Car-carrier Asian Glory sending SOS to Queen of United Kingdom

Relatives of the car-carrier Asian Glory published open letter to Her Majesty Queen of the UK, pleading her to do something to ensure vessel will be released as soon as possible. They have very sound reasons to go public, for two reasons. First, Asian Glory became pirates’ favourite carrier either to help their kin disabled in ocean, or to chase other vessels, i.e. – use Asian Glory as a pirate ship. Each such voyage is a very serious danger to crew, not only to Asian Glory crew, but to to vessels they may find and attack. Second, once during talks between pirates and Zodiak pirates switched on loudspeaker system, and crew heard, how Zodiak in reply to pirates’ sum request said – you may better sink vessel with the crew, everything is insured, we’ll pay families of each crew member 80,000 USD and get out of this with a profit.
As for UK’s well-known no-ransom position, there is one point we have to make clear. Ok, let’s accept no-ransom policy. But then, we have to warn all seafarers in advance, in 2-3 months period, that they are on their own from deadline and on. All of them should decide for themselves beforehand, wether they want to sail Indian ocean or leave the ship before she enters dangerous waters. Let them decide, if their salaries are worth it.
Mikhail Voytenko
P.S. Girl on pic is a daughter of 3-rd engineer, Odessa.

Letter of crew families
Open letter to the Queen of Great Britain
Your Majesty!
Despair makes us address to You, as our last hope, for the following reasons:
You enjoy respect and love all over the world
Your authority is indisputable
You are mother, and you have children, who you love.
We are family members of the crew of motor vessel "Asian Glory", which is sailing under the British flag, and the Owner is "Zodiac Maritime Agencies Ltd", London. This ship has been hijacked by Somali pirates on the 1st of January.
Since then, our husbands and children are held in captivity in terrible conditions – in one little room there are 25 people, there is scarce food, they drink technical water, there are no simple sanitary facilities, no beds, they sleep on the floor, and any movement over the ship is forbidden.
But what is more frightening – is that the pirates jeer at them - from time to time the crew is escorted to the deck, to be executed; they are kept at gun point during hours at the heat of the sun. Will they be alive tomorrow?
On the 6th of March the captain was taken from the crew… Then the pirates told that he was executed, and nobody had seen him since that time.
For many times we addressed to Zodiac with the appeal to liberate the ship as soon as possible, but in return we got only calming letters with request not to apply to the press or authorities.
We believed the company, and did what they requested. But then, when after two months other ship owners liberated three ships, which had been hijacked approximately at the same time as “Asian Glory” – and now it has passed three months and a half – we realised that for Zodiac money means much more than lives of our family members.
The company has shown criminal negligence in respect of the safety of the ships and lives of the crew, knowing that it directs the ships in a risk area without guards, and it continues to do so -  trying to minimize ransom  at the expense of the health and lives of the crew, and their family members. And this is not an ungrounded statement – because in the waters of Somali there is still one more vessel of the company - St. James Park, hijacked on the 29th of December 2009!
Reference:  the company Zodiac Maritime Agencies Ltd owns more than 140 ships and is one of the richest in the world. Our seamen work fairly for the company, bringing it big income, and also to the Great Britain in form of taxes.
We beg You to help liberate our nearest relations!  
We rely on God and Your kind heart.
Family members of the motor vessel "Asian Glory".

Asian Glory as a pirate ship - trials or just once?
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

Somali pirates taking highjacked vehicle carrier to Indian ocean
30.01.2010 AT 1405 UTC the vehicle carrier Asian Glory (blue hull and white superstructure), previously hijacked and still under pirates control, was in position 04:19N - 052:13E co:005 speed 14. It is assessed pirates are using Asian Glory for their pirates activities. All vessels navigating in the Indian ocean to consider keeping east of 60e when routing north/south and to consider routing east of 60E and south of 10S when proceeding to and from ports in South Africa, Tanzania and Kenya.  Vessels are also advised not to approach closer than 100 miles from the position given in this report and maintain maximum cpa with any ship acting suspiciously.
Vehicle carrier Asian Glory – dwt 13363, built 1994, flag UK, manager Zodiac Maritime Agencies Ltd, crew 25 including 10 Ukranians.

Times Online January 3, 2010
Somali pirates hijack second British-flagged ship
Somali pirates have seized another British-flagged ship, this time deep in the Indian Ocean, only days after a British chemical tanker was hijacked in the Gulf of Aden.
Two other vessels have also been hijacked in the past week despite the presence of dozens of international warships and the heavy seas and high winds of the current monsoon season which usually bring a lull in piracy.
The 14,000-tonne Asian Glory was hijacked in the Indian Ocean 620 miles off the coast of Somalia on Friday evening.
It marked a difficult start to the year for Zodiac Maritime Agencies, the London-based shipping company that owns Asian Glory and St James Park, the British tanker seized on December 28.
 “The Asian Glory was taken by pirates while on passage and 620 miles off the Somali coast,” the company said in a statement. “It has been confirmed that all crew members are safe and unharmed.
“She is now proceeding towards Somalia and owners are in contact with all the appropriate authorities to secure the early and safe release of the crew and ship.”
There are no Britons among the 25 crew of the Asian Glory, which is made up of ten Ukrainians, eight Bulgarians, five Indians and two Romanians.
An executive of South Korea’s largest car manufacturer the Hyundai-Kia Automotive Group said today that a consignment of its cars were aboard the ship, which was travelling from South Korea to Saudi Arabia. The Asian Glory can carry 4,000 cars.