Today we received a mail from Captain Murashka about a Stowaway found in the cargo hold. The Stowaway board the vessel in the port of Gambia.
Captain Murashka informed his charterer and requested the disembarking of the stowaway at the next call Gambia.
The crew carried out all required stowaway searches and a permanent watchkeeping was established. In a later interview with the stowaway the crew found out that the stowaway was dressed as a stevedore and most probably that was the reason that nobody from the crew was suspicious.
This shows us again the very high risk of stowaways and we ask all crews to take great care on access control any time the vessel is in a port.
Gambia it is the Smile of Africa
Test
Count of the people who in/out to the vessel can identify if somebody from stevedores (or stowaways dressed as stevedore) didn't leave the vessel before departure.
Unfortunately, we also have the Stowaway problem in many European ports these days.
Caution, suspicion and intensive searching can minimize the problem.
🤔