Before…..
Somali pirates celebrated the New Year by hijacking two ships on January one U.K. flag car carrier and one Singapore-flag chemical carrier.
Late afternoon of January 1, 2010 the U.K. flagged M/V Asian Glory (a vehicle carrier) owned by Zodiac Maritime Agency, was hijacked in the Somali Basin about 900 nautical miles north of the Seychelles and 600 miles from the coast of Somalia. Zodiac Maritime also operates another ship – St James Park which was hijacked about one week before the Asian Glory saga.
The Asian Glory was well outside the normal EU NAVFOR operating area. The ship has a crew of 25 persons (8 Bulgarian, 10 Ukraines, 5 Indians, 2 Romanian) and all are reported to be well.
According to the relatives of the Ukrainian crew members, the Somali pirates had taken away the captain, Veliko Velikov, who comes from Bulgaria’s Varna, and none of them had seen him since March 6.
The ship was registered with MSC HOA and was transiting North West towards the International Recommended Transiting Corridor that she was expected to enter January 3, 2010. Her capacity is 4.300 units, but she was loaded with 2,405 cars from South Korean shipped from Singapore to Saudi Arabia.
The vessel is quite large and new ship operated according to the latest IMO and SOLAS requirements and it is quite interesting that the vessel was hijacked too far away from the safety distance from the shore. Usually the maritime security officers claim that 150-200 nautical miles from the shore is safety zone, but "Asian Glory" was attacked on 650 nautical miles from shore.
And Now…..
Somali pirates have for a record third time since January, used the same Asian Glory ship to attack yet another cargo vessel. It happened precisely on April 4, 2010, when "MSC Anafi" was attacked by pirates holding the British car carrier "Asian Glory" (IMO: 9070474).
Eyewitness reports say: The "Asian Glory" attacked the boxship "MSC Anafi". The attack lasted for several hours. The "Asian Glory" closed on the "MSC Anafi" and chased her several hours, pirates were firing from Asian Glory high upper deck, and afterwards nearly all of the "MSC Anafi"- crew asked for replacement after the vessel managed to escape and berthed at Mumbai”.
According to a Russian Journalist; Mikhail Voitenko, as cited by the Varna-based paper Narodno Delo Daily, The Asian Glory was used to attack the cargo container ship “MSC Anafi”, which resulted in a fierce sea battle with machine guns.
Voitenko said that the attacked ship managed to evade being captured by the Somali pirates after a several hours’ fight, and claims that the international naval forces in the region kept the severe naval battle a secret.
2
THE “ENVY” CALLED FLAG OF CONVENIENCE: THE NEARBY DESTINATION FOR NIGERIA?
A ship is said to be flying a flag of convenience if it is registered in a foreign country "for purposes of reducing operating costs or avoiding government regulations".
The term has been used since the 1950s and refers to the flag a ship flies to indicate its country of registration. The country of registration determines the laws under which the ship is required to operate and that are to be applied in relevant admiralty cases.
Today, more than half of the world’s merchant ships (measured by tonnage) are registered under so-called flags of convenience, formally referred to as "open registries".
The reasons for choosing an open register are varied and include protection from taxes, the avoidance of national regulations, labour wage scales or political boycotts. For example, the avoidance of the 50% duty the United States government charges on repairs performed on American-flagged ships in foreign ports. Again, in South Africa under apartheid, local shipowners utilized open registers to avoid shipping boycotts.
……The Three FOC Musketeers: PANAMA, LIBERIA and BAHAMAS
The concept of flags of convenience has a long history. American shipowners from both sides in the American Civil War used the British flag. The modern concept began in 1919 when the Belen Quezada became the first foreign-owned vessel to register with the Panamanian registry. Several US ships followed suit in 1922. The registry slowly grew over the next 15 years, mostly due to transfers from European flags. In the late 1940s several factors led US shipowners to become unhappy with the registry, and there became a demand for a new registry that could compete with Panama.
The Liberian registry was formed in 1948 with the help of American businessmen. Stavros Niarchos, a Greek shipowner, registered the first ship (the World Peace) with Liberia in 1949. More shipowners followed suit, and the registry slowly grew and provided the competition that shipowners were looking for.
