Monday, January 07, 2008
According to the documentary, the Danish authorities had consulted with the ship's owner, shipping company H. Folmer & Co., about using soldiers to free the hostages from the pirates.
Due to concerns about the crew's safety the plans were dropped.
The shipping company instead followed a peaceful path of negotiations which after a nerve-wracking two-month ordeal finally led to the safe return of the crew members.
The plan involved keeping the pirates at bay for as long as possible and pretending that the company could not raise more than $400,000 or roughly DKK 2 million far less than the ransom of DKK 8 million.
Somali pirates had previously hijacked two Korean ships and immediately received the entire ransom amount. These experiences prompted pirates to raise their demands.
The shipping company decided to follow the course that led the pirates to believe they could only raise a portion of the ransom.
At the same time, a fictive character named Mr Hansen, invented by the British security company involved in the rescue efforts, offered the hijackers a further $300,000.
The second offer was only valid for a week, after which time 'Mr Hansen' would donate the amount to charity.
The pirates took the bait and agreed to a ransom of $723,000 - half of the original demand.
Other details of the incident have also emerged, including the fact that during the first 40 days of the drama, negotiations had taken place with pirate impersonators who claimed to have kidnapped the Danish sailors and hijacked 'Danica White' without having done so.
Source: The Copenhagen Post, Jan 07, 2007