162 Days at the Claws of Somali Pirates

By Capt. Abelardo M. Pacheco, MM http://seafarertimes.com/2011- 12/node/1423 Pre-Captivity We left Dakar, Senegal on the morning of October 25, 2009 loaded with approximately 28,000 metric tons of phosphoric acid destined for Kandla, India on the way of Suez Canal via Algeciras in Spain at the Mediterranean. As usual, I immediately called for a meeting the following morning. We conducted drills on firefighting, abandon ship/ boat, pollution prevention, and containment. It was followed by an administrative meeting before lunch time. In the afternoon, we had a serious meeting on anti-piracy and discussed the latest imposition of the Maritime Security Patrol Area (MPSA) at the Gulf of Aden by the so-called Coalition Forces, which mainly consisted of NATO naval assets based in Dubai and Bahrain. I expressed my reservation and apprehension about the integrity of this new corridor, being imposed upon us, contrary to our normal practice of steaming as close as possible to the Yemeni Coast, in the past, simply because the sea lane is too big for a handful of random patrols, in the middle of pirate-infested areas. But it was agreed that we have to do our best out of the unwanted development, so we repeatedly executed exercises on zigzag maneuvers as a means to throw would-be attackers off our flank, if the need arises, thus stilling focus and readiness among the crew for any untoward eventuality. Anti-piracy exercise is a ritual every time the vessel would pass at the dreaded Gulf of Aden. I never let the crew acquire a tendency to become complacent, despite my great number of successful evasions in the past with our sister ship, MT Stolt Endurance and one nerve-wracking experience more than a month earlier on our ship, MT Stolt Strength. We had a plan worked out in details, including the review of the passage plan and watch keeping schedules with extra complement on deck from engine room. Our vessel arrived in Algeciras in the wee hours of October 30 for bunker replenishment. We upgraded to Security Level 2 and departed immediately for

Port Said, the entrance to Suez Canal. We arrived at Port Said Anchorage in the late evening of November 4 and stayed until the commencement of our Canal transit in the morning of the following day. Crew changes took place in Suez Canal, including re-provisioning and other supplies. We concluded the Canal transit at around midnight, then cleared the last sea buoy to the Red Sea in the early morning of November 6. Tired with little sleep, I allowed the new arrivals to familiarize themselves and interact with the rest of the crew on the whole day of November 7 but I took another step of putting the men on exercises, now focusing on every conceivable scenarios on anti-piracy and raising the alert level to 3 on the morning of November 8 while at the Red Sea. On November 9, we cleared Bab-el Mandeb, in the early afternoon, towards the Gulf of Aden, while initial report was forwarded to UKMTO operation center in Dubai, thus alerting the Coalition Forces and NATO Navy at Manama in Bahrain of our situation. This initial report was followed every 6 hours of our Position and Situation Reports (POSREP/SITREP). The horizon started getting dark through the dusk hours and we felt discomfort and uneasiness as we have reached the point of no return. We sailed through the night of eerie silence, punctuated by VHF messages from other ships. Then, in the middle of the night we were challenged by a French Navy right in the middle of the so-called MPSA (Patrol Area) and somehow our spirit was buoyed up. Then it was silence until the sun rose. Before dawn of November 10, we chanced upon another French frigate on our reciprocal course towards the direction of the Red Sea and somehow this buoyed our morale further. However, we have still more than 30 hours to clear the danger zone. The day was relatively peaceful and calm and the sea was smooth with fleets of small fishing boats, obviously coming from Yemen which came close to our ship on their way back to shore in Aden. After the French Navy patrol ship disappeared in the horizon, we were alone until mid-day, when we chanced upon another frigate steaming against our course which appeared to be escorting three or four ships. These commercial ships were about a mile on our port side, while the Navy ship was about a quarter of a mile on our starboard side. This was the last Navy patrol ship we encountered while we continued steaming eastward opposite their direction, 60 miles off the coast of Aden. The Attack

It was few minutes before sunset on November 10, when I received a call from the Chief Officer, informing me of one highly suspicious small craft suddenly appearing on our port quarter. Obviously, the said craft had just disengaged from the rest of the fishing boats of similar size and stayed in ambush and it looked like swerving to our direction from one big LPG tanker on our port opposite our course. I immediately activated the security alert system from my office and took off to the bridge. Then I saw a skiff loaded with what appears to be more than 10 crew brandishing automatic weapons pointed upward, not more than 2 cables (400 meters) away. I saw the Second Officer calling on VHF to any coalition naval patrol ship in the vicinity, but to no avail. Immediately, I announced the Call to Quarter signal, to summon all crew inside the accommodation, while some bursts of automatic firing was heard. The pirates wanted us to stop but I ignored them. Instead I executed the zigzag maneuver despite being outflanked by the speed of the attacking pirates skiff. The element of surprise was to their advantage having shadowed the LPG tanker until she came close to our position at less than a mile, undetected. In ten minutes, they succeeded in outmaneuvering us thereby gaining access to swing an aluminum ladder forward of amidship on our port bow. By sunset, the pirates started clambering one at a time on board until the last of 14 pirates boarded. Two pirates remained on their attacking skiff alongside secured to the ship on standby. They eventuality came to the bridge but were unable to gain access while I repeatedly ordered the crew on the bridge, around five of them, to drop on deck while I was attending to the call from Japan and UKMTO. When automatic firing started, I ordered the crew to leave the bridge. I went to my office and used the telephone interacting alternately with Japan (VSMI Office) and the UKMTO liaison officer in Dubai. Second Officer Boretta, being the last to leave the bridge, reported to me while on the way down to assembly area (crew mess room) that the firing ripped openings on the glass bulkhead on the port bridge wing and possibly would be utilized as entry point of the pirates to the bridge and through the accommodation. I ordered him to run for cover while I maintained telephone exchanges with UKMTO. All these transpired in two to three minutes, until I heard footsteps on the bridge.

With brief prayer, I walked towards the bridge and met the pirates face-to-face, my hands held up. All of them are pointing their weapons on my back, shoulder and head. Meanwhile, the leader, whose name, I later learned, is Mohammed, and the one named Carrie, who spoke American-accented English approached me with small arms (9 mm) who seemingly controlled the bunch of attacking marauders, asked me to stand down. They asked if I am the Captain. Seemingly surprised by my sudden appearance, or possibly expecting a European Master and not a Filipino on a big ship like ours, they asked for the crew. I told them that the crew members were simply hiding away but were harmless and would come up immediately upon securing guarantee of safety from the pirates. We negotiated in a rather harsh and death-threatening atmosphere and I succeeded in offering myself as a hostage on the bridge, while the rest of the crew be allowed to stay in their accommodation. Nevertheless, they wanted the mustering and the crew list. I gave them one copy of the crew list while I called the crew on the public address system to come up to the bridge. Frightened, alarmed and hesitant, they filed up on the stairway until they saw me unharmed, talking with the pirates leaders. This somehow relieved their fear and one by one walked towards the bridge. They were herded to the Flying bridge (Monkey Island) until the last member was accounted for. Then pirates asked me to stop the engine. Journey to Somalia After stopping the main engine, the pirates ordered me to bring in the skiff boat used during the attack on board and set sail southernly in the direction of a remote village at the northern coast of Somalia, the Bereda. I tried to slow down the speed to about 12 knots to gain ample time should any would-be rescuers mount a counter attack. This never materialized and we reached our destination in the afternoon of November 11. Mohammed, the leader of the raiding team, who had a portable GPS on his breast pocket, disembarked using the skiff used in the attack, while smaller skiff with white hull was hoisted on board, with three or four Somalis on board. Before dusk, we left Bereda and steamed south after clearing Ras Casyr, the

