On April 9 I received an alarming letter from relatives of Ukranian members of car-carrier Asian Glory, highjacked by Somali pirates on January 2. During past weekend vessel was taken by pirates to the ocean again (confirmed by manager of the vessel, UK-based Zodiak), and as relatives said, no doubt, vessel is used as a pirate ship. They said Asian Glory attacked boxship MSC Anafi, attack lasted for several hours and was so frightening, that nearly all of the MSC Anafi crew asked for replacement after vessel managed to escape and arrived to Mumbai, vessel is to sail to Dubai and then back to Indian ocean. That fact became known from relatives of MSC Anafi crew after they called families, families of Ukranians of both vessels live mostly in Odessa. Zodiak strongly rejects Asian Glory used as a pirate ship, Master of MSC Anafi said on the phone to Ukranian media, that he wasn’t able to recognize assault vessel, as it was too dark. But he said, attack was not all that scaring, boxship easily overrun pirates and escaped, there were several shots in their direction, nothing unusual. Relatives tell a different story – Asian Glory closed on MSC Anafi and chased her several hours, pirates firing from Asian Glory high upper deck with no complications like pitch and roll, able to take a good aim.
This is at least third time pirates take Asian Glory to the ocean, and first time EU NAVFOR gave a warning, that there’s car-carrier in Indian ocean, which is in fact, a pirate ship, predator. Later, there were no warnings. About a month ago navy started new tactics, trying to catch and destroy as many pirate mother-ships as possible. Pirates immediately returned the blow by highjacking about a dozen local dhows, disrupting coastal Somali trade. And we may well assume, pirates didn’t restrict their countermeasures by highjacking dhows only. Comparing with dhows, ocean-going vessels are incomparably better ships for piracy hunting, opening up new horizons for pirates. Let’s consider some aspects of ocean-going vessels in the role of a pirate ship:
- pirates may ply high seas for weeks in big numbers, much more than on board of usual dhow;
- pirates may approach hunted vessel as close as they want to, and fire the vessel from high upper deck, taking good aim, and waiting either for a chance to board vessel in usual way from skiffs, or compelling vessel to stop, by firing her;
- pirates have nothing to fear from navy, they’re protected by a crew of a mother-ship, if only navy wouldn’t change no-harm policy and start to storm vessels with no care for crew lives;
- so, one such ship may replace a dozen of traditional dhows with about absolute immunity from navy, they may attack for hours even in Gulf of Aden.
There’s only one guarantee from pirates then, armed guards on board, preferably not private, but state military. Navy will be helpless in such cases. Asian Glory looks like a natural choice – not a bad speed, if I correct, it’s up to 18 knots, and very high freeboard, they may attack VLCC in ballast. How will situation in region develop, if pirates fully appreciate possibilities of an ocean-going vessel as a pirate ship (I think it’s more correct to call such a ship not a mothe-ship, it’s in full meaning pirate ship, taking part in a direct assault)?
Such a use is very dangerous from other aspects. It’s dangerous for the crew, it’s dangerous for vessel itself and assaulted vessel also, we can hardly imagine pirates caring for the safety of navigation and trying to comply with International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea. It may end up with collision and sinking of both vessels.
So we need to know, how many times Asian Glory was used as a pirate ship, what does it look like when vessels like Asian Glory assault, and where it may all develop. Sailors then must be warned of a new danger. There’s a question to Zodiak – don’t they think that in such circumstances there’s need to hurry up with negotiations? There is another question – why do they treat relatives like some nuisance, sometimes just in insulting way?There’s a question to international forces in area – do they consider such risk so small that there’s nothing to talk about?
Voytenko Mikhail
April 10
