Breiz Klipper attacked by pirates

[Fred Vloo]

Seatrades Breiz Klipper has been attacked by pirates on tuesday outside Port Harcourt, Nigeria.
The captain and chief engineer of the ship have been taken hostage by the pirates.
http://www.shipspotting.com/gallery/photo.php?lid=1218659

Eight Nigerian pirates armed with machine guns, attacked the ship from the shipowner of Groningen,The Netherlands. Several shots have been fired, and eventually they took two hostages in a small speedboat. Another crew member fell wounded in the action, and there is also a crew member missing. It is presumed that the missing man was also taken hostage. The fourteen-strong crew of the ship consists of Russians, Ukrainians and Philippines. The nationality of the hostage captain and engineer are for privacy reasons not yet released.

A spokesman for Seatrade says it has not managed to establish contact with the pirates. It is still unknown where the bandits and their hostages are now located. "The search for contact has now of course the highest priority. We also offer support to the families of the hostages and we have taken care of for the remaining crew.

[Captain Ted]

Pirates,,world wide,,the only thing what stops piracy is when the pirates, once caught will
be shot on the spot. Not too long ago they were hanged on the vessels which caught them.
As long they are pampered in european courts and have a better life in prison then in Nigeria or for that matter in Somalia,,nothing will change. I even question the slow and feable world wide approach to this and the will of really doing something about it. At least it is a great job security for Navies and money and budgets coming for building a bigger fleet. Internatinal meetings in world wide luxury hotels are the norm on this subject now too. Ever noticed that IMO most of the times makes meetings in exotic places and not at the headquarters in London. Guess too much peoples outside the real shipping business  are interested to keep the thing going.


Looks almost like an N-class vessel of Seatrade,, but seems to be a later version.

[Fred Vloo]

When will Ted ever stop his nonsense about hanging and shooting pirates on the spot.
Maybe this is why so many people hate americans?

[Captain Ted]

sorry Fred
I am german :-))
may be for you nonsense when one deals with it far away I admit that much,,yes,,but not when the chance to get shot and kidnapped and hijacked is rather high nowadays when you working on world wide trading vessels.
 

[Fergal Clohessy]

shame on you Fred!! 

[Ian Horsfall]

Captain Teds article was Direct and rite to the point and the truth as I believe it .No Bullshit

I can not agree with Fred, how would  this approach have played out in 1939-1945.
Ian Horsfall
one proud American.

[Captain Ted]

Ian

As I tell some of my own brothers when they complain about the bad americans
next time call the Chinese or Russians for help,,will see how that works out.

[Fred Vloo]

Okee let's bring in more nonsense you all go ahead, even bring in the second world war.
Here in Europe we stopped deadpenalty long time ago, with good reason.
If you think, things go better in countries where they still have deadpenalty, think again.

[Captain Ted]

Fred

I do not have any problems with or with out death penalty. I don,t want to go into personal reason for it or against it, But I know what it means to loose loved once because lunatics walking into a shop and shooting at random customers which are unlucky in the wrong spot at the wrong time.
If someone gets his lawfull representation in courts thats fine with me too, but those pirates really don,t come to a ship with flowers in their hands, they come to hijack/kidnap and if needed also to kill. So, what you think should protect them from being killed all the while sailors do not have that protection at the moment when they are in that situation of being attacked.
Thankfully (for other reasons then explained here) we do NOT have guns on board, also when I personally, if they would be on board with no hesitation whatsoever shoot them on sight.
Also when I am fully aware, if that would happen, that I would be prosecuted instead of the assailant. Defending your own life is nowadays not in high esteem in some countries, protecting the criminals is more important.