DryShips seizure

A DryShips panamax bulk-carrier has been snatched by pirates off Somalia.

The master of the 75,700-dwt Saldanha (built 2004) radioed a nearby UK naval vessel to confirm it had been hijacked, the BBC reports.

The incident involving the Malta-flagged vessel happened on Sunday but few details have emerged.

Greece's ministry of merchant marine confirmed the ship was seized and said there were 22 crew on board.

A source at the ship’s P&I insurer, the UK Club, had earlier confirmed to TradeWinds that there had been an unspecified “piracy incident” involving the vessel but was unable to confirm that it had been seized.

The ship was travelling westbound with a cargo of coal destined for Slovenia but it is unclear if it was in the designated security corridor at the time of the attack.

There is no word on the wellbeing of the crew and it is not known exactly where the ship was seized.

Nobody was immediately available for comment at the Kuala Lumpur-based Piracy Reporting Centre on Sunday and there was no answer at the Athens offices of George Economou-led DryShips and Cardiff Marine.

The Saldanha is the fifth Greek ship to be seized off Somalia since mid September last year. But in DryShips pirates have perhaps the highest profile shipowner to have a vessel snatched in the region to date.

Nasdaq-quoted DryShips is the beneficial owner of the Saldanha which is managed by Economou’s private Greek company Cardiff. The nominal owner is Team-Up Owning of the Marshall Islands.

DryShips bought the panamax from the private entity at a high $72m in August 2007.

The first Greek ship to be seized was Navitrans’ 19,600-dwt bulker Centauri (built 1977). The ship was taken off Mogadishu on 18 September while en route to Mombasa with 25 crew and released on 27 November.

Next up was Chartworld’s 74,100-dwt Capt Stefanos (built 2002) which was hijacked off Somalia’s east coast on 21 September with 19 crew. It was en route from South Africa with a full cargo of coal and was freed on 6 December.

Mare Shipmanagement’s 9,014-dwt chemical tanker Genius (built 1992) was taken in the Gulf of Aden on 26 September also with 19 crew. It resumed its voyage from Europe to the Middle East with a cargo of petrochemicals on 20 November.

The last Greek ship to fall was Drasis Shipping’s 9,064-dwt chemical carrier Action (built 1983). Twenty crew were onboard when it was seized in the Gulf of Aden on 10 October while en route from Southeast Asia to the Suez. It was released on 12 December.

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