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Arild adds:
The maritime law is pretty clear on one point.
When the master of any vessel gives orders to abandon ship and all crew have
departed; the vessel is fair game for any and all salvage attempts.
Several magazines have from time to time written about such issues
including getting washed ashore and/or running aground.
They all emphasized the point that unless your life is in danger; do not
leave the vessel unattended for even a minute. Doing so constitutes the act
of abandonment.
This is not an isolated story. Someone I knew from Toronto hired a
professional skipper to bring his Nonsuch boat back from Europe.
During a bad storm the skipper declared a MAYDAY and was plucked off the
boat. Months later it was sighted, and again much later.
Eventually theUSCG contacted him with reports of repeated sightings. Using
this information my acquaintance calculated the drift rate and eventually
intercepted the vessel almost two years later as it circled back around
towards the Carribean.
Much later, I read ( in cruising World ) an incredible tale of unseamanlike
incompetence by a german crew who found this floating yacht and attempted
to salvage it. They abandoned the attempt after nearly being rammed
repeatedly as the towed vessel surfed down slope on the big waves.
( Evidently this skipper had never heard about adding enough length to
the towline, to position the other boat far enough back)
Over the past ten years I must have heard about ten yachts which have
completed circumnavigations on their own after the crew had abandoned ship
fearing for their lives.
Remember: Never leave the ship until you have to step UP into the
liferaft.
Cheers
Arild
-----Original Message-----
From: Alex Hirsekorn [mailto:
