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Outlook: Abandoned at sea for three years

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Merchant seaman Vikash Mishra cooks food aboard the abandoned cargo ship

23/03/2021 GMT

Abandoned at sea for three years

BBC World Service - Outlook, Abandoned at sea for three years

Sailor Vikash Mishra lived on a leaky cargo ship after its owners ran out of money

Merchant seaman Vikash Mishra was left adrift for nearly three years after the ship's owners ran out of money.

Long stretches at sea are part of life for a merchant seaman so when Indian marine engineer Vikash Mishra accepted a job on a cargo ship in the Gulf, he expected a lengthy period away from his young family. But a few months became years after Vikash's employer ran out of money. They abandoned the broken-down ship, called the Tamim Aldar, 20 miles off the coast of Dubai. Vikash and his crewmates were trapped on the leaky vessel without much in the way of food, fuel or electricity, so they had to learn to survive. When all hope seemed lost, they would make a perilous attempt to reach land. Vikash Mishra and Reverend Andy Bowerman of the Mission to Seafarers speak to Outlook's Kevin Ponniah.

How miner Bruce Edwards successfully married two of his passions - opera and caves in Australia. Outlook reporter Jacquie Mackay went to see one of Bruce's productions in the Capricorn Caves in the Australian town of Rockhampton. This interview was first broadcast in 2016.

The inside story of #Gamergate. American games developer Zoe Quinn became the target of an online hate campaign after an ex wrote a long bitter blog post about them. In 2017, the computer programmer told Jo Fidgen how their life changed because of the trolling.  


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Picture: Vikash Mishra
Credit: Vikash Mishra

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