Vrachtschip mogelijk gekaapt bij Zweden

[Lex]

Geld geëist voor verdwenen schip Arctic Sea

HELSINKI - 
Er is losgeld geëist voor het schip Arctic Sea, dat al twee weken wordt vermist. Dat heeft de Finse politie zaterdag laten weten.

Het onder Maltese vlag varende vrachtschip is van het Finse bedrijf Solchart Management. Dat heeft de eis van losgeld ontvangen, aldus een politiefunctionaris .

Het schip, met vijftien Russen aan boord, was onderweg van Finland naar Algerije. Het had daar op 4 augustus moeten aankomen. Het laatste radiocontact was twee weken geleden, toen het in het Kanaal voer. Het schip vervoert hout ter waarde van ruim een miljoen euro.

ANP | Gepubliceerd op 15 augustus 2009, 15:14

[Lex]

Missing ship 'found' off Africa

A missing cargo ship with 15 Russian crew members on board has reportedly been spotted more than two weeks after it mysteriously disappeared.

The Arctic Sea was last sighted in the Bay of Biscay on 30 July, according to Russian media.

One source told AFP news agency that it had been seen some 400 miles from the Cape Verde islands, off West Africa.

Russian navy ships have been searching for the 4,000-tonne Maltese-flagged vessel, which had been carrying timber.

Observers have suggested the ship was hijacked, possibly because of a Russian commercial dispute.

Carrying timber reportedly worth $1.8m (£1.1m), it sailed from Finland and had been scheduled to dock in the Algerian port of Bejaia on 4 August.

Earlier in its voyage, the ship reported being boarded by up to 10 armed men as it sailed through the Baltic Sea on 24 July, but said the intruders left the vessel on an inflatable boat after 12 hours.

Story from BBC NEWS:
Published: 2009/08/14 16:17:09 GMT

[Lex]

'Russische marine achtervolgt schip'

MOSKOU - 
De Russische marine achtervolgt een vrachtschip dat er net zo uitziet als een eind juli verdwenen boot, de Arctic Sea. Van het onder Maltese vlag varende schip met vijftien Russische zeelieden aan boord ontbreekt sinds 30 juli ieder spoor. Het voer van Scandinavië naar Algerije en verdween ten zuiden van Engeland.

Een scheepvaartdeskundige die donderdag werd ondervraagd voor de Russische televisie, Michail Bojtenko, zei dat een bron bij Defensie in Moskou heeft verteld dat de marine een boot in het vizier heeft. Het fregat Ladni achtervolgt een schip in de Straat van Gibraltar dat op de Arctic Sea lijkt, aldus Bojtenko.

ANP | Gepubliceerd op 13 augustus 2009, 15:18

[noorman]

k zeg 't - gamma

[Ros]

De krantjes van de DHZ markten goed in de gaten houden de komende tijd...........als er aanbiedingen komen voor goedkoop hout  :)

[Elzenga]

De lading is relatief niet al te waardevol.

Zeker een tijdje geleden dat je een plankje kocht bij de Gamma?  ::)

afgelopen weekend nog ...ongelooflijk die prijzen van tegenwoordig...voor 2e rangs hout dan nog vaak krom is door uitdroging!!...maar ik lees dat de lading 1 miljoen pond waard is...tuurlijk, voor een armlastige bemanning een leuk centje....maar dan moeten ze wel een afnemer hebben en vervolgens zelf onopgemerkt blijven. Maar zoals Ros stelt...het zou inderdaad zo maar eens kunnen. 

[KapiteinRob]

Hoewel........waar moet je heen met de gejatte lading ?.

En een 98 meter lange boot moet je toch kunnen vinden.

Je bouwt een vlot van de lading en laat het schip zinken.  :D

[KapiteinRob]

De lading is relatief niet al te waardevol.

Zeker een tijdje geleden dat je een plankje kocht bij de Gamma?  ::)

[Ros]

Ik geloof meer in de stelling dat de bemanning er met deze schuit van doorgegaan is. Hoewel........waar moet je heen met de gejatte lading ?.

En een 98 meter lange boot moet je toch kunnen vinden.

[Elzenga]

Bij piraterij moeten de piraten dus ergens met het schip heen kunnen om een veilige aftocht te garanderen voor zichzelf. De lading is relatief niet al te waardevol. Zou het dus gaan om losgeld voor de bemanning dat zou je inmiddels wel een eis van de piraten mogen verwachten. 

