In a few hours, a French gasman found himself last week
"pariah of the Caribbean"
, in the words of Commander Jacques Casabianca. The Covid-19 had embarked clandestinely during a stopover in the United States, despite the two PCR tests and the quarantine observed by the sailor then taking his post. Offshore, the 33-year-old first complained of a stomach ache, then within hours, as the ship plotted its course to Central America, his condition deteriorated. His fever rose dangerously, he ran out of breath and had to be hospitalized immediately. Head for Kingston, the nearest port. Nothing to do: the Jamaican authorities, themselves overwhelmed by a violent wave of coronavirus, categorically refuse the ship to dock.
“We found ourselves banished offshore, in spite of all international conventions, with a dying sailor on board and 31 sailors potentially in contact,”
Jacques Casabianca recounts with anguish. At the end of many negotiations requiring the intervention of the Elysee, an evacuation to Martinique is organized a few days later.
“But I had to transport the patient myself in a lifeboat to shore. We were seen as plague victims, ”
laments the captain.
When the coronavirus creeps aboard a ship, sailors find themselves confined with the disease. Prisoners of the sea and the borders, and above all, of the absence of a protocol allowing their medical care.
“Until now, the sailors were relatively preserved because of their isolation, but lately, the clusters are multiplying in a worrying way in the ships
, observes Pierre Blanchard, president of the Association of the captains
.
Despite the significant restrictions, it appears that some cases escape PCR testing.
On board, things go very, very quickly. ”
To read also: "Five years prisoner of a wreck": the terrible odyssey of abandoned ships
Entire contaminated crews
Fact. Near Le Havre, the epidemic decimated the crew of the oil tanker Fairway: 16 sailors out of 25 contracted the coronavirus, including the chief engineers.
“Three officers were evacuated by helicopter and one was hospitalized in intensive care,”
confirms Corinne Archambault, coordinator of the ITF, the international transport federation of Le Havre. For lack of healthy sailors to take charge of the ship, the Fairway had to be towed to the port of Le Havre, says Charles Boutry, manager of the towing company Boluda.
“It's very unusual to tow a boat without anyone on board to move it forward,” he is
surprised.
I have never been so afraid of the virus.
Barrier distances on a boat do not exist, the spaces are too small.
I'm getting almost claustrophobic
Matthieu, merchant marine engineer
On April 7, two sailors died of the coronavirus aboard a French tuna boat belonging to the Reunionese shipyard Sapmer off the Seychelles, and the 35 sailors of the crew tested positive.
“I have never been so afraid of the virus.
Barrier distances on a boat do not exist, the spaces are too small.
I'm becoming almost claustrophobic, ”
admits Matthieu *, a mechanic on a merchant navy ship, who, with pride, does not prefer to give his name.
How to manage these floating clusters, banned from ports and far from any help?
"When a case is detected on board, we call the Purpan Maritime Consultation Center, which gives instructions to be able to stabilize the patients,"
explains Pierre Blanchard.
“But the feedback shows that the ships are not equipped to be able to manage serious cases of Covid.
French law requires you to have on board 2 bottles of 5 liters of oxygen… This corresponds to only 5 hours of oxygen therapy for a single patient. ”
Insufficient, therefore, to be able to keep alive a patient whose condition is deteriorating rapidly.
Read also: Deprived of a stopover or relief, sailors trapped by the coronavirus
Excluded from vaccination
More serious still, the sailors, in limbo of international waters, were by the force of things excluded from the various programs of vaccination. The profession is not considered a priority. And how to organize, for seafarers who leave for missions of several months, the injection of the two doses? Not to mention the different nationalities present on board the ships.
“We are campaigning for the vaccination of our French sailors, but we need international coordination. I have men from Africa and Eastern Europe in my teams. Their vaccination is difficult to supervise from a distance ”
, continues Pierre Blanchard. The possibility of setting up a vaccination passport worries all the more captains and shipowners, who fear that their crew will find themselves ostracized from the borders for lack of vaccination. The organizations were able to meet in mid-April with the Minister of the Sea, Annick Girardin. They now hope to get a positive response from the latter as soon as possible.
“Sailors may no longer be able to return home, nor participate in vaccination programs. You can imagine the imbroglio, ”
sighs Pierre Blancard. A vicious circle that always places sailors on the edge of the epidemic.
