The Shipping Industry must continue to take reasonable security measures through the Suez Canal

Shipowners and Charterers should continue to take normal precautionary security measures when transiting through the Suez Canal, said Andrew Varney, Managing Director Port2Port Maritime Security in a recent webcast discussion: “Is the Suez Canal Safe for Shipping?” with the US Journal of Commerce.

All 24 hijacked crew members from MV Cotton were Released Now

Pirates have eventually freed the hijacked tanker ship and its 24 Indian crew members 

after it was hijacked off the Gabon coast a week ago, stated the ship's operator on 

Monday, in the most southerly attack yet off the coast of West Africa.

A surge in piracy in the area of Gulf of Guinea including waters off Nigeria, Africa's No. 

1 oil producer and a considerable source of cocoa and metals for world markets, is 

jacking up costs for shipping companies.

Pirates seized the MV Cotton tanker ship, sailing under the flag of Malta, on 15th of 

July, 2013 near Port Gentil in Gabon, in the 1st reported attack in that region in the 

past 5 years.

The Turkish operator of the tanker ship, Geden Lines, announced on Monday that the 

pirates had left the tanker ship in the early hours of the morning and its captain had 

resumed command.


"The vessel's captain has confirmed that all members of the 24 Indian crew are safe

 and in good condition," according to Geden Lines statement. "The tanker ship is now 

on her way to a secure port."

Unlike waters off the coast of East Africa, where vessels may move past at high speed

 with armed guards on board, a lot of ships have to anchor off West African coastal 

nations, with little protection, making them a soft target for criminals and pirates.

Death Penalty to 3 Somali Pirates for Killing 2 American couples

Three pirates from Somalia on trial in United States court for the hijacking and killing

 of 4 United States hostages could face the death penalty if found guilty by the

 Norfolk, Virginia court.

Pirates attack chemical tanker off Togo

Pirates attacked the chemical tanker MT Ocean Centurion planning to take all

 valuables. The incident occurred off Togo and some of the crew members were

 injured. Maritime agency and the local authorities informed that the piracy is a threat 

for the shipping in West African waters.

Gulf of Guinea oil, cocoa and metals rich region, including the countries Nigeria, Togo,

 Ghana and Ivory Coast is not so protected by anti-piracy missions unlike other 

regions for example.

 

The pirates have used speedboats to board the MT Ocean Centurion tanker (flag

 Marshall Islands) near 5 nautical miles southeast of Togo's coastal capital Lome, took

 all money and possessions and left the vessel.

Local authorities have sent a naval patrol after a distress call following the attack. The

 chemical tanker is safe and escorted to the port of Lome.

The International Maritime Bureau (IMB) made an announcement about the incident 

not revealing the name of the vessel:


"On July 16, the robbers took two crew members and disembarked from the tanker 

with the rescue boat, taking along ship's cash, crew cash and personal belongings"

. "The crew were released later. Three crew members were injured during the 

incident."

A Tanker with 20 crew members hijacked by Somali pirates

Pirates from Somalia struck again on Sunday by hijacking a Turkish-owned oil tanker ship off 

the western Africa coast.

The Malta-flagged tanker vessel, MV Cotton, with its crew of 20 Indian seafarers, was attacked 

near Port Gentil in Gabon. An official of the Turkish Foreign Ministry confirmed the accident. 

According to the information 6 of the kidnapped seafarers are natives of Kolkata.



Captain Shishir Wahi, 54-year-old, took over the tanker ship’s command on 12th of July. “My 

father flew from Kolkata on 5th of July. We got confirmation about the hijacking from the 

shipping agencies around 12:30 p.m. on Tuesday,” told the daughter of Wahi, Richa. “My father 

called us on Sunday. But late in the evening, I received an e-mail from my father stating that 

there had been a communication failure that would be rectified soon,” she said in addition.



Wahi's daughter, Richa added that there has been no news on the seafarers’ whereabouts. 

“The Somali pirates haven't made any ransom demand from the shipping company,” she told.




Owners of the hijacked tanker ship MV Cotton lost contact with the seafarers onboard late on 

Sunday. At the time of going to press, neither defence authorities nor the director-general of 

shipping could share information about the pirate attack.

Updated on Hijacked Tanker Matrix I: the 5 kidnapped crew members released

According to the information released by Reuters, the five kidnapped Pakistani crew

 members of Nigerian tanker Matrix I, kidnapped by Nigerian pirates on 25th of May, 

2013 were freed. All the released crew members are in a good health condition. No details 

available as to the terms of the release.

