ARCTIC SEA arrived at KOTKA Finland, 30 December 2009 18:00. "At this point, there is, fortunately, no need to file an insurance claim because we still do not know where the ship and its crew are located," Vladimir Voronov said in September, without disclosing the amount the vessel was insured for. "The Arctic Sea is primarily owned by a Malta-based company, Arctic Sea Ltd. which is owned by Oy White Sea Ltd. According to the Finnish Trade Registry, Victor Matveev (Viktor Matvejev), a Russian citizen living in Finland holds 70 per cent of Oy White Sea Ltd’s shares. The rest are owned by two other Russian men living in Finland. The rest of the ship may well by owned by Solchart Askhangelsk Ltd of Finland, since it claims ownership of the ship in an article by Cristina Batog, a graduate of Georgetown University, specializing in Russia and Eastern Europe quoting director and assistant director Nikolai Karpenkov and Ivan Boiko in Askhangelsk, Russia.

Navios Apollon: hijacked mid-transfer?

Navios Maritime Holdings Inc. announced the sale to Navios Maritime Partners L.P on 10/28/2009. Navios Holdings intends to use the proceeds from the sale of this vessel for operating purposes, such as repayment of indebtedness or reinvestment in vessels. The buzz expects the company to negotiate a safe release of the vessel and crew and for any damages and losses to be covered by insurance. Navios Maritime Holdings Inc. agreed to sell the now hijacked Panama-flag Navios Apollon, a 2000 built Ultra-Handymax vessel with a capacity of 52,073 dwt to Navios Maritime Partners L.P. for $32.0 million in cash. Navios Apollon has been chartered out at a net rate of $23,700 per day for the remaining period of three years expiring in November 2012. Was The vessel delivered to Navios Partners at the time of its Annual General Meeting, Dec 16, 2009?

NAVIOS APOLLON: Panamanian bulker hijacked

Ms. Angeliki Frangou, chairman and Chief Executive of Navios Maritime Holdings




NAVIOS APOLLON IMO:9211145
Kleimar N V
Navios Shipmanagement Inc

NAVIOS Maritime Holdings has confirmed that its 52,068 dwt bulk carrier Navios Apollon was attacked 800 miles off the coast of Somalia on Monday.
Navios in Greece lost contact with the Panamanian-flagged vessel, owned by Navios Maritime Partners, and the last contact from the ship was a report that armed men were boarding the vessel.

Arctic Sea: return to the scene of the crime

Arctic Sea: Approaching hijacking site again

Finnish investigators are due back from Russia where they went to interview the alleged hijackers of the Arctic Sea, a vessel thought to have been caught illegally transporting AA missiles to Iran on that voyage. Meanwhile, the vessel is again approaching the scene of that incident. Finnish investigators have been cooperating in the probe along with Malta and Sweden.

Arctic Sea: Christmas in English Channel

Turned AIS transponder off after leaving Setubal around 12/22/2009 6:27:54 AM (UTC)and back on again on entering English Channel around 12/25/2009 12:50:35 AM (UTC)

Arctic Sea: destination changed back to KOTKA

Two members of the Finnish National Bureau of Investigation (KRP) traveled to Russia on December 16 to conduct an investigation into the hijacking of the Arctic Sea ship. They were to question suspects and meet with Russian investigators. They planned to return to Finland on December 18. The vessel in question last turned on its AIS transponder to enter Setubal Portugal and then again on December 21 to depart, headed North. At 2009-12-22 05:36, the vessel's destination was changed (back)to KOTKA, Finland.

Arctic Sea: Gone underground away from Finns?

Finnish investigators are travelling to Russia on December 16 to conduct an investigation into the hijacking of the Arctic Sea ship. Accordingly, the stated destination of the phantom vessel was changed at 2009-12-16 21:22 to read "Underground." Previously, the destination had read 2009-12-21 08:00 Kotka [Finland]. The vessel last turned on its AIS transponder to enter Setubal Portugal.

Rabbe von Hertzen, who is heading up the investigation, says two members of the National Bureau of Investigation (KRP) are to question suspects and meet with Russian investigators. They are to return to Finland on December 18.

Von Hertzen says the trip is necessary because the suspects are being held in Russia.

The Arctic Sea was seized by a group of hijackers in Swedish waters in the Baltic Sea in July. The vessel was carrying a load of lumber from Finland to Algeria. The Russian Navy regained control of the ship off Africa’s west coast in August.

Arctic Sea: Romanova-Lebedeva reappears

A lawyer working on the case of the hijacked ship Arctic Sea has been found after going missing for several days. Yelena Romanova-Lebedeva's disappearance was reported to police after she was not seen nor heard from since leaving her Moscow office on December 9.

On December 13, Natalya Volkova, also a lawyer,said Romanova-Lebedeva had been away for professional reasons and had not been kidnapped."Yelena Romanova-Lebedeva is in Moscow. Her absence was connected to her professional activities," Volkova said.

The Arctic Sea last used its AIS transponder entering Setubal, Portugal.

Arctic Sea: Phantom vessel near Lisbon

Vessel turns on AIS transponder to enter Setubal, circles to pick up pilot? Turns off AIS transponder.

Arctic Sea: off the map for 12 hours

The phantom vessel Arctic Sea has turned off its AIS transponder? The last position twelve hours ago, is compared to the AIS range being displayed.

Arctic Sea: Pusan Bound?

Ariana: helicopter dropped $2.6 m onto its deck

"We've paid the ransom and we are waiting for the pirates to release the Ariana," Spyros Minas, head of Alloceans shipping, declining to disclose the amount of ransom paid.

Maltese-flagged Ariana and its 24 Ukrainian crew were seized on May 2 north of Madagascar en route to the Middle East from Brazil.

Earlier on Thursday, a pirate source that a helicopter had dropped $2.6 million (1.59 million pounds) onto its deck.

"We have taken a $2.6 million ransom to release the Greek ship," one of the gang, Farah, said by telephone. "We are now dividing the money and will disembark in the afternoon."

Arctic Sea: Phantom Vessel Off Majorca

The Maltese-flagged vessel suspected by some of carrying AA Russian missiles destined for Iran, intercepted by the Russian Navy, and released, in time, and freshly painted, at Malta free of any trace of such cargo, is now off Palma , the major city and port on the island of Majorca.
While Russian reports stated The Arctic Sea cargo vessel is unloading its cargo of timber in the Algerian port of Bejaia under close scrutiny by the country's national security officials, such arrival and departure information has not been found in the usual web sites.
Also from Russian reports: Russian courts decide not to hand the case to investigators in Malta or Sweden.

Ariana: Deep pockets may come to rescue

The ultimate interest in the maltese-flag Ariana IMO 8014150 has been in liquidation since 2008 due the subprime mortgage crisis, but the Logothetis family of Greece has picked up this fleet for a song -$325 million, thus making a release more likely.
The Logothetis family of Greece has re-entered the shipping sector with a big splash as Lomar Corporation announced a $325m purchase of the UK based Allocean fleet.
According to the announcement, the $325m deal involves the purchase of the shares of Allocean Ltd and the Allocean Charters group of companies, both subsidiaries of Allco Finance Group, which entered administration and receivership in November last year.
Lomar, a subsidiary of the Libra Group, announced the acquisition of 26 modern ships today belonging to Allocean, ending days of speculation over the sale of the ships.

The fleet comprises of bulk carriers, container ships, liquid petroleum gas (LPG) tankers, platform supply vessels (PSV), anchor handling tug supply vessels (AHTS), a chemical tanker and a products tanker.

The acquisition brings Lomar’s total fleet size to 32 owned and managed vessels including three newbuildings currently on order. The purchase of Allocean represents a major re-entry into ship ownership for Lomar following its sale of 67 ships from 2004-2006.

