500words

  Late in 2019 rumour of a virus started to emerge from China – later named Covid-19 and to spread the world and become a global pandemic.   Across the world, governments took steps to contain the virus, through various means, some quickly, some less so.   A lot of countries introduced ‘stay at home’ rules and closed down airports and ports to prevent ingress and egress of people, who may carry the virus, increasing the spread. One of the effects of these steps was to stop the movement of ships in and out of port, and with that, an estimated half a million seafarers were stranded at sea.   They were stuck in a place they didn’t want to be – and there was no way out.   Hundreds of thousands of seafarers were unable to repatriate to their home countries, were unable to take shore leave, were unable to see their families.   In fact they were effectively imprisoned on their vessels.   At the same time, those seafarers who would have expected to take on v...

  Adrift Jose Salvador Alvarenga is a Salvadorian fisherman who spent 483 days at sea. Alvarenga set off from Mexico on 17 November 2012, with a fellow fisherman, Ezequiel Córdoba. They intended to spend 30 hours deep-sea fishing, but their boat was blown off course and damaged during a storm that lasted five days. With no sails or oars, and with a dead battery, the fishermen drifted towards open waters. They managed to catch fish, turtles, jellyfish and seabirds, and drank rainwater, as well as their own urine and turtle blood, in order to survive. However, around four months into the journey, Córdoba became sick from eating raw food, and eventually starved to death when he then refused to eat. Alvarenga continued to drift at sea for several more months, until he reached the Marshall Islands on 30 January 2014, following a journey of around 6,000 miles. Underwater Harrison Okene was on board the tug-boat AHT Jascon-4, when it capsized off the coast of Nigeria on 26 May 2013....

  Places people didn’t want to be stuck in: The Pillory The pillory was an ancient form of punishment by public humiliation used generally to punish petty criminals such as cheats, liars, rioters and homosexuals.   The use of the pillory and whipping post go back to 1274, it was used in countries over Europe and their colonies.   The last recorded use in England and Wales was in 1830 although it was not formally abolished until 1873.   Originally a public humiliation for petty crime, in the 15 th and 16 th centuries it became a tool for the Catholic ascendancy to use against Presbyterian dissenters. The pillory consisted of wooden boards on a post, it had holes to hold the head and hands and was erected in market places, cross roads or other public spaces, usually placed on a platform to increase the visibility of the culprit to the audience.   It often had a placard placed nearby stating the prisoner’s crime.   The punishment generally lasted no mor...

  ‘ I don’t want to be here. ’   ‘ I really don’t want to be here. ’     T h at  little voice   still  pops into my  head  from time to time , b ut now I can tell it  ‘ wise up !’  or  just say ‘ 0 k,  let’s   go.’   However s ometimes people  do  find themselves in th e   sort of situation where they  can’t  just  ignore the little voice and  g et on with  it . T hey find themselves stuck  somewhere that they   don’ t  want to be stuck.   The  well-known , equally  loved  and despised, l arger than life ,   BBC  TV   and  R adio  5Live   presenter, Stephen Nolan  is one such person .   Nolan  has had issues with his weight for many years and  has documented his weight loss  attempts   on social  media . He  los es   several  stone and then put s  it ...