Run away!
Posted on 07/06/2011 3:21:06 PM PDT by SandRat
GULF OF ADEN (NNS) -- USS Philippine Sea (CG 58) responded to a distress call issued by the Marshall Islands-owned, Liberian-flagged, motor vessel Brilliante Virtuoso at approximately 3:30 a.m. (local time) July 6.
Brilliante Virtuoso, a 144,000-ton very large crude carrier, was approximately 20 nautical miles southwest of Aden, Yemen when they issued the call which stated they believed they were under attack by suspected pirates and required assistance. The motor vessel was travelling eastbound from the Suez Canal through the Gulf of Aden at the time of the attack.
Shortly after the suspected attack, Brilliant Virtuoso reported a fire on board which was beyond their control and that their intention was to abandon ship.
Philippine Sea, operating under Combined Maritime Forces (CMF), responded to the distress call. Upon their arrival, they observed smoke coming from the superstructure of the ship and that the crew had abandoned ship in a life-raft. They found no evidence of pirates and concentrated their efforts on assisting the crew members.
The owner of Brilliante Virtuoso has confirmed that all 26 Filipino crew members have been recovered safely by Philippine Sea.
CMF will continue to assist as appropriate.
Combined Maritime Forces is a 25 nation maritime coalition that operates maritime security task forces in the Gulf of Aden, Red Sea, Somali Basin, Arabian Sea and the Arabian Gulf.
More information on Combined Maritime Forces and Combined task Force 150 can be found at http://combinedmaritimeforces.com You can also follow CMF news updates through Twitter (http://twitter.com/CMF_Bahrain) and Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/pages/Combined-Maritime-Forces/139732049416264).>
For more news from Commander, U.S. Naval Forces Central Command/5th Fleet, visit www.navy.mil/local/cusnc/.>
Run away!
Just to give FReepers an idea of how huge these things are, this thing is nine times the tonnage of the heavy cruiser I was on. Our crew was 40 times bigger. Yeah, you might have trouble doing damage control...
Well, the GOOD thing is, there are probably a lot fewer watertight compartments that have to be manned and dogged and...oh...wait...
Your Welcome! Now give us a few million barrels in payment.
LONDON (Dow Jones)–A fire that broke out on an oil tanker after a pirate attack off the Yemeni coast has now been extinguished, an official at the company managing the ship said Wednesday.
Though a large-scale oil disaster appears to have been avoided, news of the fire on the 1 million barrels tanker will revive security fears on a shipping route that has suffered increasingly bold attacks from Somali pirates.
The fire “was extinguished,” said Andreas Louka, a legal adviser at Athens’ Central Mare Inc., the company managing the Brillante Virtuoso tanker.
Asked if the tanker, which was on its way from Ukraine to China, could still deliver its cargo, Louka said “they are going to assess” the damage first.
“The crew is safe, the vessel is safe. There is no pollution,” the official has previously said.
This explains one thing I was curious about-the origin and destination of an eastbound fully-laden tanker in that area.
Ah. This amazes me. These scumbags in little rickety boats doing this.
How hard would it be to rotate a ship with Apaches through there and let them practice? It would be a win-win.
Sigh. Never gonna happen.
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