Singapore-flagged vessel boarded by pirates remains uncontactable

SINGAPORE – The owner of Success 9 – the Singapore-flagged vessel that was

boarded by pirates

around 570km off the Ivory Coast on Monday – has not been able to communicate with the vessel, said the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA) on Thursday.

In an update, MPA said it has contacted the other authorities in the region, in addition to the Monrovia Regional Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre.

These include the Ivory Coast and Ghanaian authorities, it said.

“The Ivory Coast authorities have deployed their air and sea assets to the vicinity of the last known position of the vessel,” MPA added.

HS Ocean owns the chemical and oil product tanker, which had 20 crew members on board when it was boarded by pirates about 300 nautical miles from the city of Abidjan.

One of the crew members is a Singaporean.

Meanwhile, the Maritime Domain Awareness for Trade – Gulf of Guinea, a joint maritime monitoring effort by France and Britain, also issued an update on Thursday afternoon.

It said: “(The) vessel previously reported as boarded is unlocated and not transmitting on automatic identification systems.”

Vessels in the vicinity were urged to report any sightings of the ship, or any suspicious activity, with Success 9 described as a “black-hulled tanker with a white superstructure, (and a) white funnel with blue stripes”.