BALTIMORE — It should have been a 27 day journey to Sri Lanka. When the crew on board the Dali sailed out of the Port of Baltimore on that fateful morning of March 26, nobody could have guessed that some of them would still be here nearly 8 months later.
"When I say that they're still here, people are like- what? And I say, yeah they're still here," Andrew Middleton, executive director for the Archdiocese of Baltimore's Apostleship of the Sea, told WMAR-2 News' Elizabeth Worthington.
Middleton certainly didn't expect this when he took some of the crew members shopping for essentials a couple of days before their March departure.
"It’s coming up on the longest," Middleton said of how unusual the circumstances are in this case. "Years ago there was a ship that was here for right around a year. They were good friends when they left. [...] I imagine when these guys finally get to go home, we’ll all be lifelong friends."
Now, he's one of the few people who keeps in regular contact with the crew members who are still in the city.
"Whenever I see them, I'm always greeted with a big smile, and a nice firm handshake and even a few hugs," Middleton said.
10 of the crew members were cleared to go home at the end of June after attorneys for the Dali's owners agreed to make them available for depositions upon request.
The 11 who remain include higher-ranking officials, like the ship's captain, and are here to assist with the separate NTSB and FBI investigations, as well as the more than 40 separate claims that were filed in federal court against the ship owners, Grace Ocean and Synergy Marine.
Just how long they're expected to stay is unclear, but a schedule set by the judge has a deadline of July 16 for their depositions.
"They want to go home, especially this time of year, they're ready to go home."
Home is India and Sri Lanka.
"A few of them have been able to go home fore family events and then come back," Middleton said, "but the majority of them have been here since March 26 of this year."
Synergy Marine put them up in hotels after they got off the Dali in June, and continues to pay their salaries.
Middleton and his volunteers have tried to keep the men entertained, bringing them to a baseball game, taking them on a trip to D.C., and even throwing them a little Christmas party.
He tries to keep the conversation positive and lighthearted, but he knows the gravity of the situation, especially the loss of six lives, has taken its toll.
"I know that the crew thinks of those six guys often. So that's just another thing that weighs on them."
Regarding all of the media attention and lawsuits, Middleton said: "No one has come right out and said they were worried or scared. I know it weighs on them. I try not to ask too many of those kinds of questions, because when they see me or I see them, I want it to be a positive experience and something where they can kind of put the situation they’re in in the back of their mind, at least for a short time."
While the first major deadline set by the court is in July, this case is going to stretch on for years.
Right now, the bench trial is scheduled for June of 2026, and that's only for phase one of the case - determining whether the ship owners can limit their liability for the collapse.
Only then will the court start to consider all of the individual claims and determine how much the two companies owe to all of the parties that filed claims.
