Landing the Big One

Landing the Big One

Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Somali Pirates: "We need a bigger boat?"

Early reports from the NATO Shipping Center that the Somali pirates may have gotten underway with a bigger ship to transit to their hunting grounds, as indicated at the NSC - DailyPiracyUpdate of 10 Jan 12:
M/V LIQUID VELVET, a previously pirated vessel may be used as a mothership. It was last reported making way 120nm off the coast of Somalia in vicinity of 10 22N 058 33E. This vessel was pirated on 31 Oct 11, and neither the vessel or crew have been released from pirate control. Details can be found under Alert 004.
Masters are advised to exercise extreme caution when navigating through this area, and maintain maximum CPA with any ship acting suspiciously. Please see photo of M/V LIQUID VELVET at left.
Orange hull, white superstructure, king post forward, crane amidships, tanker.

gCaptain reports ONI release here:
VESSEL IS HEADING NORTHEAST TOWARDS THE ARABIAN SEA IN POSITION 10-58N 053-23E AT A SPEED OF 7.6 KTS.

UPDATE: Posit of ship based on ONI and NATO reports. Red course lines is my projection and is undoubtedly not accurate.

Details from NATO Shipping Center Alerts:
ALERT 004/2012 10/01/2012 10:25 10.97 53.38
Suspicious Activity SUSPECT VESSEL - POSSIBLE MOTHERSHIP
A piracy alert has been raised by the Maritime Security Centre.

Date of alert : January 10, 2012
Alert type : Suspect Vessel
Location : SOMALI BASIN 10 58 E 053 23 E
Latitude : 10 58 N
Longitude : 053 23 E

---WARNING WARNING WARNING---

Alert number 004/2012

At 1024 UTC / 10 JAN 12 / the pirated MV LIQUID VELVET could be acting as a mothership and was reported in position 10 58 N 053 23 E

Vessels are advised to exercise extreme caution when navigating within 100 nautical miles of the position given in this report and maintain maximum CPA with any ship acting suspiciously.

1 comment:

  1. Readers should be prepared for the day EagleSpeak chronicles the first report that some of the so-called "Somali pirates" have actually been foreign nationals from other continents.

    Guessing that might be later this year, or in 2013. That little revelation would have already been known in certain circles for some time now.
    Just saying.

    ReplyDelete