pirates fire on cruise ship off somalia

Pirates fire on cruise ship off Somalia
Date: 06/11/05
By Daniel Wallis



Pirates fired rocket-propelled grenades and machine guns at a US-owned cruise ship carrying more than 300 people in the Indian Ocean on Saturday but the vessel escaped and no one was hurt, its owners said.

Men in two small boats approached the Seabourn Cruise Line ship Spirit about 160km off the Somali coast, fired on it and tried to board in an apparent bid to rob passengers and crew, cruise line spokesman Bruce Good said.

"I looked out of the window and saw a small boat with about five people in it about 20 yards away," said Norman Fisher, 55, a passenger.

"They were firing the rifle and then fired the rocket launcher twice. One of the rockets certainly hit the ship. It went through the side of the liner into a passenger's suite."

The 161-member crew gathered the 151 passengers into a central lounge away from windows and decks during the attack, said Good.

"The captain managed to change the course of the vessel and speed away. Most of the passengers are believed to be Americans or Western Europeans. No one was hurt," said Andrew Mwangura, program coordinator for the Seafarers' Association in neighbouring Kenya.

Good said training had helped the crew repel the attack.

"There were some windows broken, nothing that affected seaworthiness," Good said. "The crew did an excellent job and those guys gave up ... these guys didn't plan this too well."

The Indian Ocean waters off the Somali coast are classed as among the most dangerous in the world. Typically pirates target freighters that carry only a handful of crew members.

The Bahamian-registered Seabourn ship was on a 16-day cruise from Egypt to Mombasa, Kenya. The 10,000-tonne vessel sailed on to the Seychelles Islands, where passengers were to disembark and fly to Mombasa, Good said.

Seabourn is headquartered in Miami and is a subsidiary of Carnival Corp., the world's largest cruise group.

Fisher said the captain tried to ram one of the boats in an attempt to capsize it and stop them getting aboard.

"The captain didn't sound the usual alarm because he was worried that people would run up on the deck thinking it was a fire, and that would be the worst place to be," he said.

"Instead he made an announcement at five past six, saying: 'Stay inside, stay inside, we are under attack'".

The Spirit's passengers included 48 Americans, 22 from the United Kingdom, 21 Canadians, 19 Germans, 19 Australians and six South Africans. The others were mostly from other European nations, Good said.

Authorities in the United States, United Kingdom and Seychelles were investigating, Good said.

Hijackers have commandeered two vessels used by the UN World Food Program this year and ship owners now demand armed escorts to travel in the waters, the agency said.

This week, the London-based International Maritime Bureau said it knew of 27 pirate attacks off Somalia since March.

The attacks highlight insecurity in Somalia, without a government since warlords ousted dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991.

Copyright © 2005 REUTERS, Seven Network (Operations) Ltd