Pirates for Real

By Avinash Keshri:

You might have heard of pirates or have seen “Pirates of Caribbean”. But have you actually witnessed it? The real scenario is as scary as dramatic it looks on screen. I was sailing as a second officer on a Car Carrier carrying 6000+ luxury cars. The ship was bound for Europe from Mombasa through Red Sea and Suez canal. It was a bright sunny afternoon. Captain and Chief Officer were on usual deck round and I as a duty officer was on the Navigation bridge control room. I observed on radar, there was one fishing vessel following us for last 30 min. Given the past record of Gulf of Aden, I was little alert and observed its movement to be suspicious. Around 1:30 PM when entire crew went for lunch, this vessel launch 2 speed boat approaching towards our ship. By this time I realized, these were pirates waiting for an opportunity to pounce. The first thing I did is, I raised alarm and alerted the crew on Public Address system. Then we started preparing engines for emergency maneuvers. By this time Captain came to takeover command from me. This is where experience make a lot of difference. While this was my first encounter with pirate, my Captain seemed to be calm and composed. He asked me to relay a Mayday message to nearby ship and ask for UK Maritime security help. We had fire hoses rigged all around the deck that we used as first deterrent to let pirates not board our ship. We also used flares, pyrotechnics and evasive navigational manoeuvres to keep them away. However, it was not until NATO helicopters arrived after 45 minutes, these pirates continued to chase us. That was the first time I realized how much responsibility and risk I carry as a duty officer. It is not only the Ship and cargo worth billions of dollars but life of 28 crewmembers which is priceless. My travel story may come out to be technical but there has been lot such incidents I have witnessed which I would be happy to share. Stay tuned for next story "Riders of the storm"