Thursday - January 27, 2011

Sitting Duck, Plucked

On the afternoon of 22 January 2011, the MV BELUGA NOMINATION was attacked by a skiff, with an unknown number of suspected pirates on board. Small arms were used against the vessel during the attack.

The attack took place in the Indian Ocean, 390 nautical miles north of the Seychelles. The MV BELUGA NOMINATION is an Antiguan and Barbudan flagged, German owned, general cargo vessel which was on passage to Port Victoria in the Seychelles at the time of the attack. There is no information on the condition of the mixed crew of 12 (Polish, Filipino, Russian and Ukrainian) at this time. EUNAVFOR are monitoring the situation.

MV BELUGA NOMINATION was registered with MSC(HOA) and had reported to UKMTO.

When the pirates boarded the vessel the crew went into a citadel which the pirates were eventually able to enter. I
...
The nearest EU NAVFOR warship at the time of the attack was over 1000 Nm away. The warship was waiting to escort a World Food Programme (WFP) vessel delivering vital humanitarian aid to Somalia, which is EU NAVFOR’s primary task within its mandated mission. The remainder of the EU NAVFORs warships were even further away carrying out tasks in the IRTC (Internationally Recognized Transit Corridor), which is their secondary task within the mandated mission.

After the crew, consisting of a Polish captain, 2 Ukrainians and 7 Philippinos, had radioed the emergency, they took shelter in the citadel. But the pirates welded open the room with professional equipment and took control over the vessel, heading west for the Somalian coast. A surveillance plane of the Seychelles Coastguard reached the ship only on Jan 25 and saw 4 hijackers on deck. A patrol boat of the CG followed the ship for some time but had to return due to bad weather. No ship of the Atalanta-forces was able to provide help in time. The German frigate “Hamburg” was in Djibouti for bunkering purposes, and it would have taken 3-4 days to reach the vessel, and also the closest navy ship would have been 1000 miles away.

Evolution in action: Ship crews have taken to locking themselves in a safe room (ie., a citadel) where the pirates can’t get at them. These rooms often contain additional controls for the ship. So now we’re seeing pirates bringing a cutting torch onboard with them. I guess thicker doors and walls for these rooms will be next, perhaps with water cannons mounted above the doors operated from inside.

The MV Beluga Nomination was built in 2006 as the MV BBC Ireland, is 132 meters long with a 16 meter beam, and has a top speed of only 7.4 knots. Less than 9mph! She is a general cargo container ship with a capacity of 9775 dwt, which means this is a pretty small ship. A coastal freighter for the poorer parts of the world. That would explain the low speed: a smaller engine uses less fuel, and you need to watch every penny with small cargo runs.  It took a couple of days before the authority types would admit that the ship was actually hijacked, but at this point it’s undeniable.

1000 nautical miles away from any other ship, putting along at 8mph. This one was a no-brainer. A sitting duck.

Hang on a second ... the one source page may have been in error. According to the builder’s page, this ship has a 5217hp Caterpillar diesel engine, and can go 14.8 knots. Which is 17mph. Still slower than a pirate speedboat, but not as totally pathetic as I was lead to believe at first. Even so ... from what I gather, the ship was bound for the Seychelles, which is 1000 miles from anywhere, and it’s smack dab in the middle of Somali Pirate waters, which have grown considerably this past year. What are they supposed to do, let the Seychelles starve? But it seems rather sneaky, perhaps ironic, that while the navy was busy protecting an aide ship bound for Somalia, Somalis were busy hijacking a ship somewhere else. It’s almost like they knew the navy would be busy. And far away.

Posted by Drew458     on 01/27/2011 at 04:33 PM   
Filed Under: • Pirates, aarrgh! •  
• Comments (6) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

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