Most people seek out a luxury cruise & their main concern is getting seasick. But, there are more dangers than a sour tummy on a luxury cruise ship. What if the cruise that you've embarked on almost gets hijacked by pirates? That's what happened when a cruise ship that left Rome on Nov. 18 on a 32-day cruise to Singapore was almost overtaken by pirates. Here's more from CNN:
"The Nautica was in an area patrolled by international anti-piracy task forces when two small skiffs appeared to try to intercept it, Oceania spokesman Tim Rubacky said.
The ship took evasive maneuvers and accelerated to its full speed of 23 knots or 27 mph. One of the smaller craft closed to within 300 yards and fired eight rifle shots at the cruise ship, he said, but the ship was able to pull away.
It was the first report of a pirate attack on a passenger ship of its size this year, said Cyrus Mody of the International Maritime Bureau, which runs a piracy reporting center.
"There have been a couple of passenger yachts hijacked, but they were much smaller," he said. It is "quite common" for pirates to target ships the size of the Nautica and even larger, he said, but they tend to be cargo ships, not passenger vessels.
The Nautica escaped without damage or injury to its 684 passengers and 400 crew, and arrived safely on schedule in Salalah, Oman early on Monday morning, Rubacky said.
He emphasized that the ship was not off the coast of Somalia, which has become a base for pirates, but off the coast of Yemen." (END OF EXCERPT) Read the article here:http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/africa/12/01/pirates.cruise.ship/index.html?iref=mpstoryview
Showing posts with label pirate attack off the coast of yemen. Show all posts
Showing posts with label pirate attack off the coast of yemen. Show all posts
Monday, December 1, 2008
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