Two incidents of armed robbery against ships in Asia (one CAT 3 incident and one CAT 4 incident) were reported between 11 – 17 April.
The CAT 3 incident occurred on board a container ship while anchored at MICT, Anchorage Area, Manila, the Philippines. One crew was threatened with a metal bar; and his hands were tied by the perpetrators. Several items including breathing apparatus and flashlights were stolen. The CAT 4 incident occurred on board a tanker while underway in the Singapore Strait (SS). In this incident, the crew members were safe and nothing was stolen.
The ICC International Maritime Bureau (IMB) has released the first quarterly report on piracy in 2023, which has recorded the lowest level of reported global piracy and armed robbery incidents since 1993.
Despite the encouraging statistics, IMB calls for continued, robust and coordinated regional and international naval presence to act as a deterrent to prevent and respond to piracy. The report reveals 27 incidents were reported in the first quarter of the year, representing a marked decline from 37 incidents for the same period in 2022.
In a dark autumn morning, a domestic roll-on/roll-off (ro-ro) passenger ferry was preparing to shift across from the lay-by berth onto the linkspan, ready for its first load of the day.
The incident
Before letting go the last of the forward mooring ropes, the able seaman (AB) working the forward mooring deck noticed that the heaving line was caught around the middle section of the mooring rope and the loose end had been tied off on the handrail. The AB released the heaving line and mooring rope and payed them out together until the linesman ashore had enough slack to let the mooring rope go, whereupon he started to manually heave the mooring rope and heaving line back inboard.
As Safety Digest, it was a fine mid-summer’s day with light airs when a bulk carrier picked up its pilot to negotiate the lock gates and berth at a tidally constrained harbour.
The incident
The ship was running behind schedule and the pilot and the master discussed the pilotage plan before settling on a direct course towards the lock entrance. Having just missed high water, the ebb stream was already flowing across the approaches to the lock, pushing the ship to starboard of its approach track. The bulk carrier grounded on a shoal near the port entrance.