[Lex]

Exploitant vermist schip vermoedt piraterij

MOSKOU - Het sinds eind vorige maand spoorloos verdwenen Finse vrachtschip Arctic Sea is vermoedelijk gekaapt. Dat heeft Viktor Matvejev, directeur van de Finse maatschappij Solchart, die het schip exploiteert, donderdag gezegd.
De Arctic Sea is zoekgeraakt op de Atlantische Oceaan toen het met hout onderweg was van Scandinavië naar Algerije. De vijftienkoppige bemanning is Russisch.

De Russische president Dmitri Medvedev heeft alle marineschepen in de Atlantische Oceaan het bevel gegeven te zoeken naar de Arctic Sea, zei marinecommandant admiraal Vladimir Vysotski woensdag.

Volgens sommige media is het schip op 24 juli voor de Zweedse kust overvallen door een groep gewapende mannen. Die mannen zouden na verloop van tijd weer van boord zijn gegaan. Andere media stelden dat de boot vermoedelijk in handen van piraten is. Het schip had 4 augustus in de Algerijnse haven Bejaija moeten aankomen.

Telegraaf, do 13 aug 2009, 09:59

[Lex]

Russian navy joins hunt for ship

Russia's navy has been deployed to find a ship reportedly hijacked three weeks ago in the Baltic Sea.

Up to five vessels - reported to include nuclear submarines - will be involved in the search for the Maltese-flagged Arctic Sea, the navy confirmed.
It has a 15-strong Russian crew and was reportedly taking timber worth $1.5m (£900,000) from Finland to Algeria when it was boarded by gunmen on 24 July.
The Arctic Sea was last sighted off the north coast of France on 30 July.
British authorities say the 4,000-tonne vessel may have been spotted subsequently by a Portuguese coastal patrol aircraft, but its current location remains unknown.

Massive search
"All Russian navy ships in the Atlantic have been sent to join the search for the Arctic Sea," Russia's naval commander, Adm Vladimir Vysotsky, was quoted as saying by Moscow's Itar-Tass news agency.
"All the information-intelligence systems of our armed forces, including the space-borne systems, the system of identification of sea vessels and others, have been calibrated to look for the missing ship," he said.
Operations will be centred on the patrol ship Ladny, a guided missile frigate which is part of Russia's Black Sea fleet.
UK authorities, which made contact with the Arctic Sea before it entered the busy shipping waters of the English channel, described the situation as "bizarre".
"Who would think that a hijacked ship could pass through one of the most policed and concentrated waters in the world?" said Mark Clark of the UK's Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA).
"There didn't seem anything suspicious when contact was made," he added. "It could well be that a crew member had a gun put to his head by a hijacker when contact was made, but who knows?"
The Finnish shipping line operating the ship reportedly said it was boarded by up to 10 armed men claiming to be anti-drugs police as it sailed through the Baltic Sea on 24 July.
But the intruders are reported to have left the vessel 12 hours later on an inflatable boat, and it is unclear who is in current command of the ship.

Commercial dispute?
The Arctic Sea had been scheduled to dock in the Algerian port of Bejaia on 4 August.
While world leaders have become increasingly concerned about pirates operating off the coast of Somalia, maritime experts suggest the case of the Arctic Sea reflects a different kind of piracy.
Nick Davis, who runs the private security firm Anti-Piracy Maritime Security Solutions, told the BBC's Today programme the relatively low value of the cargo suggested the ship's seizure may be the result of a "commercial dispute" in which one party had decided to "take matters into their own hands".
But he added: "Piracy is piracy - if someone's wanting to take that vessel, and they're not authorised, and they use a speedboat to go and get it, then it's no different to what the Somalis do."
Relatives of the Arctic Sea's 15 crew members - all of whom are said to come from the northern Russian port city of Arkhangelsk - have so far been unwilling to speak to the media.

Story from BBC NEWS:
Published: 2009/08/12 12:46:49 GMT

[Lex]

Russia to seek mystery ship

RUSSIA today dispatched four naval vessels to hunt for the missing cargo ship Arctic Sea.

