This story originally appeared in Hakai Magazine and is part of it Climate office cooperation.
A novel video appears on the social networking site Telegram: footage of a smoking area on board a gigantic ship. The curtains are torn, the lights are broken, and ash and glass litter the floor. “This is how they drink on our ship,” says a teenage Ukrainian deckhand filming the scene, turning to show furniture thrown into the corner of the room. “I’m terrified.”
The Telegram administrator asks the ship’s attendant if he can provide the name of the ship. They change the name of the ship several times a year – says Feliks Bondar, whose name has been changed for the purposes of this story. “I don’t even know what name to give you,” he writes in Ukrainian. “Our ship was originally named Eaglebut in Venezuela it was like that Matador and then Shoyo Maru“
In recent months, the chatroom has been flooded with a string of similar messages: stories of dangerously damaged ships, operators withholding payouts, stranded crew members and shipowners changing ship names or manipulating automatic identification systems (AIS) – a global network designed to help ships recognize each other.
The Telegram group serves over 8,000 sailors. Some are fresh from maritime studies, others are experienced captains. Everyone is drawn to the group by the desire to stay safe on the high seas. By telling their stories and naming names whenever they can, these sailors are gathering information about problem ships, detailing everything from those carrying low-quality food to ships whose crews often experience wage delays.
But in recent years there are more and more sailors unknowingly getting involved in this matter in the case of the so-called shadow fleet – smuggling oil for Iran, Russia or other clients hit by harsh sanctions restricting oil sales – a social media word-of-mouth network has evolved. Not only is it a place to find a reputable employer, but it has also become something else: a way for sailors to avoid helping the other side of the war.
Life as being a contract seaman was never easy. Workers often jump from ship to ship, from contract to contract, and from country to country. However, the rise of the shadow fleet – along with Russia’s war in Ukraine – poses a new kind of risk.
About a year and a half ago, in early 2023, Bondar sought out the Telegram network of sailors after a particularly troublesome performance. Bondar, hired by the Ukrainian crewing agency, found that the name of the vessel assigned to him had been painted over and the AIS system had been disconnected again. A note on the top of the device warned sailors not to turn it on.
Bondar claims that after a six-month cruise smuggling sanctioned oil to China, the crew was told the next operation would begin in Kozmino, Russia. Russia’s latest invasion of Ukraine began while he was at sea and has been ongoing for more than four months. Bondar and the other Ukrainians on board refused to work in smuggling Russian oil. The ship’s operator allegedly fired them all and abandoned them at the nearest port in China.