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Luxury US cruise ship outruns Somali pirates
(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-12-03 07:44 The luxury yacht Le Ponant was attacked earlier this year, and pirates opened fire in 2005 on the Seabourn Spirit about 100 miles (160 kilometers) off the Somali coast. The faster cruise ship managed to escape, and used a long-range acoustic device, which blasts a painful wave of sound, to distract the pirates. The Nautica escaped by outrunning the pirates, speeding up as two small pirate skiffs tried to close in, said Tim Rubacky, spokesman for Oceania Cruises, Inc., which owns the Nautica. He said one of the skiffs made it within 300 yards (275 meters) and fired eight rifle shots at the vessel before trailing off. "When the pirates were sighted, the captain went on the public address system and asked passengers to remain in the interior spaces of the ship and wait until he gave further instructions," he said. "Within five minutes, it was over." He noted that the ship, which communicates with international coalition forces, will return through the Gulf of Aden. Asked why the ship will re-enter pirate-infested waters, Rubacky said: "We believe this was an isolated incident." "M/S Nautica is well-equipped to deal with these situations and the crew is well-trained," he said, but he would not comment on the specifics of their training. Rubacky refused to comment on whether there are weapons or other material aboard the ship that could help the ship's security in a hijacking. The Nautica was on a 32-day cruise from Rome to Singapore, with stops at ports in Italy, Egypt, Oman, Dubai, India, Malaysia and Thailand, according to Oceania's website. Such an itinerary requires the ship to travel through the dangerous waters of the Gulf of Aden. The liner arrived in the southern Oman port city of Salalah on Monday morning, and the passengers toured the city before leaving for the capital, Muscat, that evening, an official of the Oman Tourism Ministry said Tuesday. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media. NATO foreign ministers meeting in Brussels on Tuesday focused on demands for NATO to act amid growing alarm over the pirate attacks, which have continued unabated despite NATO's naval mission over the past six weeks. Also Tuesday, the UN Security Council extended for another year its authorization for countries to enter Somalia's territorial waters, with advance notice, and use "all necessary means" to stop piracy and armed robbery at sea. Somalia has not had a functioning government since 1991, and pirates have taken advantage of the country's lawlessness to launch attacks on foreign shipping from the Somali coast. In two if the most daring attacks, pirates seized a Ukrainian freighter loaded with 33 battle tanks in September, and on Nov. 15, a Saudi oil tanker carrying $100 million worth of crude oil. On Tuesday, a Somali pirate spokesman said his group will release the Ukrainian ship within the next two days. Sugule Ali said on Tuesday a ransom agreement had been reached, but would not say how much. The pirates had originally asked for $20 million when they hijacked the MV Faina. "Once we receive this payment, we will also make sure that all our colleagues on ship reach land safely, then the release will take place," Ali said. |