extreme eastern Bluff of Somalia, southwest of Socotra Island and anchored at Ras Gabaac the following day. The atmosphere on board was very tense and became more dangerous under new leadership, but Carrie assured me that everything will be alright. Meanwhile, the pirates were moving around the bridge with automatic weapons aimed at us. I tried to stay awake while the crew was herded into the Officers Saloon. The Chief Engineer and other engineers were accommodated at the Engine Room. Alone with the pirates, I was accompanied alternately by a Deck Officer at three-hour intervals, with one AB to man the helm. After midnight I was allowed to sleep on my cabin. The night of November 12 was the last evening I slept in my room. From that time on, I slept on the bridge with discarded cartons of cigarettes as mattress and pillows until I was allowed to pick my own pillows from my cabin but no mattress for the next two weeks though. The following morning, at anchorage in Gabaac, I was ordered to provide shelter to the pirates stationed on the bridge wings, so I summoned four deck crew members to fix the tarpaulin canvass cover for them. Then, all of a sudden a burst of automatic firing was heard from port bridge wing. The leader was superficially wounded together with three others but the fourth one was in critical condition, so we weighed anchor to move closer to a place called Eil Bedyl, to a nearby hospital for treatment. Apparently one disgruntled pirate for whatever reason became berserk and took aim on his own comrades. I learned later that the money which was taken from the ship and from the crew was the reason. He suspected that he was shortchanged by Carrie. Negotiation The same day, we received an e-mail from VSMITokyo, the Management office in Japan, advising us to start negotiating with Manila. The rest was a so-so negotiations culminated by Manila Offices inability to assess the situation, which resulted in some restrictions on us and death threats. From Eil Bedyl, we shifted anchorages several times to the south. Negotiations took so long because I believe the owner has no reasonable sum to offer despite repeated request from pirates negotiator to come up with one. The pirates seemed to lose their faith in the integrity of people behind the negotiation until

they proposed a sum of US$ 2.50 million as a talking point before Christmas. However, this was not accepted by the owners, and resulted in a more violent treatment upon us, especially as the provisions were slowly being depleted. There were even a few times when I had to put myself between the barrels of the gun and the crew. Depleting Bunkers, Prolonged Stay In early March I sounded the alarm on the depleting bunker fuel on board. But the pirates responded by threatening to disembark us and ran the ship aground, instead. At this point in time, when I lost faith in our office and firmly believed they would leave us, I uncovered an exchange of messages between our office and the pirates that they will not pay the latters demand, but asked the pirates to treat the crew well, for humanitarian reasons, at least. We prepared ourselves for any eventuality and we just hoped our embassy in Nairobi would learn of our ordeal and ultimately negotiate for the safe release of the crew. This was our last hope to survive. Otherwise, we were ready to die. We just hoped our families would learn our tales and would tell our children and grandchildren about them someday. To our dismay, we learned afterwards, that our Embassy, much less the Department of Foreign Affairs, had no contingency plan at all, in our behalf. We were left to survive on our own. Negotiation by a Third Party We received indirect information from reliable sources among the contacts of the pirates ashore, that a negotiation is being held on our behalf by one influential Somali in the area, apparently in contact with some European intelligence officers. Consequently, our spirits buoyed up, until the negotiations went awry in the second week of April, when we were utilized as a mother ship, without success. This event magnified the biographical sketch of men who took us captives for 162 days. They were violent men who killed their own fathers, uncles, and cousins. This likewise magnified the men and women who were responsible for our release at home, both from our government and from the company, in particular.

The Release Finally, on April 19, I signed an agreement for our release. The ransom was delivered the following day. However, the pirates did not let us go immediately but ordered us to steam 90 miles north of Hobyo, the drop zone, to arrive in Garacad under the cover of darkness. I requested to drop the pirates earlier due to lack of bunker fuel. Unfortunately, the pirates did not listen but threatened me if I failed to do so. So, I steamed full ahead to the disembarkation point notwithstanding the associated risks especially with limited bunkers on hand. We disembarked the last pirate in the morning of April 21 and moved towards the direction of our rendezvous with our Security escort and bunker barge 40 to 50 miles offshore, as advised. Abandoned without Security We arrived at the rendezvous before mid-day at a slow speed to conserve fuel, but the bunker barge and the escort we were supposed to meet were not there. I called Manila and was informed that the bunker barge was not forthcoming until Saturday or early Sunday. Our short celebration was overcame by despondency and helplessness until I received calls from foreign media, especially from Danish News Agency, the German and the French media, and news correspondents from BBC and Fox News. They all promised to help us. Meanwhile, we received varying information from our office regarding the arrival of the bunker barge and security escort. The German frigate steamed towards us in the early evening, providing us with food, water and medicine for three days, but was unable to provide us with bunker. The German commandos came aboard with the provisions while executing preventive maneuver on board ship. The commanding officer assured me that they will stay until the bunker barge arrives but when the owners confirmed that the bunker would not arrive until Saturday, the Germans left us but promised to be within helicopter range of about 200 miles. In the middle of the night we were left behind unprotected and without means to move but we savored our first decent food in five months. Overnight, we doubled our watches, tripled perhaps, with engineers only too ready to augment the post on the bridge.

