper Cui Rongli watched as his crew built a makeshift raft roping together sealed plastic drums and plywood then stopped his ship to dump the petrified pair overboard in waters off South Africa.
Distraught Amiri Salamu, 20 and Hassani Rajabu, 30, were given just a life jacket and two bottles of water each and told which way to paddle with their hands to reach the nearest land.
With no food to eat and at the mercy of the wind and sea currents they were cast adrift on the high seas fearing being swamped by the waves or their raft falling apart at any moment.
Three days and two nights later the Tanzanian stowaways were washed up exhausted onto a tourist beach at dusk on the KwaZulu-Natal coast of South Africa 50 miles north of Durban.
They had drifted through one of the most shark infested areas of the North Coast by the Tugela River mouth where Great Whites, Hammerheads, Tiger and Bull Sharks all gather.
They had been buffeted by strong winds but sea currents had carried their flimsy raft to the safety of Zinkwazi Beach, although they had to swim the last stretch over a rocky reef.
Shocked locals saw them pair wading through the surf and paramedics said they were suffering from hypothermia, thirst and hunger having been given no food and little water to survive.”
The stowaway remembered the name of the ship and the authorities caught them at a harbor to the north.
“The African Maritime Safety Agency impounded the MV Top Grace when it docked at Richards Bay and the captain was arrested.
Rongli, along with crewmembers Lin Xinyong, Zou Yongxian, Tan Yian, Xie Wenbin, Xu Kun and Mu Yong all pled guilty to attempted murder at Durban Magistrates Court on Friday.
Rongli was fined over $5,000 and crew members were fined $2,500 in a plea bargain.”
They could have least came in real close to a shore so it would have been a short swim. Instead, they scared the heck out of a few stowaways that drifted through water that was highly populated with sharks. They are lucky they only got off with a fine as this is practically attempted murder.
dan
They were arrested. Now they should be thrown into the shark infested waters.
Damn, they should have been thrown in jail.
That ship captain and crew should be taken well out to sea and set adrift exactly like they did to the stowaways.
A monetary fine over jail time is ridiculous.
ALL THEY GOT WAS A FINE///JUST A FINE. UNBELIEVABLE.
EXCELLENT – stowaways – deserve the PENALTY of the sea
chum the waters – throw the criminal overboard
What an unnecessarily harrowing experience for the stowaways,… but I completely disagree with the writer’s statement, ..
” There is nothing wrong with social distancing and these lockdown as they will prevent the spread saving the lives of a countless number of people. ”
That is simply an opinion which is informed by unnecessary fear and ignorance, .. not
the truth.
There’s simply NO EVIDENCE that the writer’s statement is true? What’s wrong with living in reality, which says it’s not even possible for viruses to ‘jump’ 6 feet, or eve 3 feet from one person to another! Contact must be much closer. And most who have had the virus, can thank their wonderful immunie-systems for already defeating the virus.
In any case 99% of the infected RECOVER. Good ‘treatments’ must be pursued, NOT hiding-in-fear, isolating the healthy & shutting down work & life! Quarantine only the symptomatic & RE-OPEN our country and cities NOW.
There are REASONABLE, and Constitutional steps that State and Local officials can take WITHOUT MASS-SHUTDOWNS. ‘Targeted’ quarantining has worked fine in the past, without creating massive collateral-damage. Mass-Economic-shutdowns are simply autocratic-madness. which only ‘serves’ bureaucrats, and government-workers,… It’s a WASTE of resources, and does nothing for treating infected people who are immuno-compromised that really need fast, effecive-treatment (such as hydroxychloroquine,.Zinc,. Z-pak/azithromycin,.IV Vitamin C), BEFORE being intubated
There is a long seagoing history of dumping stowaways overboard, as stowing away was a criminal act and a captain was judge and jury on his ship, although we are supposed to have become more civilized, even on the open seas, in the last couple hundred years. The biggest problem with a stowaway although its the ships masters duty “to take appropriate actions to ensure the general health, welfare and safety of the stowaway until deportation” and then to notify the next port of call and the country under which flag they fly that they will be deporting a stowaway at that next port. The bigger problem is that many ports just will not accept stowaway and they are usually completely undocumented. Some ships have actually found themselves stuck with stowaway or two for many months while trying to arrange at some port to take them. Returning them to their original port is often difficult as a ship may not know how long they have been on board and at which port, and therefore what country, they came from unless they decide to cooperate. And if a country is found that will take them often the ship or ships owners have to pay any fees associate with deportation of the stowaway from the ship. So, yeah, in many ways your damned if you do, damned if you don’t and there have been many cases where stowaways have been put over teh side in makeshift rafts or barrels, given food and pointed towards lands as a person washing up on shore will more likely be taken in than if a ship tries to deport them a a stowaway. On top of that a captain that has done all possible to make sure he is leaving port with a crew that is not ill or even exposed to a disease could find his ship and crew in great trouble if the stowaways are carrying the disease. Most ships don’t have the room or facilities or resources to properly quarantine someone at sea. Not saying he did the right thing. at least legally, but he might have felt that washing on shore on a raft would get them in country more easily then if he tried to get the port authorities to allow them deportation form his ship. And, as the captain he also does have a huge responsibility to the health and well being of his crew which these stowaways may have been greatly jeopardizing
God bless these two survivors
I can’t say I blame the captain and crew totally, after all the two stowaways knew they were breaking the law when they boarded the ship illegally, due to the hype surrounding the coronavirus. I do think they should of dumped them closer to shore. As they built the raft they could of steered closer to shore then dumped them. The whole thing was a bit of over kill simply because the media insist on making this flu worse than the other flu’s that kill more people yet we do not panic and act like fools over it.
With those names they sound like chinese.Again they have no reguard for human life.