CPO China: Australian Marines board tanker

Jan. 4: Australian forces from the frigate HMAS Melbourne board the British-flagged tanker CPO China in the Arabian Sea, approximately 365 nautical miles southeast of Salalah in Oman after responding to a distress call. earlier

Arctic Sea: Bound for Bejaia

The vessel comes to 0 knots just off Tallinn, Estonia, in the dark, then heads West again.

0 knots at 21:18 March 25
Destination: BEJAIA [NEW]
ETA: 2010-03-06 06:00
Info Received: 2010-03-26 02:07

It's a good thing we are not of a suspicious nature!

Arctic Sea: cargo tipped into the Atlantic

Published reports quote an anonymous high-ranking Russian Navy source who claims the pirates are believed to have been recruited as stooges by the intelligence services of a European Union country to intercept the ship and thwart the delivery of the missiles, according to a Russian newspaper, citing secret services sources in Russia. The paper suggested that the illegal cargo may have been tipped into the Atlantic, or have been secretly unloaded by the Russian navy which found the ship close to the Cape Verde islands off the west coat of Africa.

Some maritime security experts suspect the men had not been on the ship at all, but were part of an elaborate cover-up. The Russians seem to be treating the Arctic Sea as a pirate ship, rather than a ship captured by pirates. The Basmanny District Court has issued a writ seizing the ship, and the Russian navy is towing the vessel to Novorossiysk, apparently without stopping to unload its timber in Algeria. And rather than being released, the crew has apparently been detained in Moscow for what Alexander Bastrykin, the head of the Investigative Committee, called “urgent interrogation.”

Arctic Sea: Thrust & Riposte

Finland's NBI claims: "Planning of the rescue operation took time, which explains why the vessel was stopped and boarded only after a period of several weeks." Perhaps this explanation is "unclear wording."

Finland's National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) says that a claim made August 18 by the Malta Maritime Authority that the Arctic Sea was never entirely missing, is not completely accurate. The NBI says that reports of the Maltese claim are based on the unclear wording of a press release by the Malta Maratime Authority and that the location of Arctic Sea was not known at all times.

The information available to YLE is that Russian, Swedish, Maltese and Finnish officials closely monitored the movements of the vessel when located and the Russian Navy implemented the rescue operation.

Bahamas-Flag LPG Tanker taken by pirates

SOMALIAN pirates today captured a German-owned LPG tanker participating in a convoy through the Gulf of Aden Maritime Security Patrol Area, diverting Chinese and Indian warships with a decoy raid to enable colleagues to seize a small ship with low freeboard. Bahamas-flag 1990-built, 4,316 dwt Longchamp, operated by Hamburg-based Bernhard Schulte Shipmanagement. The Indian warship kept a safe distance, so as not to aggravate the pirates. Then the ship turned hard to starboard and went straight for the Somali coast.

Zhenhua 4: Once more, without Germans

Nine pirates boarded the Zhenhua 4 on Dec. 31, 2008, but were forced off the ship by Capt Peng Weiyuan and his crew after they mounted an unexpected fightback.
"We had a lot of beer bottles and we made a lot of cocktail [petrol] bombs," said Capt Peng. "We were well prepared. We threw them at them.

"After the first attack they retreated but somehow they got very good weapons - anti-tank weapons - which they fired at us, and succeeded in coming up to our living quarters.

"They came to the first platform which is very close to our living quarters.

"We were locked inside and the door was very thick. They were shouting 'open the door'. So we climbed further up and we used everything to threaten them, bottles, petrol.

"Eventually we used high-pressure water cannon to shoot at them. They were also shooting at us and one bullet passed me about 10in (25cm) away.

"Eventually they retreated, they couldn't fight any more. There was smoke, there was fire."
The captain described how the defeated pirates made some unexpected requests as they prepared to leave the Zhenhua 4.

"The head of the pirates said 'stop, stop, we can't go on fighting any more. Let us go'. And I said: 'We will let you go. Leave our ship'."
Photo released by China's Xinhua news agency, which says it shows pirates aiming weapons at the deck of the Chinese ship Zhenhua on 17/12/08
The pirates were well-armed, the ship's captain said

Mr Peng said that the pirates then asked for shoes because they were barefoot and the deck was covered in broken glass.

Pairs of leather shoes were thrown to them and the pirates retreated - only to return a few minutes later asking for fuel for their speedboats.

Capt Peng added that while the fighting was going on [German]helicopters appeared overhead and started firing at the pirates.

"They helped us succeed," he said.

Rubber dinghies found in Mumbai harbor

There were 10 men aboard the boat who appeared to be in their early 20s, and eight of them disembarked carrying backpacks. all the 10 gunmen were Pakistani because they spoke Punjabi or Punjabi-accented Urdu. Measuring about 3 meters long, the boat had a new Yamaha 40-horsepower outboard engine. The vessel bore Arabic characters used in writing Urdu. Fuel cans and life jackets were found in the boat.

Dai Hong Dan hijacked, USN helps wounded crew

North Korea's MV Dai Hong Dan cargo vessel, which was hijacked by pirates off the coast of Somalia late last month, docks in the Red Sea port of Aden in southern Yemen, 05 November 2007. The US Navy abandoned the ship off the Somali coast last week despite a call for its detention for alleged involvement in "suspicious activities," according to a US Navy official. A US Navy destroyer was earlier tracking the MV Dai Hong Dan after engaging pirates who had hijacked the vessel, helping the crew to regain control.

Proliferation Security Initiative Ship Boarding Agreement

North Korean ship on waterfront of Chinese border city of Dandong
Proliferation Security Initiative Ship Boarding Agreement with Marshall Islands here
Panama
Liberia
Cyprus