Hijacked VLCC Turned Into Pirates Mother Ship, Crew Being Abused

The Marshall Islands-flagged VLCC SAMHO DREAM, seized by pirates in April, is being used as a mother ship for pirates.

The International Maritime Bureau’s Piracy Reporting Center (PRC) sent an advisory to ship captains warning ships to keep away from the crude carrier as it was suspected of being used as a mother ship for pirates to attack other vessels.

The Samho Dream, which is owned by South Korea's Samho Shipping Corp., has 24 crew members, five South Koreans and 19 Filipinos.

The vessel was chartered by US refiner Valero to move two million barrels of crude, at a value of $170 million, from the Iraqi port of Basra to the Louisiana Offshore Oil Port on the US Gulf Coast.

Samho Shipping has said the pirates have demanded $20 million for the return of the ship. The company has said this amount is too high and in April sent representative to Somalia to start negotiations.

The ships captain Kim Sung-kyu told Yonhap News in a phone call that crew is living in sub-human conditions.

Kim also told Yonhap News that the abuses are getting worse as the pirates deprive them of sleep and food and threaten to kill them one by one if a ransom is not paid.

Samho Shipping has not responded to the pirates latest demands, which were delivered Sunday, and says negotiations to release the ship are on going.

Yonhap News, IMO, Samho Shipping