Posted on 02/04/2013 5:39:15 AM PST by Pan_Yan
A French-owned oil tanker missing off Ivory Coast with 17 sailors on board likely has been hijacked, an official with an international piracy watchdog said Monday, in what may be the latest attack by criminal gangs targeting the ships to steal their valuable cargo.
Details remained scarce Monday about the fate of the ship, flagged in Luxembourg. The ship had been reported missing Sunday and officials believe it fell victim to the same pirates operating throughout the Gulf of Guinea, said Noel Choong, a spokesman for the International Maritime Bureau in Malaysia.
...
Over the last year and a half, piracy in the Gulf of Guinea has escalated from low-level armed robberies to hijackings and cargo thefts. Last year, London-based Lloyd's Market Association -- an umbrella group of insurers -- listed Nigeria, neighboring Benin and nearby waters in the same risk category as Somalia, where two decades of war and anarchy allowed piracy to flourish.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
If I were the French government I’d tell the owners “Sorry, you wanted to save a few buck by registering your ship in Luxembourg. Go ask their navy to rescue it.”
I actually like this idea. Does that mean the US shipping industry is now dependent on the powerful navies of Panama and Liberia?
SEA Tankers, a shipping firm based in Merignac, France, issued a statement Monday afternoon identify the missing ship as the M/T Gascogne.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324445904578283343167441624.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
http://www.fouquetsacop.com/pdf/GASCOGNE.pdf
Russians know how to handle pirates - - someone needs to call Putin...
Those look like Somali pirates. The ones in this story are from West Africa so they would look vastly different.
Yeah, all the articles identify the ship but it got cut out when I excerpted the story.
I have often thought about hiring myself and a few like me out to these shipping companies or insurance companies. No save delivery of cargo, no pay. One section of professional soldiers with appropriate arms would lessen this piracy.
I did not see it listed in the linked AP / Fox News article.
Cheers
The right treatment for pirates is to be executed.
“Le light saber terrible!”
You’re right. I read about four articles before I picked which one to post and I posted the only one without the ship name.
Monday.
Sigh.
Most shipping lines won't allow armed personnel on their ships whether because of their home country, the ports they pull in or the insurance companies. There have been some armed ships, mostly for 'sensitive cargo' like weapons or nuclear components.
In the good 'ole days we'd get a letter of marque from some governor in Africa, call up our drinking buddies and go hunting. Unfortunately there are too many lawyers in the world nowadays.
Oh ya, to do something like that would require a lot of legal hoops, but it would be profitable, charge 1% of cargo for safe delivery:)
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