According to the announcement, the $325m deal involves the purchase of the shares of Allocean Ltd and the Allocean Charters group of companies, both subsidiaries of Allco Finance Group, which entered administration and receivership in November last year.
Alloceans Shipping Company Ltd (Greece)
ALLOCEAN SHIPPING (UK) LIMITED
Allco Finance Ltd.
Allco Finance Group Limited
Shipping - Allco own or manage 38 shipping vessels with another 23 on order.

Allco is now in liquidation, after previously being in administrative receivership, following difficulties in refinancing debt and a share price fall of 99% since the beginning of the subprime mortgage crisis.

Antigua and Barbuda-flagged MV CHARELLE released

The small containership Charelle, hijacked on June 12 by Somali pirates near Oman in June, has been released. The ship was carrying mostly empty containers when it was seized. MV CHARELLE was been sea-jacked by eight pirates around 60 nautical miles south of Sur on the Omani coast. This was the first recorded attack in the waters of the Sultanate of Oman. The German company has as registered owner her subsidiary TARMSTEDT INTERNATIONAL LTD in Samoa (Apia) listed, while TRADEX MARINE LTD of New Zealand are the managers. The 1985 built vessel is insured with the Ship Owners' Mutual P&I Association of Luxembourg. The crew of the vessel is not covered by an ITF agreement.


The crew of 10 aboard the Antigua and Barbuda-flagged ship, including seven Sri Lankans and three Filipinos, were also freed. "It started sailing towards safe waters around an hour ago. The gunmen have left it to the crew. A ransom was paid out.

ANL Australia: cites business ethics forwarder mum

Mario Carniglia, head of the international freight-forwarding firm Otim, said his firm did not know the contents of the cargo shipped on the ANL Australia. [10 Containers with 2,030 detonators for 122mm rockets, as well as electric circuitry and a large quantity of solid-fuel propellant] He said North Korea provided documents identifying the content as “Oil Pumping Equipment.” “We couldn’t see the contents as the containers were sealed when shipped from Nampo,” he said in the interview conducted in Italian. He refused to identify the exporter in North Korea, citing business ethics. OTIM - Organizzazione Trasporti Internazionali e Marittimi SpA. was first Italian company to open an office in the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea (North Korea).


ANL Container Line Pty. Ltd and ANL Singapore Pty. Ltd are subsidiaries of the world's third-largest container shipping company CMA CGM S.A. The company, which has JP Morgan as a financial adviser on the restructuring, says auditors have raised doubts [3 December] about the company's ability to continue as a going concern if it fails to reach agreement with its lenders over a restructuring of its $5.2 billion debt. The Marseilles, France, company, which was founded by Lebanon-born Jacques Saade in 1978 and employs 17,000 people worldwide, is in debt restructuring negotiations due to the effect of "severe market conditions" on the business.

Bahamian-flagged ANL AUSTRALIA: U.S. spies

On July 22, Inspectors from the United Arab Emirates, when alerted to possible contraband in a ship bound for Iran, arrested the boxship ANL AUSTRALIA IMO 8913681, Nominal Teus 2668.
An official said.U.S. spies "played a key role" in tracking the shipment. According to shipping records, the 10 large cargo containers left the North Korean port of Nampo on May 30 on a North Korean vessel, and two days later they were transferred to a Chinese ship in the port city of Dalian, in northern China.

From there, the containers were ferried to Shanghai, where on June 13 they were moved to a third ship, the ANL Australia, a Bahamian-flagged containership.
The nature of the cargo, seized in July and described now for the first time were 2,030 detonators for 122mm rockets, as well as electric circuitry and a large quantity of solid-fuel propellant, according to an account given by UAE and U.N. Security Council officials. The materials were bought from North Korea and shipped halfway around the globe in sealed containers, labeled as oil-drilling supplies, that passed through a succession of freighters and ports. According to shipping records, the 10 large cargo containers left the North Korean port of Nampo on May 30 on a North Korean vessel, and two days later they were transferred to a Chinese ship in the port city of Dalian, in northern China.