The US Naval supply vessel In the morning of April 22, I received a call from our contact in Europe that a supply ship from the US Navy is steaming towards us to provide us escort and provisions for five days and possibly bunker. But before the US Navy ship USS Walter Diehl arrived, we experienced one of the most dreadful moments especially when we heard the pirates voice through VHF. That meant they were closing in on us and possibly planning to stage another attack. Unarmed, immobile and without security escort, we felt abandoned. But the Americans came the following day to our rescue with food, vitamins and mineral water and provided us with security escort. Meanwhile, I lost hope that the bunker barge will still come. I believe it was just a ploy by our office in Manila and Japan because there really was no barge to arrive from Mombasa. The USS Walter Diehl left us on April 24. That day, I was also interviewed by Fox News through satellite. The anchorman promised that he will do his best and even asked the US government to do something. A few hours after it left, the USS Walter Diehl returned and promised to provide us with bunker fuel enough to reach Salalah in Oman, safely. Chinese destroyer as security escort Meanwhile, I received a call from Manila that a Chinese frigate is steaming towards us to provide us 50 tons of bunker and security all the way to Oman. On the morning of April 25, we received marine diesel oil from the US Navy. Before the bunkering operation was completed, I had already made contact with the Chinese destroyer 570 Huang Shan which was closing on us and would arrive in two hours to our position. Bunkering was completed before mid-day and USS Walter Diehl disengaged but not without delivering additional provisions and vitamins. One hour after, the Chinese destroyer took up her position nearby and sent her boarding team with provisions, medicine and mineral water. I respectfully declined the offer of a bunker, having just received from the Americans but reiterated my request to provide us security cover on the way to Oman. We were given a passage plan and we sailed ahead while the US Navy drifted off asking me if we were still in need of their services because they were ready to escort my ship to Oman, if I do not feel comfortable with the Chinese. I talked both with the Chinese and US Navy commanding officers and was able to make

them both understand our volatile situation. I needed to move and leave the area close to the Somali coast, immediately. So, I steamed ahead of the Chinese navy, 9 cables astern, until April 27 when we saw one pirates mother ship towing 4 skiffs, apparently steaming towards the direction of the Gulf of Aden to the north. The Chinese destroyer took a defensive maneuver towards the direction of the pirates ship until the pirates disengaged. We were able to have a secure passage to Salalah, in Oman, arriving there in the morning of April 28. People to thank To this day, I remain grateful to the Chinese Navy, especially to the commanding officer of 570 Huang Shan, as well as the Chinese Embassy in Manila who cooperated with the MARINA to deliver us safe and sound. In behalf of my crew and our families, and all Filipinos around the world, I would also like to thank the German Navy and the US Navy, especially the Commanding Officer of USS Walter S. Diehl (T-198), for providing us with security and bunkers, without which the successful operation would not be possible. Our kudos, too to the media, especially the foreign news services like BBC, Fox News, the German and Danish News Agencies, the AFP and the Associated Press, in providing the global community with real and prompt information of our ordeal in the aftermath of our release. Without all your magnanimity and unselfish dedication to your duties, which you exemplified with the highest norm of professionalism, we would not be able to regain our dignity as human beings. Editors Note: The story is from the book Migrants Stories, Migrants Voices 3" published by the Philippine Migrants Rights Watch (PMRW) with the support from CEI (Conferenza Episcopale Italiana) or the Italian Bishops' Conference. The book contains a collection of 12 stories of the realities of migration as faced by Filipinos abroad and their family members in the Philippines. abscbnNEWS.com obtained permission from PMRW to publish the stories online.