As of 2010 the three largest ship registries are Panama, Liberia and the Bahamas, all open registers. Of these, Liberia and Bahamas are judged by international safety organizations as “white-listed” flags indicating above-average safety performance.
With 5,764 ships flying her flags, Panama holds the world of owning the biggest ship registry. About 86 per cent of the 5,764 (or 86 per cent) of the ships are owned by foreign interests. The same goes for Liberia which occupies the second position with 1948 ships in her registry, out of which 1,904 (or 98 per cent) of the ships rate foreign owned. The distant, but enviable position of number three in the world is occupied Bahamas. The country also flies 1,213 flags, out of which 1,134 (or 93 per cent) are foreign owned.
*With additional info from Wikipedia (Next week: The other side of FOC)
Welcome To Harardhere: The Capital City Of Piracy
Once a quiet Somali fishing town, Harardhere has earned the dubious title of piracy capital of the world and its residents now fear that their village is too small for its ruthless guests and their money.
Like any gold rush town sitting on a rich vein, Harardhere has seen the arrival of a gaggle of armed, highly competitive “entrepreneurs” who have started buccaneering careers and are willing to die for a big ransom.
Residents and pirates alike fear that the delivery of an estimated seven million dollars in cash for the release of a Greek supertanker, which could fit the whole of Harardhere on its deck, has now brought the town to the brink.
The largest ransom ever paid out to Somalia’s sea-bandits touched off a cycle of raids and revenge killings that has already left seven people dead, including a civilian.
The fighting had stopped by Wednesday but tension was still running high among Harardhere’s once united pirate fraternity.
“We asked the pirates to cease fire and so far it’s holding. But the problem is that trust has been shattered. Suspicion is rife and growing among the pirates now and we expect another disaster,” Yusuf Moalim Ali, a local elder who tried to mediate for an end to the violence, told AFP.
Rival gangs from the Saleban sub-clan on Monday rode through the streets in Toyota Surfs – a pirate favourite – wielding machine guns.
“We had been expecting things to turn ugly in our town, we had it coming. These boys are accustomed to easy money but when you enter a mafia you know you’ll end up killing or being killed,” said Mohamed Sandhere, another elder.
‘This big ransom was unfairly divided”. The pirates themselves seemed to admit that the problem risked spiralling out of control, explaining the issue with this paradox: too much ransom money gets in the way of piracy.
“My group did not directly take part in the fighting but we are severely affected by the clashes, we cannot go about our usual business,” said pirate Abdi Yare.
Somalia’s pirates treat every successful hijacking like a private venture in which businessmen from all over the country can invest by offering financial or material assistance, buying and selling shares.
The bigger the captured vessel, the more complex the shareholder structure, but the size of the share handed to every pirate follows a strict scale, from the first man to board the hijacked ship down to the last onshore sentinel.
Some pirates argue that internal rules were broken when a small plane dropped the bumper ransom for the Maran Centaurus, a supertanker a third of a kilometre long and laden with two million barrels of crude oil for America.
“This big ransom was unfairly divided,” said a pirate who gave his name as Ilkacase. “I lost two of my friends on Monday. Today all the pirates are staying on base and nobody is going out to sea.”
While pirates have been known to redistribute part of their share to friends and locals, residents have long complained that the modern-day buccaneers have brought inflation, alcohol and prostitution to the region.
Today, Harardhere’s unnatural growth has reached its breaking point, residents warned.
“Many people think the pirates brought booming business to this town but I believe one day everything will come to an abrupt end,” said Muktar Nur, a native of Harardhere.
“They have started fighting between themselves and the next time that happens, everyone will flee because you cannot take any chances when you see the kind of weapons they have,” he explained.
Asha Muse has profited from the presence of Harardhere’s boisterous corsairs and their newly-acquired cash, selling them khat, a mild narcotic leaf popular with Somali men and indispensable to most pirates.
“Those pirates are armed and scary. The situation will be untenable one day and I can see Harardhere becoming a ghost town,” she said.
Discussion about this post