From there, the containers were ferried to Shanghai, where on June 13 they were moved to a third ship, the ANL Australia, a Bahamian-flagged boxship owned by ANL, a wholly-owned subsidiary of CMA CGM, a French consortium.

Cancale Star: Pirates got the cash

The tanker's Latvian captain, Jaroslavs Semenovics, said around six or seven pirates had approached the tanker in a speed boat.

"They came on deck, pointed a pistol to the head of one of the sailors, marched him to the cabin," Semenovics told AFP.

"They asked me to open the safe and they collected all the cash," he added. He did not say how much was stolen.

The 230m Cancale Star was carrying 89,000 cubic metres of crude from Nigeria's Niger Delta, the captain said.

The tanker's owners Chemikalien Seetransport said in a statement issued from Germany that the vessel's chief officer, or second in command, "has tragically lost his life in a piracy attack off the coast of Benin in the early hours of November 24".

"It is not the chief engineer but the chief officer of the vessel," said Chemikalien's spokesman Cor Radings, earlier identified the Ukrainian officer as the chief engineer.

Cancale Star: Gathering Storm as Piracy Spreads

Pirates from the Nigerian town of Badagry, on the Benin border, 70km west of the commercial capital Lagos, have attacked an oil tanker off the coast of west Africa, killing a Ukrainian seaman, the commander of Benin's naval forces says. Simplice Hessou, a doctor on board the tanker, confirmed the death of the Ukrainian chief engineer and four other crew were injured, one with gunshot wounds. He said the ship's first officer had been seriously wounded. The pirates attacked the vessel some 18 nautical miles (33km) off the coast of Benin.

There were 24 seamen of different nationalities on board the Monrovia-flagged vessel, including Filipinos, Lithuanians and Ukranians.
CANCALE STAR IMO: 9372858
Call Sign : A8MO9
Gross tonnage : 42010
Type of ship : Crude Oil Tanker
Year of build : 2007
Flag : Liberia
TERRY NAVIGATION INC
manager: Chemikalien Seetransport GmbH Hamburg

Arctic Sea: Crew waiting for money to enter Béjaïa

23/11/2009 Crew Arctic Sea will receive a salary
Natalya Gracheva (sob.korr. Komsomolskaya Pravda). Stockholm
Before I give permission for port call cargo ship in the port Béjaïa for unloading, late last week, the vessel was double-checked the territorial waters of Algeria.authorities organized a thorough inspection of Arctic Sea, conducting full-scale study includes examining, on levels of radiation. The examination procedure, take several days, was attended by representatives of the Ministry of Transport, Emergency and military authorities of Algeria. The vessel was found absolutely clean, and in an official letter from the Ministry of Transport said Arctic Sea rose, at last, for unloading at the port Béjaïa. We managed to get through to director Solchart Victor Matveev, to ask about salary seafarers. Recall, according to the union of seamen debt for the period from August 17 was to pay Russia, under the jurisdiction with which this number was the ship. However, the situation of seafarers and their families can not wait to address this issue for a long time, so we decided to once again appeal to the employer. The answer was unexpected. All this time we have been seeking reserves and resources. As a result, despite the fact that a subsidiary company - Arctic Sea Malta - is in distress, we decided to open a credit line from the Finnish company to fully compensate for the sailors forced to stay aboard the cargo ship. We agreed with the union scheme of payments for all debts, including - for the period in which the vessel will remain under the jurisdiction of Russia. Monday, November 23, will go first tranche and we will do everything to ensure that seafarers have received all their due in the near future. Arctic Sea will now work in the Far East. Were there any thoughts to change its name? Perhaps remained negative associations, prejudices? After dozens of tests were conducted, organized by the authorities of different countries - Russia, Malta, Algeria and others - we decided to keep the name of the ship. And the crew, and our company but survived everything: danger, and attacks Press, and all sorts of suspicions. I think that the Arctic Sea could be proud to wear his name.
Have you made any changes in security?
We have modernized the system of notification and signaling, it is more modern than today require international rules of navigation.One can say that in this sense, the Arctic Sea has become the most advanced. Protection Plan was also revised, improved, although in the past conform to all applicable regulations. Equip the team members is not possible, they have no right to carry weapons.

