Piracy on the High Seas

Somali pirates show no fear of the naval alliance patrolling Gulf of Aden.

The Somali pirates are back at terrorizing ships on the high seas. In contrast to the months of January and February, where only two attacks took place, March roared in like a lion with nine ships being hijacked, including a U.S. flagged cargo ship with 21 Americans onboard. Over the first weekend of April, the pirates also captured another five ships.

On April 8th the M/V MAERSK ALABAMA, a 17,000-ton, 508-foot U.S. flagged cargo ship was transporting food and agricultural good from Djibouti when it was hijacked in the early morning in the Puntland region of Somalia. While, Maersk Line Limited operates U.S. flagged ships for the Department of Defense via the Maritime Security Program (MSP), the “Alabama” was not working for the program when it was hijacked.

As the MarEx goes to press, the Alabama’s captain, Richard Phillips, is still being held in a life boat by the pirates, and the crew is back in charge of the vessel. The U.S. Navy destroyer Bainbridge is nearby and monitoring the ship and pirates holding the captain.

Over the weekend, a Taiwanese fishing trawler, WIN FAR 161, and a British owned cargo ship, the 32,000-ton M/V MALASPINA, were also hijacked. These two vessels join a Yemeni tugboat, a French yacht, and a German container ship seized over the weekend. The German ship was taken approximately 400 nautical miles from the Somali coast between Kenya and the Seychelles Islands.

Today, at least 18 ships and more than 285 people are currently being held by the Gulf of Aden pirates. The Taiwanese trawler has a crew of 29 and the German container ship, capable of transporting 1,550 TEUs, has 24 crewmembers including several Germans. The French yacht has a couple and a small child, and the Maersk Alabama has a crew of 20 Americans.