Pirates fire at cruise ship near Somalia
Pirates in a small skiff today (Sunday, Nov. 30) fired rifle shots at a cruise ship carrying 684 passengers in the Gulf of Aden between Somalia and Yemen. No one was hurt, but the Nautica was forced to take evasive action, revving up past 20 knots, its normal top speed, said Tim Rubacky, spokesman for the vessel’s operator, luxury line Oceania Cruises.
In this situation, “you pour on all the power you’ve got,” Rubacky said in a telephone interview.
The daylight encounter points to the growing boldness of pirates off Somalia’s coast. On Friday pirates seized a Liberian-flagged chemical tanker in the Gulf of Aden. The incident also poses a dilemma for cruise lines and passengers because the gulf is the key gateway between the Mediterranean and Asia. Oceania was evaluating the situation, Rubacky said, but had not ruled out using the waterway in the future.
After pirates off the Somali coast in 2005 fired on another cruise ship, the Seabourn Spirit, injuring a crew member, cruise lines adopted more stringent anti-piracy measures.
The incident Sunday began at 9:28 a.m. local time as the Nautica, on a 32-day voyage, sailed through the Gulf of Aden on its way from Luxor, Egypt, to Oman, Rubacky said.
Nautica’s duty officer spotted two small skiffs approaching from less than a mile away that attempted to intercept the ship’s course. The ship outran the skiffs, but not before one got within about 300 yards and fired eight shots at the Nautica, Rubacky added. None of the shots hit the ship, he said.
— Jane Engle, assistant Los Angeles Times Travel editor
[Nautica cruise ship off Sydney, Australia. Credit: Oceania Cruises]
5 Comments on “Pirates fire at cruise ship near Somalia”
Leave a Comment
If you are under 13 years of age you may read this blog, but you may not participate. Here's the full legal spiel.
Comments are moderated, and will not appear on this blog until the author has approved them.
All fields are required
Advertisement
SUBSCRIBE TO THIS BLOG
Click the logo below to subscribe to news from this blog:
Or add this feed to your favorite RSS reader:
more
Or add this feed to your favorite RSS reader:
more
Advertisement
November 30th, 2008 at 1:40 pm
uhhh … airplanes? Where’s the Memphis Belle when you need her? Seems to me the whole pirate problem could be solved rather easily.
November 30th, 2008 at 4:15 pm
When will NATO Marines start taking action on the pirates off the coasts of Yemen and Somalia? The world is being run by wimps.
November 30th, 2008 at 5:21 pm
Interesting that the LA Times is the only source of this Cruise Ship problem. As a long, long time participate in world cruising, could it be that this might hurt the cruise line business? Sad!
November 30th, 2008 at 5:25 pm
Approved
April 10th, 2009 at 3:15 pm
Here is my over view of the situation with the pirates:
http://www.bukisa.com/articles/61223_unsafe-waters