$1.7-Million Ransom Demanded for Crew of Danica White
A $1.7-million (US $1.5-million) ransom has finally been demanded for the five Danish crew members of the Danica White, which was hijacked nearly two months ago. According to the Danish newspaper B.T., H. Folmer & Company, the shipping company that manages the vessel, has many debts and is unable to pay the ransom. The Danish Foreign Ministry is also wary of paying the money -- it fears triggering more hijackings and kidnappings.
On Friday, June 1, the Danish-flagged Danica White and its five Danish crew members were hijacked off of the coast of Somalia. The 1,563-dwt vessel was carrying 1,000 tons of building supplies from Dubai to the Mombasa port in Kenya when it was boarded by gunman more than 130 miles off the Somali coast. The hijacked ship was then spotted on Saturday by the Navy vessel USS Carter Hall, which fired warning shots at the Danica White, destroying three small pirate boats towed behind it, before the Navy ship had to retreat because the hijacked vessel reentered Somali waters.
On Sunday, June 24, an e-mail, supposedly from Captain Niels H. Nielsen of the hijacked vessel, was sent to B.T. stating that the five-member crew was running out of food and supplies. Additionally, according to the e-mail, the Danica White’s generator had broken down, so the water purification system was unable to run and the crew was depleting its fresh water reserves. Apparently that the now month-old e-mail also mentioned the ransom sum, but the information was deliberately withheld from the public so that efforts to raise the money and the lives of the hostages were not jeopardized. However, the newspaper chose to publish the information on Saturday, July 21, after it determined that the shipowner did not have the funds to pay the ransom.
Some officials in the area believe that there is a large, unseen “mother ship” that the pirates are using to reach vessels in deeper waters. Once near the targeted vessel, however, it is conjectured that the pirates use small speedboats, which they are known for, to attack and board the boat. Many of the pirates pretend to be coast guards to get near vessels. They claim that they are protecting the waters against toxic waste dumping and illegal fishing. Nevertheless, once they capture the ship the pirates take it along with its crew to an undisclosed location and hold the crew for ransom. Some in the industry speculate that pirates are being supported by significant people inside Puntland, the area of northeastern Somalia whose leaders declared it an autonomous state in 1998, where most discussions for the release of the crews of hijacked ships occur.
Piracy has been increasing in Somalia since the military dictator Mohamed Siad Barre was overturned in 1991 by warlords. Though attacks decreased during the second half of 2006 when Islamists controlled most of southern Somalia, they have been increasing since the Islamists were expelled in January of this year. In fact, an article on the ICC International maritime Bureau’s Web site, dated July 12, states, “In Somalia, the IMB Piracy Reporting Centre has recorded 17 incidents to date in 2007. This is a dramatic increase over the ten attacks recorded for all of 2006.”