Posted on 04/06/2005 8:37:59 PM PDT by Straight Vermonter
A huge Japanese-owned crude oil tanker came under attack from a gang of pirates in the Singapore Strait but managed to shake them off through the captain's evasion tactics.
``Pirates in seven small fishing boats surrounded the tanker and attempted to board it late Tuesday,'' said Noel Choong, head of the International Maritime Bureau's Kuala Lumpur-based Piracy Reporting Center.
The 150,000-tonne Yohteisan, the length of a football field, was headed east just past the southern tip of the Malacca Strait in heavy rain and poor visibility when the incident occurred near Indonesia's Karimun islands.
Choong said the captain's tactics to shake off the pirates included increasing speed and added that all crew members are safe and the tanker has continued with its journey.
He said the tanker could have posed an environmental disaster if the pirates had succeeded in boarding the ship and taken over control.
``Anything could have happened,'' he said. ``Singapore, of course, will take this attack seriously.''
Another maritime official said tankers the size of the Yohteisan would be ideal for militants to use to block choke points in the narrow Malacca Strait or in the Singapore Strait.
That scenario has been advanced several times recently.
(Excerpt) Read more at thestandard.com.hk ...
Pirates take over a tanker that has sattelite watch dogs over it...
Militants (aka muslim terrorists) or pirates?
Heh--I suspect these ae NOT pirates.
Good idea.
Woo-HOO! We have a winner in 2!
Could be, actually...but a winner nonetheless
If the Strait were closed off by sinking one of these tankers in the worst possible place, how long would it take to clear the passage? Would three days strain the resources of the regions on the receiving end of the transport route? How about a week? A month? Tankers could go around, but service would be interrupted and would be much more expensive, driving the cost of oil up.
In this area of the world they are likely either one - depending on the needs of the day.
Argggggghhhh. An Oil Tanker. That cargo will fetch a pretty price!
This is one of those areas where this stuff has been going on for decades, and suddenly the MSM decided to start writing articles on it, making it look like a new problem.
From an economic and strategic perspective the Strait of Malacca is one of the most important shipping lanes in the world, an equivalent of the Suez Canal, or the Panama Canal. The Strait forms the main ship passageway between the Indian Ocean and the Pacific Ocean, linking three of the world's most populous nations: India, Indonesia and China. The Strait carries 50,000 vessels per year, carrying between one-fifth and one quarter of the world's sea trade. Half of all oil shipments carried by sea come through the Strait, in 2003, an estimated 11 million barrels a day, a trade that is expected to expand as oil consumption rises in China. As the Strait is only one-and-a-half nautical miles wide at its narrowest point, Phillips Channel in the Singapore Strait, it form sone of the world's significant traffic bottlenecks (see link).All these factors have caused the area to become a target for piracy and a perceived target for terrorism. Piracy has been a considerable problem in the Strait in recent years, rising from around 25 attacks in 1994 to a record 220 in 2000. Just over 150 attacks were carried out in 2003. This accounted for around one-third of all piracy in 2003.
The number of attacks rose again in the first half of 2004, and the total number is expected to top the 2000 record. In response to the rising crisis, the Malaysian, Indonesian and Singaporean navies stepped up their patrols of the area in July 2004.
Fears of terrorism rest on the possibility that a large ship could be pirated and sunk at a shallow point in the Strait (it is just 25m deep at its shallowest part), effectively blocking the Strait. If successfully achieved, the attack would have a devastating effect on world trade. Opinions amongst security specialists differ about the feasibility and likelihood of such an attack.
Strait of Malacca
Seven fishing boats vs an oil tanker? Couldn't the tanker simply disgorge fifty thousand gallons of payload and then light a match?
``Pirates in seven small fishing boats surrounded the tanker and attempted to board it late Tuesday,''
I would think that if it was a planned terrorist operation, it would have been immediately sunk. Something doesn't seem right with this version of events. JMO
I wonder why Lloyds does not required an armed crew/ship. I would think a Bofors system could be adapted to deal with these situations.
Standard policy is not to resist at all. Though I think water cannons have been used some.
Hell, you could man it with a bunch of squids from this site as a vacation cruise.
"Standard policy is not to resist at all. Though I think water cannons have been used some."
Personally I prefer a diesel cannon and the last remnants of a stogie.
I don't know if this is against maritime laws or not...but have some of these companies thought about arming the sailors aboard these ships?
Or how 'bout placing a small security detail aboard each ship?
Nothing says Hello (to a pirate) better than a blazing .50 caliber machine gun.
It seems like the cost of arming the sailors or having a security detail would be cheaper than losing an entire ship.
Opinions anyone?
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