A German owned, Maltese-flagged Cargo ship was seized early this morning in the Gulf of Aden according to news reports.Pirates captured the Maltese-flagged MV Patriot in the Gulf of Aden about 150 nautical miles southeast of the Yemeni coastal city of Muqalla, said U.S. Navy 5th Fleet spokesman Lt. Nathan ChristensenMV Patriot is a 31,000-tonne grain carrier. There are very few details of the hijacking. The MV Patriot is owned by Patriot Schiffahrts and managed by Blumenthal JMK of Hamburg, Germany. MV Patriot has a Polish Master, a Ukrainian Chief Engineer, and 15 Philippino crew members on board.
This morning the German Navy was reported to be assisting the US Navy in response to a call from help from the recently released Philippine-flagged tanker M/T Stolt Strength which was drifting out of fuel off the east coast of Somalia. It would appear pirate activity off the east coast of Somalia has thinned out the number of ships in the Gulf of Aden to protect convoys. This is tactically challenging for international naval forces, with pirates operating off both the northern and eastern commercial transit routes, the international warships attempting to protect commercial shipping have had to cover more area, making protection much more difficult.
Photo: (Blumenthal JMK)
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