In the past month Danica has assisted ship owners on three occasions by providing full crew complements to vessels where a large number of the crew onboard had been infected with coronavirus and needed to transfer ashore for treatment and isolation.
The vessel operators turned to Danica because Ukrainian seafarers are relatively free to travel and are vaccinated. These were sad situations but at least we were able to provide practical help.
Within a few days we were able to line-up full crews, all vaccinated, and dispatch them to the vessels. Following a brief period of familiarisation and onboard training the vessels were able to resume normal operations, thereby reducing commercial losses.
We even had cases where the entire crew had to be removed from the vessel, as they had all tested positive, and the Danica crew took over without an in-person handover and with only the vessel’s emergency generator running. Through online meetings between the ship owners’ technical department, the crew in isolation and the new crew, we were able to carry out risk assessments and mitigation including several days of training and familiarisation, enabling these vessels to resume operations.
Well done to all involved.
