Piracy Peport

February 23, 2010
Piracy Report
Please be advised: Suspect pirates attempted to board a bulk carrier in position 16:30N - 058:50E (approximately 340NM northeast of Socotra Island and 190NM off the coast of Oman) at 1645Z on 23 February 2010. As per vessel's attestation, prior the attack, bridge officers had detected on the radar screen a bright echo dot, a target about 3 miles from vessel's port bow, initially drifting & then suddenly moving very fast with a speed of 25 knots to the stb'd side of the vessel, while vessel started to carry out zigzag maneuvers. The Chief Officer initiated zigzag maneuvers of the vessel while calling in the VHF for assistance and providing information to Captain. Chief Engineer increased speed to maximum & was in charge of the 2 groups who were trying to repel the fast boarding of the pirates by throwing scrap iron. The speedboat touched the stb'd quarter of ship's hull. The pirates rigged a ladder & tried to climb fast. Vessel's barbed wire was partly moved out of position at the place where the pirates tried to climb onboard by their ladder. Boarding was deterred & pirates fell down from the stb'd quarter to the sea, due to vessel's zigzag maneuvers & the obstruction of the barbed wire fence around the accommodation. There is also a possibility of the pirates being hit by scrap iron thrown by vessel's crew. A helicopter was within minutes very close to the vessel, circling around. Besides the presence of the helicopter, after 30 minutes a navy vessel approached at 2 NM range. There was not any firing of weapons by the speedboat's personnel approaching the vessel, so as to coerce her to stop. The last direction and speed of the speedboat after the vessel evaded the pirates approach had not been confirmed, as vessel was focused to creating evading maneuvers. No photos have been taken due to the fact that the incident happened at night time & it was already dark. However, due to moonlight the pirates' operation was clearly visible. All crew onboard are safe and secure. Many days before transiting the piracy prone area, all counter-piracy measures that were available onboard the ship had been be utilized. Also, frequent drills with the participation of all crew had been performed in order to minimize panic and confusion. This area will remain high risk in the coming days as the suspect pirates were never captured. As the northeast monsoon season comes to an end in the next two weeks, increased aggressive activity is expected in this area and throughout the Horn of Africa region through the end of May. Vessels transiting these waters are warned to employ all counter-piracy measures to include maintaining best possible transit speed while underway.