April 10, 2009 Update on Hijacked vessels

Below are some of the vessels believed to be held by pirates:

NAMES UNKNOWN Seized April 11, 2009, two Egyptian boats, carrying a crew of 24

BUCCANEER, seized April 11, 2009, Italian tugboat, owned by Micoperi Marine Contractors, carrying 10 Italians, 5 Romanians and a Croatian, in the Gulf of Aden.





MAERSK ALABAMA: Siezed April 8, 2009, the 17,000 tonne a Danish-owned, U.S-operated container vessel was hijacked in the Indian Ocean 400 miles off the Somali capital Mogadishu.

MALASPINA CASTLE siezed April 6, 2009, the 32,000-tonne vessel, which flies a Panamanian flag, British owned, wirth crew of 24, including 16 Bulgarians, was taken on Monday morning in the Gulf of Aden.



TANIT Yacht, French sailing boat seized: April 4, 2009, some 640 kilometers (400 miles) off the coast of Ras Hafun, northeast Somalia.

HANSA STAVANGER, German 20,000 ton container vessel, seized off the southern Somalia coast, between Kenya and Seychelles, including a 24 man crew, including 5 Germans.


MV. WIN TAR 161: seized near Seychelles, 3o crew members (the ship's skipper and first engineer are Taiwan nationals, 5 crew members are Chinese, 17 are Filipinos, and 6 are Indonesian),700 ton, Taiwanese deep sea long-line fishing vessel.

SHEHENSHA-E-MADINA, owned by Yasim Salim Sambhina of Salaya: Siezed in Red Sea on March 30, 2009, with 18-member crew

INDIAN OCEAN EXPLORER: Seized March 2009: The 35-metre long boat was built in Hamburg as an oceanographic research vessel. It accommodates around 12 passengers. The yacht Serenity with three people on board was seized in late February or early March.



BOW ASIR: Seized on March 26, 2009. The Norwegian 23,000-tonne, Bahamas-registered chemical tanker was carrying caustic soda. It was operated by Salhus Shipping and carried 27 crew consists of a Norwegian captain, 19 Filipinos, five Poles, one Russian and one Lithuanian.


NIPAYIYA: Seized on March 25, 2009. The 9,000 ton Greek-owned and Panamana-registered MT Nipayia, was seized by pirates 450 miles from Somalia's south coast, including a Russian captain and 18-Philippine crew.



SALDANHA: Seized on Feb. 22, 2009. The Maltese-flagged cargo ship, sailing to Slovenia, has 22 crew and was loaded with coal. TITAN: Seized on March 19, 2009. The 43,000 dwt Saint-Vincent-flagged cargo vessel with 24 crew was sailing from the Black Sea to Korea when it was attacked by pirates.

LONGCHAMP: Seized on Jan. 29, 2009. The liquefied petroleum gas tanker, built in 1990, has 13 crew on board, 12 Filipinos and one Indonesian. The tanker has a capacity of 3,415 tonnes.

NAME UNKNOWN: Seized on Dec. 16. A yacht with two on board, an Indonesian tugboat used by French oil company Total. Pirates also hijacked the Chinese fishing vessel Zhenhua-4 with 30 Chinese crew aboard but it was freed the next day.

STOLT STRENGTH: Seized Nov. 10. The chemical tanker had 23 Filipino crew aboard. It was carrying 23,818 tonnes of oil products.

NAMES UKNOWN: Seized on Dec. 10. Pirates hijacked two Yemeni fishing vessels with a total of 22 crew in coastal waters in the Gulf of Aden. Five crew reportedly escaped.

CHEMSTAR VENUS: Seized Nov. 15. The tanker was travelling from Dumai, Indonesia, to Ukraine. It had 18 Filipino and five South Korean crew.