Cadet stranded at sea by shipping firm collapse relieved to be home

A ship carrying four officer cadets from a Scottish college has docked in Singapore after the company they were training with filed for bankruptcy, leaving them stranded aboard.

Scots students stranded on ship in South China Sea Ruaridh Hanna (L) Ruaridh Hanna (R)

The cadets from Clyde Marine Training had been on a placement with South Korean company Hanjin Shipping as part of their City of Glasgow College course when the firm hit financial trouble.

Thousands of seafarers were affected as ports around the world refused to allow Hanjin ships to dock.

One of the cadets, Ruaridh Hanna, 22, from Beauly in the Highlands, has been serving on a Hanjin Shipping container vessel for three months.

He told BBC Radio Scotland there was a lack of communication about their situation, causing frustration for the whole crew.

He said: “It was a bit of a shambles. There was a lack of communication with all involved, including internally between the various companies.

“Nobody seemed to know what was going on.

“We were getting members of our families to cut and paste articles from news websites and send them to us in emails to find out what was going on.”

Mr Hanna said seafarers were always prepared for unexpected to changes to their journeys, but said for a time there were concerns onboard about dwindling supplies.

He said: “We were drifting off Colombo (Sri Lanka) and we started running out of food.

“We had nine days of food left for a six-day voyage to Singapore. That left us with a three-day margin of error.

“We started running out of fresh fruit, fresh vegetables and eggs were running out and flour was running out.

“Luckily there weren’t any problems on the way, but if there had been a major engine failure on the way I’m not sure what we would have done.”

His mother, Rhona Maclennan, said the ship had now docked in Singapore and described it as a “big relief”.

She said: “There were so many worries and uncertainties about how long they were likely to be at sea.”

Ms Maclennan said her son is expected to be back in the UK this morning.

It is understood Singapore’s High Court granted a temporary reprieve for the ships to dock without fear of being seized.

Ruairidh Hanna, David Gorniak, Graeme Deacon and Gavin McPhail had joined the Liberia-flagged Hanjin Louisiana in May and were due to leave the 40,855 tonne vessel on 2 September.

Ms Maclennan said later that hearing her son was in Singapore “was the best news”.