...But it’s not a funny story. These three men are the last members of the crew of the Magellanic, the latest in a long line of ghost ships off the cost of Thailand.

They haven’t been paid for months, they have no money to buy food and get by on what they can fish, and they can’t disembark because their Visas for Thailand have expired.
The men are from the Philippines but it doesn’t look as though their embassy is very interested in repatriating them.
The situation doesn’t even seem to interest the authorities in Panama, which is where the Magellanic is based.
The ship-owners are Greek and their Manila-based agent is keeping a low profile.
All this information comes from the only person who is showing any concern for these men, a woman already mentioned on this blog: Apinya Tajit, from the local Apostleship of the Sea.
She has sent a string of e-mails from which one surreal truth emerges: these men are trapped in an inextricable net with seemingly no way out.
The Magellanic is one of those ships that sail on an ocean with no name.
This is not a funny story and maybe not one that people find particularly interesting.
But Apinya hopes that writing about it will prove useful.
I don’t think so, but I’ve done it anyway.

Message from a ghost ship..Help...We want to go home.