While the Grethe Witting is still laying on the bottom of the harbor in Mangalia and I try to send as much roadsalt as possible to Holland to contribute to the solution for the shortage of roadsalt, I received a call from Paul van Ommen, stafmember of the BBZ, the Dutch Association of Charter Ship Owners in The Netherlands. He told me that Mr. Eddy van Hijum, Dutch senator for the CDA, contacted him after I approached Mr. Van Hijum while looking for solutions for the situation with the ship.
The support is more than welcome as we are still fighting in the Romanian court about what happened with the ship and not only want to see justice done in this case but also prevent this from ever happening again to anybody that comes with a ship to Romania.
Basically, if you have a vessel in Romania with a Dutch Owner and a Dutch Financer , then this party can start a case in Romania behind you back and even take over your ship while you cannot do anything, or worse, even do not know that this all is happening. In the case of the Grethe Witting, my financer bought the ship at an auction organized on his behalf in the Romanian Court in Constanta and then later let it happen to sink. For the record: I was ordered by the Romanian Authorities to leave the ship as she had a new owner. In the Netherlands however I am still the owner but could not do anything to save the ship from sinking, which in fact was nothing more than taking good care of her and know what you have to do when something happens on board.
To be continued….
Notes: In Romania the citation does not have to be delivered in person to you, so they can simply sequestrate or sell your property without you knowing anything.
Tags: BBZ, Chartering Romania, grethe witting, Paul van Ommen, Romania, Van Hijum
Markus' Weblog 
March 7, 2010 at 11:14 am |
There is something not clear here – The ship is registered where? In Netherlands, or other country than Romania? If so – then the romanian court has badly failed, because the ship is yours and it is registered somewhere on your name. Basicly – they don’t have any right to keep you away from your ship. More than that – don’t waste your time here, go to the European Court, with all your papers. They should return your ship and your Dutch financial partner or the Romanian authorities must raise your ship and fix her (blocks, sails, hull maintenance si repaint…)
March 7, 2010 at 11:40 am |
Hi Mircea, Thanks for your interest in the Grethe WItting. We plan to lift her and restore her. However we still same some legal issues to clear up first. see also: http://bastiaanvermont.wordpress.com/
April 20, 2010 at 8:13 am |
[…] Help from Holland for the Grethe Witting Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)Grethe Witting Will Sail Again!Grethe Witting Sank in the harbor of MangaliaGroningen rounds EuropeNew Humor Site Launches […]