Malaga rescues a ship that had been adrift for several days with 17 crew members without food or fuel

The Port of Malaga has welcomed a merchant ship that had been adrift in international waters for ten days. Apparently abandoned by its owner, the ship had to be rescued on Thursday by Capitanía Marítima. The Marine I, a Panama-flagged vessel, was in international waters, in the area of the Strait of Gibraltar, and had been adrift, without drinking water, food or fuel. It was carrying 17 crew members who in recent days have suffered from a lack of supplies and breakdowns that put their safety at risk.

According to sources from the Port of Malaga and Capitanía Marítima consulted by this newspaper, after several days of monitoring, the Directorate General of the Merchant Navy, together with its Moroccan counterpart, took the decision to tow the ship for the safety of the vessel and the crew, as it had no supplies or provisions. A tug brought it safely into the port of Malaga on Thursday, according to the website Vesselfinder, a real-time ship locator, arriving at 11.54pm. The professionalism of all parties involved in the operation meant that the ship arrived in port without incident and all crew members are well.

The question now is what will happen to the vessel and its crew, whether the owner company will take responsibility for it. The Marine I is a Panama-flagged vessel built in 1994. It is 105 metres long, has a weight of 5,811 tonnes and an overall cargo capacity of 3,978 GT ('Gross Tonnage', a measure of a ship's capacity that quantifies the volume of all the ship's interior spaces). The ship has been renamed several times and is reportedly owned by a Dubai company, so contacts will now be made to try to locate the owners and see if they will take care of their workers and the ship's costs and liabilities. The International Transport Workers' Federation (ITF) was aware of the operation and had warned of the plight of the crew on board.