Great Creation hijacked

[Fred Vloo]

Pirates seized another ship off the Somali  coast in the Indian Ocean, a maritime official said Thursday.
Andrew Mwangura of the Kenyan chapter of the Seafarers Assistance Programme  said the "Great Creation"  http://www.shipspotting.com/modules/myalbum/photo.php?lid=562157 was hijacked on Wednesday but added further details  on its origin, crew and destination were not immediately available.
It was hijacked yesterday and we got its name today, We are  still finding out where it was from.
Mwangura said the ship was being taken to Eyl, a pirate lair in Somalia's  northern breakaway state of Puntland.
   The pirates have shifted operations to the Indian Ocean in southern Somalia  from the Gulf of Aden due to the presence of navy ships, according to  Mwangura.
On Thursday, hijackers also took a Maltese-flagged Greek ship Centauri with  a crew of 25 Filipinos some 200 miles south of Mogadishu, in the Indian Ocean.
According to the International Maritime Bureau, 55 ships had been attacked  off the coast of Somalia since January and 11 were still being held for ransom  when news of the latest attack was reported.
Somalia's long and largely unpatrolled coastline is infested with pirates,  making the Gulf of Aden and neighbouring areas in the Indian Ocean among the  most dangerous waters in the world.

[Guest]

Hi Fred

Great Creation now freed - story courtesy of AGI News @ http://www.agi.it/world/news/200811191403-cro-ren0048-art.html

SOMALIA: HONG KONG CARGO SHIP FREE, BUT 2 MORE TAKEN

(AGI) - Nairobi, 19 Nov - Somali pirates have released the cargo ship Great Creation about two months after it had been seized, owned by the Hong Kong shipping company Sinotras. The announcement was made by Andrew Mwangura, coordinator and spokesman for the Assistance Programme for Maritime Operators of East Africa, with headquarters in Kenya. The ship, seized on 18 September while it was heading from Tunisia towards India, is now on its way to Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates. The 25 crew members are all safe, 24 Chinese and one Sri Lankan.
  Over the past 72 hours, however, pirates have taken possession of three more ships, all of which are still in their hands - as is the Saudi super-tanker Sirius Star, taken over on Saturday south of the Kenyan port Mombassa and now anchored off the coast of the separatist region Puntland in north-eastern Somalia, for which only today a request for ransom was made.
  The other most recent targets of piracy are another Hong Kong ship, the Delight, with 25 sailors and a load of grain headed for Iran, and a Thai fishing ship with sixteen onboard, registered with the Kiribati islands in the Pacific Ocean, as well as a not-better-identified Greek mercantile ship with between 23 and 25 crew members. In addition, teh Athens Mercantile Marine claims not to be aware of the capture of any Greek craft. At the moment the outlaws have under their control in Somalia about a dozen ships, with over 200 people as hostages. Most, at least 127, are Filipinos. ''The pirates,'' said Mwangura, ''are sending a message to the world. They are saying that they can do as they like, think the unthinkable, bring about the unexpected.''

Regards