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 Vilaly-MyrkoJov .sits aJone on the gangway of the Sea Fox. He's broke, can't go home, and isn't even sure he can legally leave the boat in use the bathroom.
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I MilES
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500
RUSSIA
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Crew unpaid and long way from home
I Siberia By JUDD SLIVKA - - --..- ---- , ~----.------ ._---­
Ship Canal. and looks out at another

" ....1
Se(l at' Okhotsk
p·r HEI'OJ(fEH • An old story: Other Russi!lll vessel:; postcard sunset.

have been stuck here. Page A16. The sailun;'irnmigration papers

it8JY Myrkolov makes his

V
s way to Lhe back of the boat, past
, .! the stacks of pink shrimp
II
nets, past the wom rope strung
to the mast. He stands be­
-~ neath a faded American flag, runs B hand
over his c1ose-cropped black hair,
home in 14 months, and their visas
have e>.-pired.
The Sea Fo>.: has been stuck in
Seattle since Sepl. 4; food is running low,
morale. lower.
have expired. The Belll~\IIe-based owner.
Viktor Zharkikh, hilS he!!n Ilying It,
sell the boat to raise money 10 PIlY for the
crews' salaries and theIr passage
home. said a man who answered the
owner's cellular phone but said he was
Diy "a friend."

which has started to gray. and he sighs_ So Myrkolov waits at Fishermen's

It Is a strange prison, Ihis beat-up
Zharkikh could not be reached.

Terminal with his 13 shipmates, and Without money, the Sea Fox can't

shrimp boat. But the gray-painted vessel
verned with rust holds Myrkolovas
much as any jail would.
w The crew said they've been told by
the owner that he doesn't have the money
to pay them, or the port fees, or the
fuel charges to take the lOO-foot shrimper
P·I back to RUSSIa. The crew hasn't been
watches the days pass with his camera,
trying to pre~erve this very strange chap­
ter of his life.
The Sea Fox's third engineer cuts
an interesting figure this evening in his
dark seaman's pants, his flannel shirt,
socks and flip-flops. He sits on a gangway
perched precariously between ship and
move, and for the crew, even freedom to
go to the bathroom is in doubl Can a
man who has an expired visa slep off his
boat to use a portable toilet on the dock
without being an illegal alien?
The Tmmjgration and Naturaliza-
CREW, Page A 16
A16 Seattle Post-Intelligencer . Wednesday, October 27, 1999
rew: 'I miss my wife; my
peing here is a big problem'
n Service did not return a call last
ght.
Myrkolov has his su nsets,
though, the way all Seattle has had
them lately. And not even air heavy
ith fried onions and sauerkraut will
~ove him, because this is Myrkolov's
Gloment, and no one can take it away
'Ofn him.
So much else has been taken
away from him these last 14 months,
hen he signed on to the Sea Fox as
hird engineer in Nakhodka, in Rus­
a's Far East. He has not seen his
.Fe. He has nat seen his wages, the
1 a day he conrracted to work for.
e cannot step off this boat, even to
go to the bathroom, without fear of
rrest.
"1 miss my wife," Myrkolov says
the mess. his face dead from the
a'lty lighting, his words accompa­
nIed by the clicking sounds of dorni­
os at the neighbonng table. "My
Qeing here is a very big problem for
er She doesn't know what to do."
No one really does.
The boat's owner contracted 15
Men Ifr take the vessel from Nakhod­
a to Baja California and shrimp off
e coast of MeXICO. The ex-pedition,
a friend of the Bellevue-based owner
"id, was a disaster The boat spent
much time being repaired in dry­
aock, La Nina did a number on the
ihrimp.
The 15 men brought the Sea Fox
Seattle, where Zharkikh, the own­
er, said he would pay them.
But he hasn't yet. After the
Mexican disaster, his friend says,
ibarkikh. will have to sell the Sea
ox to pay the seaman's wages, to fly
em back to VladIvostok, near their
orne.
In the meantime, the seamens'
visas have expired. And now the
rew of the Sea Fox does nothing.
They miss their families. They had to
call a seaman's relief mission to get
food.
A look into the scarred wooden
pantries of the boat reveals five cases
of sauerkraut, a box of new potatoes,
some rusting cans of vegetables, four
jugs of milk.
A look in the refrigerator shows
what some of the missionaries
brought: Provolone cheese, some
meat. Zharkikh brought some corned
beef yesterday.
The Internation al Transport
Workers Federation sent their in­
spector for Washington ports to the
Sea Fox yesterday. She says she was
expelled from the boat by the owner.
"Look at these people," said Lila
Smith, the inspector. "Slaves would
be treated better than this."
**
The wild geese are free to go at Fishermen's Terminal, but not the
crew of the Sea Fox. They haven't been home to Russia in 14 months.
Three weeks ago the
chief mate lost it,
locked himself in his
berth and re~uax;u
eat. He was sent
home.
The Sea Fox is a quiet boat, filled
with bored men. Three weeks ago the
chief mate lost it, locked himself in
his berth and refused to eat. Zhar­
kik.h flew the man home and gave
him some of his wages.
The boat is back to a disgruntled
normal now that the crew have no
one to gossip about, rhe only sounds
low voices, the 1V, the. deep wa­
Itoooooommmmm sound the Sea
Fox's auxiliary generator makes to
provide power.
The boat barely even bobs in the
black Ship Canal waters. They are
trapped, the ghost crew of a boat the
owner would like to forget.
They watch 1V, though only one
sailor understands English. But
"Baywatch," that most ambassadorial
f all American programs, bas been a
big hit with the crew.
They play dominos in the boat·'s
mess, under fluorescent li~hts that
give everyone a ghastly Sick com­
plexion. They pour catsup and pep­
per sauce on their meals, because it
takes the monotonous edge off them.
They take hesitant walks around
the Fishermen's Tenninal to go to the
Port-Q-Lets and lioney Buckets on
the dock, because the sewage tanks
SCOTf EKLUND / P·l
on the boat are filled to the brim, and
no one has the money to pu mp them
out.
They do not walk very far.
because there is a dubious legality to
their strolls: WIth expired papers.
leaving the boat may be illegal.
. The captain, Nikolai Lapt~v,
makes 531 a day. and said he would
like to be paid'- like [he rest of h'­
crew
He wears a Hawaiian shin thIS
day, as interpreted by the Russian
fashion industry - muted omnges on
flat creams, with industrial grays and
lackluster yellows providing relief.
He speaks no English, can only
smile at questions Americans ask
him. When the questions are finally
translated - "Why is the boss not
paying you? What will you do?" -
Laptev grins a smile of gold-filled
fron t teeth and throws 11is hands
above his head.
'It is an interesti ng situation," he
says through one of bis crew. " J am
sorry I cannot say more. Could you
come back tomorrow?"
Tomorrow, the crew hopes, the.
will get paid. They have heard that
before. The boss has come on board
before, told them that he didn't ha\'e
the money to pay them, that he was
trying to negotiate with someone.
When will they get to go home.)
"Yesterday," Laptev says. grin­
ning metal again, ducking 11is fa~
between his hands again.
" 1 am sorry I cannot say more.
Could you come back tomorrow?"
• P-I reporter Arthur C. Gorlick
contri buted to this report.
poi reporter Judd Slivka
can be reached at 206-448-8127
dsli.... kali, seattJ e--pi .com