Red Sea Spirit hijack denied

The company that owns the cement carrier, Sekur Holdings Inc, told the Greek Economy and Merchant Marine Ministry that the vessel had not been hijacked.

The firm said that pirates had approached the Red Sea Spirit Nov. 16 but that the ship had escaped following a series of maneuvers.

Officials said that the ship was continuing its journey with all 22 Filipino sailors on board unhurt. The vessel is carrying a shipment of cement to Karachi.

SOMALI Pirates have captured MV Alkhaleed [8307155 AL KHALIQ Bulker 38305 1984 Panama] on the southern part of Indian Ocean near Tanzania. MV Alkhaleed was carrying Russian and Ukrainian wheat for Kitui Maize Millers and a host of small grain firms in Mombasa. more

Red Sea Spirit: Panamanian-flag cement carrier

Pirates hijacked a Panamanian-flag cement carrier on Thursday in the Gulf of Aden near Yemen, a Kenyan maritime official said on November 22. However, a Greek merchant marine ministry spokesman said the managers of the ship, Sekur Holdings, did not confirm the incident. Sekur Holdings were not available for comment.


Red Sea Spirit imo 7718888
Flag Panama Flag
Class DNV
Built 1978 Japan
Converted 1999 in Turkey
Tonnage Deadweight (DWT) 17,500 Mt.
Gross 11,968 Mt.
Net 6,354 Mt.
Principal Dimension L.O.A. 146.0 m
Beam 23.30 m
Air Draft from Keel 44.80 m
Draft 9.44 m

Owner: Carson Shipping Inc.:Carson Shipping was originally established by Norwegian and U.S. interests for the purpose of bareboat chartering the vessel M/V "Red Sea Spirit" through a financial arrangement with a purchase option.

The vessel dry docked in Turkey in 1999 where she was converted into a cement terminal capable of discharging cement from feeder vessels, as well as discharging cement to shore either mechanically in bulk, pneumatically, or in bagged form.

Arctic Sea: BEJAIA, Algeria doesn't record arrival

Victor Matveev as a younger sailor in Russian navy
Victor Matveev as Managing director,CEO
Oy Solchart Management AB, Helsinki – Commercial managers

Oy Solchart Ltd, Helsinki – Commercial managers

Victor Matveev
Managing director,CEO

BEJAIA, Algeria arrivals

Arctic Sea arrives at Bejaia Algeria

The Arctic Sea, has reached its destination in Algeria, Interfax news agency reported. The ship is registered in the Maltese port of Valletta.
The Arctic Sea is primarily owned by a Malta-based company, Arctic Sea Ltd. which is owned by Oy White Sea Ltd. According to the Finnish Trade Registry, Victor Matveev (Viktor Matvejev), a Russian citizen living in Finland holds 70 per cent of Oy White Sea Ltd’s shares. The rest are owned by two other Russian men living in Finland. The rest of the ship may well by owned by Solchart Askhangelsk Ltd of Finland

Film star Nicolas Cage has visited Somali pirates

Film star Nicolas Cage has visited a Kenyan prison holding suspected Somali pirates awaiting trial to highlight the problem of piracy in the Indian Ocean.

Inmates danced for the movie star and shook his hand as he toured the Shimo La Tewa prison in the Kenyan coastal town of Mombasa. The biggest talent agencies have “foundations” to direct their companies’ considerable philanthropic efforts. It is their job to match their clients — actors, directors, musicians and athletes — with suitable causes in almost the same way that the old studios arranged marriages for stars. Whenever you see a film star in jeans and a baseball cap, patting the head of a skinny, ragged child in some dry, desperate village in Africa or Asia, the chances are that the actor’s journey began in one of the shiny offices in Los Angeles.