BRITISH CHEMICAL TANKER ABDUCTED OFF SOMALIA

MT ST JAMES PARK was seized on December 28, 2009 at position 12°58'4N-48°34'1E which is in the Gulf of Aden International Recognised Transit Corridor (IRTC), while on voyage from Tarragona, Spain to Tha Phut , Thailand.

There are 26 crew members on board including the Russian captain and their nationalities are: 6 Indian, 5 Bulgarian, 3 Russian, 3 Filipinos, 3 Turkish, 2 Romanian, 2 Ukrainian, 1 Polish, 1 Georgian.

The crew was formed and engaged in Bulgaria. Thus the official representative of the Bulgarian interior authority told that the official reports about the tanker seizure were sent to the European Commission and the Command of the European military forces. So far there have been no demands from the pirates.

The St James Park loaded at Assemini and Tarragona her cargo of 13,175 tonnes of EDC (Ethyl Dichlorine - used in the manufacturing of plastics and not dangerous in normal carriage conditions). The ship is owned by Zodiac Maritime Agencies (ZMA) of London, which runs 150 vessels and employs more than 5,000 crew. The vessels's last port of call was Jeddah, where she stopped for Bunkers on the 24th December 2009.

The UK-flagged chemical tanker sent a security alert at 14:20 GMT/UTC (17:20 Local Time) and she also sent an unspecified distress message which was received by RCC Piraeus.

The International Maritime Bureau's piracy reporting centre (IMB) said that the IMB failed to establish communication with the ship after the distress signal was received but was told by its owner that it had been hijacked.

ZMA operations manager Paul Shields would not confirm to SkyNews if any Britons were on board but added there were not believed to be any casualties.

"We are dealing with an ongoing situation. Our main aim is to get the crew released as quickly as possible," he said.

"So we are going to be very limited in what we say other than that we are working with all the relevant authorities to get the release of our crew." EU NAVFOR later confirmed that there a no British sailors on board.

“We have hijacked a ship with [a] British flag in the Gulf of Aden late yesterday,” pirate commander Mohamed Shakir told The Times by phone from the town of Garacad where he was waiting for his associates to return from the high seas. “We have peacefully captured the ship and no shots were fired and [there are] no casualties,” he said.

A warship from the US-led Task Force 151 was able to get in contact with the ship using a Somali translator who reported that the ship has been hijacked. The M/V St JAMES PARK, who started her transit on 27 December, was registered with the EU NAVFOR operated Maritime Security Centre (MSC HOA) but did not join a group transit.

Though EU NAVFOR's spokesman and operations commander, Rear Admiral Peter Hudson had stated in public that no vessel had been captured since July in the Gulf of Aden under the watchful eyes of the navies, which is also not fully correct because MV HORIZON I was taken in July and several Indian vessel and Yemeni were captured too, he will have a hard time to find excuses for the capture of MT ST JAMES PARK right under the noses of the navies. The ship is now heading towards the Somali coast and EU NAVFOR is monitoring the situation.

The last time a British vessel was captured by Somali pirates was on 23 October 2009 when Paul and Rachel Chandler were seized with their yacht off the east coast of Africa.
The couple remain in captivity in Somalia despite a reported deal this month to pay the pirates £100,000 in exchange for their release.

An allegedly arranged deal to get the Chandlers free for a payment of £100,000 fell through, because the UK Foreign Office interfered, saying it would not allow payments to hostage-takers. The pirates' original demand was for $7m (£4.2m).

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