
MCO00579SPA.jpg


David, a former sailor from Georgia, burning a picture of Russian President Vladimir Putin that he has found in the control room of the Zaidan, one of the ships of the former Soviet fleet aground in Puerto de la Luz.After the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, its enormous fleet of fishing ships and crews were abandoned at different ports around the world; the port of Las Palmas in the Canary Islands had the largest number of ships left there. A sailor who abandons his ship loses the right to demand payment; consequently some crew members have stayed on board for the last 15 years. They have turned the ship into their home; a home that is sinking with its inhabitants in it. Rust eats at the structure and at times the sailors break off parts of the ship to sell them as scrap metal.. They live in an almost invisible limbo.
Matias Costa/Panos Pictures /Felix Features 25 Aug 2008