Many customers have been asking us if pirated ships off the Somali coast has impcated our business. While none of our freight forwarding customers have containers on board a pirated ship, we do pray for the safety of the crew members! We also thank our U.S. Coast Guard and Navy for their efforts in protecting the ships, crew and cargo. Here’s an excerpt from a July 12, 2009 L.A. Times article about a Coast Guard boat’s return to its Bay Area port after six months at sea as ‘the cop on the beat’:
The highlight of the crew’s 41,000-nautical-mile voyage, however, came on April 28, when crew members monitored a distress call from a merchant ship in the Gulf of Aden, about 60 miles off the coast of Somalia.
The call came just three weeks after the crew of the Maersk Alabama had been taken hostage by pirates in an incident that made international headlines. That standoff ended when the ship’s captain was rescued by Navy SEALs.
When Cavanaugh heard the distress call from the Skaftafell, about 60 miles away, he dispatched the cutter’s helicopter, which was on scene in about 30 minutes. As the bright orange chopper arrived, the suspected pirate skiff peeled off and headed for shore.
The Boutwell set a course to cut it off before it reached Somali territorial waters. When the cutter was within about a mile of the fleeing skiff, the captain sent two Zodiac boats loaded with special boarding teams to detain the vessel.
Clutching an M-4 assault rifle, Mark Climacosa said, he could feel the adrenaline coursing through his veins as he sped toward the suspect boat. As he drew near, he could see some of the suspected pirate crew waving white T-shirts above their heads in apparent surrender.
Still, Climacosa recalled, the situation was tense as he stepped onto the 23-foot boat and looked into their eyes.
“They looked just as scared as we did,” the 11-year-Coast Guard veteran said. “They didn’t know what to expect. We didn’t know what to expect.”
Seven men were detained and briefly taken onboard the Boutwell. But the crew was released because no weapons were recovered and officials determined that any prosecution would be difficult at best. Coast Guard officials assumed that the weapons were thrown overboard during the pursuit, which lasted several hours.
Nonetheless, Cavanaugh said, “I have no doubt in my mind that they were attacking this vessel, trying to get on board.”
He added, “Once the pirates get on board, it’s ‘game over.’ You’ve got a hostage situation.”
Cavanaugh and other crew members said friends and family have expressed surprise that their Coast Guard duty has taken them to such places as Somalia.
“It’s kind of like ‘Whose coast are you guarding anyway?’ ” the captain said. But the 29-year-veteran said it’s become clear in recent years that “maritime security is no longer a local problem.”
Nearly three months after the incident in the Gulf of Aden, as the Boutwell cruised north up the California coast from San Pedro to its home port in Alameda, talk of the encounter had given way to giddiness over returning home.
Read the full article at http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-coastguard12-2009jul12,0,5107275.story