Previous information on the accident: pirates attacked the Nigeria-flagged, but Greek-

operated, product tanker ship Matrix I early in the morning of May 25th, 2013 some 40

 n.m. of the coast of Bayelsa state, Nigeria. Operator of the tanker ship, Val Oil Trading 

Co., confirmed the attack, but did not reveal any other details. Reportedly, some of the

 crew were kidnapped. Crew is said to consist of twelve Pakistani and 5 Nigerians, wrote 

Reuters. 

Pirates kidnap 7 PAKISTANI

The ship which is  attacked is MT MATRIX I.

MATRIX is a Nigeria ship a tanker one was attacked about 42 NM of Cap Formoso,The vessel was having 17 crew members and was sailing with a speed of 6 knots.

It is a bad thing that several ships are being attacked in the same area last month-MT BOSUN, MV CITY OF XIAMEN, MV CITY OF GUANGZHOU and off shore crew boat UTAI 8.

It is also noted that 4 crew members have  been  released  of HANSA MARBURG by the pirates 

Pirates Kidnap Four Off Equatorial Guinea

 Pirates kidnapped four crew members when they attacked a container ship off the coast of Equatorial Guinea, the vessel's management company said on Thursday.

Hamburg-based shipping firm Leonhardt and Blumberg said the four hostages - two Ukrainians, a Russian and one from the Pacific island nation of Kiribati - were taken when the Liberia-flagged Hansa Marburg was attacked on Tuesday by armed men.

CAP THEODORA was attacked 2 times by pirates

The suezmax tanker CAP THEODORA  has been attacked two times in less than 1 week in gulf of Guinea.
The first attack was on April 16 in gulf of Guinea . The ship that was underway was approached by a speed vessel with 5-6 pirates in it.

The ship crew took effective maneuvers, started fire pump to repel borders and secured to save the ship from attack.After about 20 min the pirates gave up the attack.

                                                                                         cap Theodora
The ship is a greek flagged , build in 2008 by SAMSUNG in KOREA. The ship is of 81,324 grt and 158,819 dwt, It is operated by EURONAV , whic has a fleet of 30 tankers
The second attack was reported on April 22 ,Pirates tried to board the ship but  like first time they failed. Authority had say that the pirate attacks are now increased in the horn of Africa.

sea piracy fell 35% in first 4 months in 2013

For the first four months of  2013  when compared with the first four months of 2012.

 west Africa is fully patrolled by the navy to prevent the sea going vessels from pirates.
The INTERNATIONAL MARITIME BUREAU announced that 66 attacks were registered around the world for the first three months of 2013.The same period when compared with 2012 the attacks were 102.

4 vessels were hijacked and 75 peoples were taken as hostages and 1 killed

This year statistic wee have 5 reported attacks of somalia and gulf of aden plus 1 hijack. 
vessels sailing in the danger areas are now more safe with the patrolling war ships.

 If we go back for 2010 there were 49 hijacked ships in somallia and 1000 people were taken as hostages

Bill of lading-2

In case if u forgot to study the part 1 then click this link Bill of lading 1

The functions of bill of lading:

1. A receipt for a cargo signed by the master or by the owner port agent on behalf of the carrier, with remarks of the cargo.
2. A document of title of cargo, means the property may transferred to another party
3. Evidence of the contract governing terms and condition of carriage

TYPES OF BILL OF LADING:

                                   There are 9 types of bill of lading they are

Statistics of pirated and released vessels and crews 2010 – 2012

Updated Jan 02 2013

Classification of highjacked vessels:

Filed in Table only ocean-going merchant marine vessels, with unique IMO number, with more or less transparent history and known owners and operators, with known number and nationalities of crews.

No local vessels included, almost all of them, with regards to Somali piracy region, are so-called “dhow’. They are engaged in regional trade, goods may be anything from charcoal to illegal migrants. They don’t have IMO number, they aren’t listed in international reference books, they aren’t insured with international insurers, their owner may be any petty company or person along the coastlines of India, Pakistan, Persian Gulf, Oman or Red Sea. For world shipping, these vessels, their owners, their masters and their crews, are simply non-existent. Their costs may be thousands of USD, even maybe tens of thousands, but not anywhere close to the costs of international freighters. Their goods may cost thousands or tens of thousands USD, but not anywhere close to costs of cargoes carried by international freighters. To include in statistics local vessels means to mess all up – even those who’re trying to monitor hijacked local vessels  can’t tell exact details of vessels and crews (including number of crews and nationalities), and hijack circumstances, whether vessel was really hijacked or it was prearranged, and vessel stays with pirates on some agreement

.

List of merchant vessels presently held by Somali pirates: