Sailors stranded on a ship for two-and-a-half years after it was abandoned by owner

A pair of sailors have been stranded on a ship for the past 30 months after its owner abandoned it.

Vyacheslav Borshchevskij and Richard Thompson have been stuck together on the MV Ethan in the Port of Quebec, Canada for two-and-a-half years.

Bahamian company D&D Maritime had handed over more than $750,000 (around £592,000) to buy the ship from Quebec-based Groupe Desgagnes, reported CBC.

The veterans, both aged 59, joined the crew in 2016 and were ready to set sail.

But a year later the new owners couldn’t meet financial costs and couldn’t pay the crew’s salaries, leading most workers to leave in 2017.

Vyacheslav, from Ukraine, and Richard, from the Bahamas, decided to stay put on board until they got paid what they were owed – so far a combined total of $264,000 (around £208,000).

The men said they stayed on board because the ship’s owners kept promising they’d get their money if they waited a bit longer.

D&D Maritime said they intend to pay the men soon but are waiting for a financial deal to come through.

But the men admitted they ‘never thought it would come to this point’ and said in the maritime world a ship is never left unmanned.

Vyacheslav hasn’t seen his wife and family in Ukraine since he flew into Quebec City before Christmas in 2016.

Richard is upset he’s not seen his son grow, who was five years old when he left, and is now almost nine.

He told CBC: ‘We basically kept the ship alive, because we know the ship is worthless if we let it go, if you don’t keep the electricity going, the radios warm, the water running through the pipes so they don’t freeze.’

The couple have learnt to live together, taking it in turns to cook and go food shopping on the ship which was built in 1975.

To make matters worse for the sailors, a Canadian law passed in February automatically transfers the ownership of any abandoned vessel to the government, meaning the men would have no chance of getting their money.

Richard said: ‘How can we go home to our families with zero dollars?

‘It’s an embarrassing situation.’

In April this year a judge ordered for the ship to be sold as it had not paid its fees in more than a year.

On May 17 it was given to a new owner for $150,000 (£118,000), which the men said is significantly less than what they are owed.

Richard said he’s personally owed $110,000 (around £86,878), as well as an additional $50,000 (around £39,490), as he paid some of the crew members’ salaries and expenses from his own savings.

Meanwhile, Vyacheslav said he is out of $104,000 (£82,139).

Richard said he and Vyacheslav have been ‘forgotten’ as he claimed they had not been mentioned in the court ruling.

They have now filed a ‘note of protest’ in a bid to be paid.

An owner of D&D Maritime, Chuck Deal, told CBC News: ‘We are going to pay whatever bills and the crew. We are waiting for extra funding. It might take us a few months.’

A spokesman for D&D Maritime said: ‘Monies have been sent monthly for the crew also we planning on paying the balances as soon as we get the financing deal completed.

‘We have never abandoned the vessel we were overwhelmed with the port bills and needed to get financing which took us longer than expected.’