INDEPENDENT

scrapped

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scrapped

scrapped at Ghent 05/2014

Towed to breakers in Ghent

In the afternoon of May 15, 2014, the tugs "Barracuda" and "Multratug 9" towed the "Independent" from Shoreham, where she had been laid up since January 2013, to Ghent for demolition. Photos: http://www.tugspotters.com/site/content/2014/05/barracuda-en-multratug-9-met-de-independent/ http://www.tugspotters.com/site/content/2014/05/barracuda-en-multratug-9-met-independent-naar-gent/

Captain stranded in limbo in Shoreham

Mikhail Polyakov aboard the "Independent" which was being docked in Shoreham since Jan 8, 2013, believes deserting the vessel would result in him and his crew going unpaid. For nearly eight months, the Russian captain has been stranded in limbo in Shoreham-by-Sea. Polyakov has been stuck on an impounded ship after Independent Shipping, the British company that hired him for its small fleet, failed to pay a £32,000 fuel bill. The "Independent" was served with an arrest notice in January by the Admiralty marshal and cannot leave port since. Crew wages already owing went unpaid. Over the ensuing months, most of the nine-strong crew left the vessel, some paying their own way home to Russia or Ukraine. But Polyakov did not want to desert his ship. The Independent Shipping had sourced the crew for its ill-fated venture through a Latvian agency. Polyakov is owed almost £18,000; the wages owed to his crew are much smaller. Only one Ukrainian man, Igor Aleynykov was remaining on the ship with him. The last qualified engineer left some time ago; Polyakov now anxiously tends the engine room to keep the water and fuel topped up in the auxiliary engines powering the ship. Aleynykov transferred from another of Independent's ships, the "Torrent", which has also been seized, along the south coast in Rye. Four Russian and Ukrainian seamen are remaining stranded there. Another four are waiting for funds to leave the "Shoreham" docked in Santander, Spain. The firm's two other crews left when their ships were sold for scrap. Interested parties have come to view the ship. The two men are given fortnightly sums for Some back wages were paid in March; the firm gave another £5,000 to Polyakov in July, but the captain chose to forward it to another member of his unpaid crew.