All at Sea by Susan Wesson
Commissioned by Nina Josefowitz
Inspired by the real-life experience of a friend
Artist Statement
This song was inspired not by my own experience, but through a series of Facebook posts by a musician friend, saxophonist Mike Skinner.... His story forms the basis for this song.
Like a number of experienced professional musicians, Mike has been playing cruises for a number of years. As this year has unfolded, though, like the rest of us, those on cruises underwent massive upheaval. Confusion about when and where ships could land, who was allowed to leave, was rampant. On those ships free of COVID19, passengers were disembarked and repatriated to their home countries. But those working aboard these ships were not.
On March 15th – the Ides of March – all foreign vessels were ordered to leave Australian waters. Mike was aboard the Queen Elizabeth. They spent that night in Sydney and then set out without a clear understanding of where they were heading. There are many crew from the Philippines, and the Filipino government offered to repatriate many of their crew members. According, the Queen Elizabeth set out for Manila. After a month at sea, with no passengers and no illness aboard the ship, the crew arrived ready to disembark. But then the obstacles began. Those crew who were planning to disembark in the Philippines were ordered to quarantine aboard the ship, although there was no-one ill on board. The 14 day quarantine extended, as they waited for inspection, clearance, test results. After over 30 days, only some of the crew whose tests had cleared were allowed to repatriate.
In the interim, those from other countries, Mike among them, were waiting to find out when they could leave. Many countries have shut their doors to those remaining aboard cruises. One morning, they were told they would be leaving for home that night only to have this fall apart. Desperation and frustration have run rampant. In Manila Bay alone, there are still over 25 ships – the “flotilla in Manila” – manned by those who are not allowed off ship. Current estimates say there are still over 30,000 crew members aboard ships in Manila Harbour alone. It is a slow and painful process, hampered by bad weather – Typhoon Ambo forced the ships in the harbour out to sea again to weather the storm.
This situation is playing out in harbours all around the world. Some crew have no country to go home to. There are married couples of different nationalities who will be forced to repatriate to their own home country, even if they have a child together. There are those who could not longer stand this uncertainty who decided to take their own lives.
In all of this, Mike is one of the extremely lucky ones. Just over a week ago, he was given a ticket home. He is now in Toronto, self-isolating at 67 days at sea. But there are at least 100,000 cruise crew, staff, entertainers who are still waiting.
Like all of us, their destination is uncertain and what the future holds is unclear. We’re all at sea.