The Finnish vessel and its 15 Russian crewmen went missing on 29 July, having allegedly been hijacked in Swedish waters.

Russian sources suggested two theories about the vessel's disappearance. One is that the 4,706dwt vessel was loaded with a cargo that was secret while docked at Kaliningrad, the vessel's last port of call before it set out from Finland on its voyage.

Another theory is that there is a dispute between the vessel owner and others, possibly a bank lender, in which the master and the crew have taken the owner's side.

All attempts to make contact with the owner or his representatives by crew relatives, Russian and international media have so far proved in vain.

Fairplay Magazine, Wed, 12 Aug 2009 12:02 UTC

[Elzenga]

Mystery of the Arctic Sea: ship feared seized by pirates in European waters

Russian-crewed cargo ship that set off from Finland for Algeria carrying timber worth £1m seemingly disappears

While their Kalashnikov-armed modern peers are running riot off the Horn of Africa, pirates have been absent from the coasts of Europe for hundreds of years. Now, however, coastguards are investigating what could be the continent's first significant case of maritime piracy in living memory.

The mystery surrounds the Arctic Sea, a 98-metre Russian-crewed cargo ship that set off from Finland on 23 July carrying timber worth about £1m, bound for the Algerian port of Bejaia.

In the early hours of the next morning, in the Baltic Sea near the Swedish island of Oland, the ship was boarded by up to 10 armed men dressed in police uniforms, according to reports from the Russian news agency Tass.

The raiders tied up the crew as they searched the vessel and stole a few items, including a satellite phone, before leaving in their rubber dingy. Three crew members were reportedly injured. Curiously, the attack did not seem to be reported immediately, and only emerged 10 days later when Interpol issued an alert.

By this time the Maltese-registered ship had vanished. Its last confirmed contact with the outside world came just before 3pm UK time on 29 July, when it radioed British coastguards to say it was in the Dover straits and heading for Algeria. Signals from the ship's automatic identification system (AIS) beacon confirmed the position.

"That's all they said – where they were and where they were going," said Mark Clark, of the Maritime and Coastguard Agency. "They didn't mention anything about having been boarded or hijacked, which would seem a bit curious. If they had been tied up by pirates you'd have thought they might have mentioned it."

According to websites that monitor live AIS signals, the Arctic Sea, built in 1992 and owned by a Finnish company, disappeared from tracking systems in the early hours of 30 July off the northern French port of Brest. This did not necessarily mean the system was turned off, as tracking coverage can be patchy. The ship was later spotted by a patrol aircraft off the Portuguese coast, Clark said.

And then, nothing – the ship and its crew seemingly disappeared into thin air. The vessel was due at Bejaia more than a week ago, but never arrived. Spanish reports say it was never seen passing the Straits of Gibraltar, meaning it could have been taken down the west coast of Africa.

The Russian navy has sent ships from its Black Sea fleet to the Atlantic to hunt for the Arctic Sea, according to the country's defence ministry, while Portugal is carrying out its own search.

"We don't know what has happened, but it is possible the ship was attacked by pirates," said a spokesman at the Maritime Rescue Co-ordination Centre in Lisbon. "We are searching with planes and boats, but so far there is no sign of it."

The call to British coastguards was a mystery, Clark said. "It seems possible that the hijackers could still be on board. Even if they are not, at the very least a large ship has apparently gone missing, which is unusual enough. It is possible that the person who spoke was either a pirate or a member of the crew speaking under duress."

Inevitably, a number of alternative theories have sprung up, including the notion that criminal gangs or someone connected to the crew had been smuggling drugs or another illegal consignment amid the timber. Russian maritime officials have dismissed any notion of crew complicity, saying those on board were experienced and trusted.

If the case does turn out to be piracy, it would be an unprecedented situation, according to Jeremy Harrison, from the UK's Chamber of Shipping. "It's extraordinary. This just doesn't happen. These are heavily patrolled waters," he said.

If boarders had turned off the AIS signal, finding the vessel could prove hard, Harrison added. "It can take a long time even to find boats in trouble, even when the general location is known. If the vessel is still afloat and is trying to hide – well, it's a big ocean."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/aug/11/arctic-sea-missing-ship-pirates

[Enforcer]

Gat in de markt. Er is nog niet veel concurrentie binnen de EU en de meeste schepen varen nu toch bij Afrika...