AFTER months stuck onboard without pay, more than half of the crew of the Yangtze Fortune livestock carrier have found a way home to the Philippines.

The Chinese owned, Liberian flagged vessel has been declared abandoned by its owners, and will be auctioned to cover a number of debts owed.

A charter boat brought in 19 of the men ashore yesterday morning, who stepped onto land with big bags of their belongings, and even bigger smiles, one shouting “finally!” as he walked up the gangway, “we’re going home!” yelled another.

After a night in a hotel, they will fly out of Tullamarine airport on Saturday, homeward bound.

Remaining onboard are 16 crew who are required to keep the ship running while it sits at anchor, while the cook had left earlier.

Before their week ashore around Christmas, when the Fortune  had been tied up along the Lee Breakwater, the crew had not been on shore in over six months as they had not been allowed onshore at their last port of call in China.

The 132m long ship came into Portland late last September to load up with cattle to take back to China but was unable due to a crack in its hull, while it waited for repairs a number of claims of debt were made against the ship’s owners, and the Fortune was arrested by the court appointed Admiralty Marshal.

The owners’ lack of interest in the ship’s affairs caused Federal Court Judge Justice Angus Stewart ordered for it to be sold to cover the costs incurred, debts, and crew wages.

None of the 36 Filipino crew members have been paid since they arrived in Portland, and for months prior to that, according to the International Transport Workers Federation (ITF), a union that has taken on the crew’s cause.

The crew had originally refused to leave the ship without payment in full, but this week struck a deal with the Admiralty Marshal to be repatriated with one month’s pay in hand, to collect the rest from home once the sale goes through.

But the drama is not yet over for the crew, Portland Mission to Seafarers manager Neville Manson said he found out from the crew when they arrived in Portland that their tickets did not cover domestic connecting flights in the Philippines.

“Their repatriation flights are taking them to Manilla, but 14 of them live elsewhere in the country, and a lot of them on islands, so it’s not as easy as just catching a lift,” he said.

“They don’t have any money with them obviously, and they weren’t given money for the connecting flights or even food for lunch today.

“We have given them $50 each for food, and the ITF are in contact with the Admiralty Marshal to try and sort it out.”

He said they are hopeful that the authorities will agree to the extra costs to properly get the crew home, but the Mission will pay if they are unsuccessful.

The Observer spoke with a member of the crew on Wednesday while he was still aboard the Fortune, who asked not to be named.

He said they had been told by bridge officers last Thursday that all but the 16 members would be repatriated, and would receive the wages they are owed when they return home.

“The guys are very happy now, it feels like a dream that we can go home,” he said

“We are happy, very, very happy, in this situation we do not get any opportunity to get finances to our families, but now they will pay us, so we can go home and provide for them again.

In his mid-30s, the man has been onboard the Fortune since June and is very eager to get home to his three sons, aged seven, four, and two.

“I can call them and do video, but it will be good to see my children soon.

“My boys, they have also suffered with me because I have been here without my wages, and I could not provide to get food or to get other things, this is why we need to go home.”

This has been the man’s seventh voyage of around nine months as a crew member and his first experience of not being paid but he said he will continue in the industry, as the jobs security and relatively good wages help him look after his family.

He had come through Portland on a number of previous voyages, and thanked the community for their support of him and his fellow crew members.

“We had a very good time in Portland, Portland is a very nice place, a peaceful place,” he said.

“The people in Portland are very welcoming and kind with their wishes for us.

ITF Australia’s Assistant Coordinator Matt Purcell, who has worked closely with the Admiralty Marshal to represent the crew’s interests, said they are very happy with the situation at the moment.

“For the crew, we’re confident that they’re not at a disadvantage, they’ll get everything that’s owed, and now they can get home to their families,” he said.

“There’s no point having more than the 16 they need, and having them all there really racks up the costs for the Marshal as well.”

Mr Purcell says he is also pleased that the Admiralty Marshal has accepted the ITF’s figures on what the crew are owed, which were calculated after going through the ship’s documents with the crew.

“We know what they are owed, and we have good legal people over there to make sure they get the money.”

“The only problem now that we’ve been discussing with [the Admiralty Marshal] is the insurance of the vessel, they’re going to look at insuring the vessel from January 31 so it can come alongside in Portland.

“That will mean the crew will be able to come onshore and have ready access to supplies.”

As for the sale of the ship, Justice Stewart on January 11 appointed Australian Independent Shipbrokers as brokers in the sale, which will advertise and take sealed bids from potential buyers until February 10.

Built in 2005 as a container ship before being converted to a cattle transporter a decade later, a fairly old vessel comparatively.

Mr Purcell earlier told The Observer that he estimates the ship’s at $8m at least, even in scrap, which would more than cover the costs incurred, money owed to the now six claimants, as well as the crews wages.