The Seafarers International Union salutes the professionalism, bravery, and responsiveness of our members from the Stena Immaculate, as well as that of our shipmates from the American Maritime Officers. We are grateful beyond words that all of the mariners safely abandoned ship after heroically fighting the fire that started after the Stena Immaculate, while anchored, was struck by the foreign-flag vessel Solong.
While we are proud members of the U.S. Merchant Marine – also known as America’s fourth arm of defense – we also are part of the global maritime community, and we mourn the presumed loss of the crew member from the Solong.
We also wholeheartedly thank everyone who mobilized to assist the respective crews and who fought the fires on both ships, prominently including personnel from the U.K. Maritime and Coastguard Agency. A number of local pilots and other mariners also assisted the Stena Immaculate crew after they had successfully launched their lifeboat; we deeply appreciate their support.
Additionally, we commend Crowley Maritime for their immediate, thorough response in support of the Stena Immaculate mariners. Having promptly deployed an SIU headquarters official to meet with union members for the duration of their overseas stay (AMO did the same), we know firsthand that this has been a professional but humanitarian team effort. We are glad to note that all of the Stena Immaculate mariners are expected to be home in the very near future.
Finally, we would be remiss in not mentioning the first-person accounts of Seafarers who described their safety training as nothing short of lifesaving in this incident. We will share more details in our own upcoming reporting, but their unprompted endorsements of both the SIU and our affiliated Paul Hall Center for Maritime Training and Education have been humbling and heartwarming.
We do not plan to further comment while the investigation is ongoing.
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