Tuesday, December 02, 2008
Nikos Tzanetakos, deputy captain of the Greek tanker Ellivita which crossed the gulf last month carrying Saudi oil to the United States, told Ta Nea newspaper his crew prevented pirates from boarding by draping the hull in electrified wire.
"The military ships are only acting as traffic police in the Gulf of Aden," Tzanetakos said. "The situation there is permanently out of control and there is panic among the sailors, who have to pass through those waters."
NATO ships began anti-piracy operations off the Somali coast in late October, but they have failed to stop the hijackings.
This month, the European Union takes control of the operation, involving four to six ships. Greece, master of nearly a fifth of the world's merchant fleet, has the rotating command.
"Greece has the biggest merchant fleet in the world: authorities must protect us," Tzanetakos said. "All the Merchant Marine Ministry did was tell us how to send a mayday signal."
There have been around 95 pirate attacks in Somali waters this year, with some 40 ships taken, including a Saudi tanker holding $100 million of oil, the world's biggest hijacking.
His brother Panayotis Tzanetakos, the Ellivita's captain, said sailors panicked when they heard mayday signals from other ships. More must be done to secure the shipping lanes, he said.
"The Gulf of Aden has become the route of terror," he said. "I was never afraid but there I realised what danger was."
The Ellivita's crew surrounded its deck with wire connected to a 220-volt power supply and displayed a sign saying the vessel was protected by high voltage cables. When pirate speedboats drew alongside, that may have saved them.
"It's very possible the pirates on the boats saw that, and after two or three minutes they left and we escaped the danger," Nikos Tzanetakos told the newspaper. "I won't sail on the ship again if the company decides we should go back: it's not a financial issue, I just don't want to put my life in danger."
Source: Reuters, Dec 02, 2008