Three men on a boat

In the main room the green velvet of an unused craps table is covered with tarpaulin.

On the uppermost deck the shelves of an empty bar are filled with bottles of liquor. Assorted tables and chairs are laid out around an open air dance floor as though the party is about to start at any moment.

Among the debris of the failed venture sit another of the casino boat’s forgotten assets — its captain and crew.

Pablo Riera snr hasn’t been paid for four months.

The 76-year-old and his two man crew, his 24-year-old son Pablo jnr and Juan Aleman, live off their meagre savings, the fish they catch from the lower deck of the ship and food vouchers donated by the Bermuda Industrial Union (BIU). They sleep on board.

Pablo snr owes money to the bank in his hometown of Puerto Cortés on the Atlantic coast of the Central American country.

An earthquake last year damaged a perimeter wall at his property and he took out a loan to pay for the repairs.

Home village

Mr Aleman has been forced to take his three children, aged eight, 10 and 12 out of school because he can no longer afford transportation from his rural home village.

Collectively the three men are owed more than $28,000. The BIU, which has taken up their cause, has helped out with donations to fund expenses back home.

Their employers, Wise Way Enterprises, accept that they owe the men money. But the cash has run dry amid a losing streak that has lasted almost since the day the ambitious venture began.

The two Trusts which are shareholders in the company that owns the boat are in dispute over the future of the vessel.

But as the businessmen argue behind the scenes, the men say their families are going hungry.

They have been offered $1,000 and a ticket home as well as a promise that they will be paid if and when the vessel is sold.

But Mr Riera says there is ‘no way’ he can afford to accept the deal. He has bills due today. And, although he has been a qualified captain for more than 50 years, he says it could be as much as four months before he gets another vessel and a steady wage.

“I will have to run and hide if I go home without that money.

“We have to pay insurance, we have to pay tax for the Government in Honduras – May is the hardest month.

“My wife is very worried. She wants me to come home but I tell her I can’t leave without the money. We will have to sell everything.”

As late as September last year, Mr Riera says he still had faith in Wise Way’s assurances that the venture would get off the ground.

“I brought my son out here in September. I wouldn’t have brought him if I did not think it was going to go ahead.”

Pablo Riera jnr and Juan Aleman were recruited on a $750 monthly wage in September. Immediately on arrival their wage was re-negotiated to $500 a month and the captain, who had been receiving $3,200 a month since starting work in 2007, has his salary cut to $2,000 a month.

Mr Riera said: “After January, no money at all. It is a big problem for me. It is impossible to stay here with no salary but I can’t leave without the money.”

Pablo jnr said he had come to join his father in the hope of learning the business of being a boat captain. He has a baby on the way back home and hopes to get a good career to provide for his  young family.

Justice

Louis Somner, of the BIU’s migrant workers committee, said the Union was calling for justice.

He said: “It doesn’t matter about the boat. It doesn’t matter where these men are from. We all bleed red. They have obligations to meet and they need to be paid.”

He said the men would settle for half of what was owed now and the rest within 60 days.

“It’s the employers responsibility to pay and to repatriate these men.”

He said the Sirkus Trust — a shareholder in the BVI based company that owns the boat — had a moral obligation to step in and pay.

 “We recognize that the majority shareholder has attempted to meet its obligations. We are calling on the other owners of this vessel to come forward and pay at least half of what is owed right now.”

Mr Riera snr arrived in Bermuda in 2007 after his Union in Honduras alerted him to the job opportunity.

He was expecting to be skipper of a casino boat.

The Niobe Corinthian had hoped to exploit a loophole in Bermuda’s anti-gaming laws by taking customers off-shore to party on a floating casino.

The venture was stalled by years of legal argument as well as a fire on board.

It made three trips in 2007 before it was grounded again because the 12-mile trip into international waters proved impractical. It has remained tethered to its dock in St David’s ever since.

The ship’s owners, through management company Wise Way Enterprises, continued to employ a captain and two-man crew to keep the vessel afloat and in good condition in the hope that it might be able to resume operations in the future.

It is also a requirement of International Maritime Law, according to captain and crew, that the boat, which is ‘unflagged’ and considered ‘stateless’ is manned at all times. If the captain leaves the boat, he says, anyone could walk on board and claim ownership of the abandoned vessel, estimated to be worth around $4m.

He said he also risked losing his skippers’ license for deserting his ship.

He and his crew continue to receive work instructions and have been stripping and painting the upper deck of the boat this week.

They say they will continue to work in the hope that they will ultimately receive their full wages.

Exclusive report:

• Stranded and broke: Crew of outlawed gambling ship 'owed $28,000'
• Three men on a boat
• Tussle over who will pay gambling boat's debts