Nemanskii captain in jail interview
Captain Andrey Salmin has been imprisoned in Norway for being unable to pay a fine for illegal sailing in the Barents Sea. To a local Norwegian newspaper Salmin says he will continue the fight against the ship owners of the “Nemanskii” when released from prison.
It has been six months since Nemanskiy Captain Andrej Salmin saw his wife and daughter for the last time. After he was arrested and put in jail in late February, he has spoken with his daughter on the phone only two times. He misses his family a lot, but at the same time the fisherman is used to being away for several months at the time, says Salmin to regional Norwegian newspaper Finnmarken in an interview in Vadsø County Jail.
On New Years Eve, Salmin and his crew left the Norwegian border town Kirkenes without permission. They were later caught by Norwegian Coast Guard and brought in to Vadsø Harbour. Then, the “Nemanskii” was drifting without engine power and had a seriously injured sailor on board. Salmin was given a 50 000 NOK fine for violations of the Norwegian law, but this he could not pay for.
– No pirate
Before he was imprisoned he sat for one and a half month in the Nemanskii trawler waiting for the ship owner, Goldfish Nord, to pay the fine. It never happened so he had to spend 36 days in prison to pay for the penalty.
– I have not done anything criminal. I am no pirate. My penalty is an administrative one, Salmin says to the newspaper.
Both he and his crew have been on the boat for six months without any payment from ship owner Goldfish Nord. At age 55 Salmin has the possibility to retire, but with the current situation he will hardly be able to do that. His personal bank account is almost empty and the monthly pension of 6000 rubel will only cover the apartment rent in Murmansk. Salmin has several offers to be captain on other ships and will most certainly sign on with a new boat when he gets home.
Ready for fight
The first thing he will do when he is back in Murmansk is to fight for his own and his crew’s missing payments from the ship owner Goldfish Nord. Salmon is as the captain responsible for his crew and it bothers him that none of them has been paid for the job they have done on Nemanskiy.
Salmin says that he knows a lot of people in Murmansk that will help him in the fight against the ship owner. Goldfish Nord says that Salmin left Kirkenes of his own will, that he has destroyed the ship and that he has tried to take over control of the ship and denying the ship owner access to Nemanskiy. Salmin says that these accusations are false and an attempt to run away from their responsibility for the ship and its crew.
Salmin will be released from prison on April 4th. Just in time to be home for the Russian Easter celebrations.
