Baltimore Bridge Crash Puts Spotlight on Indian Seafarers Who Constitute 10% of Global Maritime Workforce

Ever since the Dali rammed into Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge, causing the span to collapse and presumably killing six construction workers, there has been much attention on its Indian crew. The crash occurred on March 26 as the Singapore-flagged ship, owned by Grace Ocean Pvt. Ltd,, was headed from Baltimore to Colombo, Sri Lanka. Twenty out of the 22 crew working on the 985-foot container ship are Indian nationals. Dali had just embarked on a 27-day voyage to Singapore via Sri Lanka. 

The crew members remain onboard the Dali, which sits motionless in the Baltimore Harbor. Randhir Jaiswal, a spokesman for the India’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs told The Washington Post one crew member was injured in the collision and had to be taken off the ship to receive stitches. “Now all of them are in good shape, good health.” 

Dali is just one of many ships manned largely or wholly by Indian sailors. India ranks third among sailor-supplying nations after China and and the Philippines. About 316,000 Indians work as seafarers, nearly 20 percent of the global total, according to data published by India’s Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways. Indian seafarers constitute nearly 10% of the global maritime workforce. 

The New York Times noted that a container ship crew includes the captain, an officer in charge of securing the cargo, sailors assigned to the engines and handling the ship’s myriad systems, and stewards who handle tasks like cooking and laundry.

Addressing a news conference a day after the crash, NTSB chair Jennifer Homendy mentioned that the cooks were working when she boarded the ship, “It smelled very good, and I was very hungry,” she said. It’s not hard to guess what was cooking in the oven.

Andrew Middleton, director of Apostleship of the Sea in Dundalk, Maryland, told The Post he has been in touch with members aboard the ship. He said they had requested WiFi and new SIM cards to communicate with family back home, which he delivered to them this weekend. Before the crash, Middleton had taken some of the crew members shopping in Dundalk. He said the men were prepared for a month-long trip to Sri Lanka with food and other essentials. It is not clear how long the crew will remain on board. 

Ship companies often look to India  for trained seafarers who will work for lower salaries than American or European crews. Many shipowners and operators from around the world choose to hire Indian seafarers because the community is known for its professionalism, experience, and dedication.

John Konrad, a licensed container ship captain and the editor of gCaptain.com, a shipping industry news site, told The Times that it is normal for crew members to stay on damaged ships because the captain is still in command, and crew members must make sure the crashed vessel — and any potentially hazardous goods — does not pose a further danger.

Meanwhile, the crew has been getting praise by President Biden and Maryland Gov. Wes Moore for their quick-thinking and sending a lives-saving Mayday call. But at the same time, they’ve been subjected to a slew of disgusting racist posts on social media, blaming the crew for the collapse of the bridge. The trolling comes despite of confirmation from the FBI and U.S. Attorney Erek Barron, that there are no signs of terrorism, according to the Associated Press. 

Chirag Bahri, International Operations Manager, The International Seafarers’ Welfare and Assistance Network (ISWAN), told the Hindu Business Line that the Dali “crew cannot be solely blamed,” adding that “there’s an underlying issue concerning safe manning aboard ships that has deteriorated over time.” He said there are now “fewer crew members now manning vessels,” because of which “workload has increased, leaving crew members with less time for themselves, heightened fatigue, anxiety, and stress levels. I disagree with labelling the crew as incompetent.”

According to a August 2023 report in Business India, out of the 1.5 million seafarers in the world at present, the total population of Indian seafarers is estimated at about 250,000. It includes about 160,000 professionally certified seafarers (highly skilled merchant navy ‘officers’ and semi-skilled workforce classified as ‘ratings’), who serve cargo ships of various types; and also some 90,000 seafarers, who serve cruise liners. Companies have also been shrinking their onboard staff even as cargo ships grow in size, experts say, as more tasks are automated.

The Indian Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways, notes on its website that “seafaring has been the world’s first globalized industry.” And as India is a “labor intensive country, it has always provided quality seafarers for national and international shipping.” It is recognized globally, as “a reliable and important source of marine manpower. Indian seafarers, both officers and the rating are much sought after by the maritime nation of the world,” the website said. 

Ship companies often look to India  for trained seafarers who will work for lower salaries than American or European crews. Many shipowners and operators from around the world choose to hire Indian seafarers because the community is known for its professionalism, experience, and dedication to the maritime industry. Most of them are highly trained in various maritime disciplines, including navigation, engineering, and cargo operations. They have to undergo rigorous training and certification programs to acquire the necessary skills and knowledge to work at sea.

The last four years (2013 – 2017) saw an unprecedented growth of 42.3% ship board jobs for Indian seafarers, according to date from the Press Information Bureau of India. “The seafarers employed on ships world wide increased from 108446 in 2013 to 154349 in 2017.” India now provides 9.35% of the global seafarers.

However, these seafarers have to face a lot of hardships at work. In a January 2022 report, The Washington Post reported on how Iranian shipping companies in league with international recruiting were forcing large numbers of Indian seafarers to work in dangerous conditions, often with little or no pay. They are lured to Iran each year by recruiters guaranteeing salaries and experience aboard reputable ships and often promising assignments in other Middle Eastern countries.

Instead, the seafarers say, they are sent to Iran and put to sea, where they are overworked, denied enough food and at times forced to transport drugs and cargo that is under international sanctions. “They target seafarers for work without salary. It’s all a big trap,” said Ashkay Kumar, a 24-year-old deck cadet from Delhi told The Post. “They forced us to work like slaves.”

(Top photo, members of the Maritime Union of India. Courtesy of https://www.marineinsight).