i, fotos

According to the BBC news on 17th, Dec, 2008:

On Wednesday, Chinese sailors backed up by a coalition warship and helicopters foiled a pirate attack in the Gulf of Aden, a maritime watchdog said.

The pirates boarded the ship but crew members locked themselves in their cabins to prevent the bandits entering and called for help, said the International Maritime Bureau. The attackers reportedly fled.

I come across another news report on this from a Chinese source: huanqiu.com(环球网) This report contains photos taken by believed on-board sailor. I translated it into English here:

Beijing time 16:45 on the December 17th, Chinese sailors foiled a piracy attacks in the Gulf of Aden. All sailors on-board ship “Zhenhua 4″ were safe. China Maritime Search and Rescue Centre gave a detail interview of the story.

It is reported that Beijing time at 12:43 on the 17th, “Zhenhua 4″ was under attack by pirates in the Gulf of Aden. The 60,000-ton container ship was on its way to Shanghai after unloaded in the Sudan.

9 unidentified personnel armed with rocket-propelled grenades, heavy machine guns overboard attempted hijacking. Captain PENG Wei-long immediately contacted China Maritime Search and Rescue Centre for help while organising of all crew members to use fire hose and home-made petrol bombs to hold back the advancing.

December 17th local time 8:00am. Gulf of Aden. 2 motor boats approaching “Zhenhua 4″. at about 4 nautical miles, the captain PENG ordered the alarm warning the whole ship.

Then 30 crew members on board immediately acted on in accordance with the contingency plan: all cabin doors closed; particularly door to accommodation cabin under the captain cabin, locked from the inside. Use gas fire to cut off the stairs leading from the deck to the captain cabin. The ship is only 12.3 meters from deck to sea level when unloaded; water pressure must be loaded after an unload, which gives a height 4.5 meters. on this height is very easy for pirates to overboard. Therefore, cut off the two stairs from main deck to captain tower builds a line of defense.

2 small boats taking speed advantage of more than 20 sections approaching “Zhenhua 4″ from the left. Armed robbers had climbed onto the boat already.

Pirates were armed with assault rifles, machine guns and rocket launchers, swollen with arrogance versus “Zhenhua 4,” all without a bullet. In the critical moment, crew members wheeled out emptied beer bottles. They filled them with inflammable white spirit and then dip cotton on diesel as fuse. More than 200 home-made grenades were made. The crew also pulled out a fire hose and even steel bars ready for strike against the pirates!

Apart from two drivers stayed all 7 pirates out of 9 climbed up “Zhenhua 4″. They rushed crossed the 138 meters main deck, closed to the stairs towards control tower. 3 tugs climbed up with the fold-up aluminium ladder when they went overboard.

At the main deck, thick water tight door to accommodation cabin was locked. It withheld bullets of assault rifles.

At the moment the crew began a counterstrike. 8 high-pressure water jets drove from the window above while ‘grenades’ were dropping. It effectively built a cross-fire to withhold the attackers.

In the fierce fighting, a crew threw a smoke flares, normally used as a signal during an emergency. The thick smoke and flares shocked the 3 tugs. One tripped back to the front deck, other two were also back to the main deck.

In the critical moment, Malaysia anti-piracy centre called and informed that an armed helicopter of the multinational force has been on its way.

Local time 11:09, the helicopter arrived. It sank one pirate boat. Later the helicopter retreated due to the fuel limited. The battle was in a stale.

Trapped in the main deck, the two tugs suddenly made a surprising gestures – for 2 pairs of shoes. It turned out that the main deck was full of debris of broken glasses of the ‘grenades’. Barefoot, let alone mounting an attack, the pirates would find it difficult to move around. ‘2 pairs of shoes to you,’ courtesy of crew members ‘now p*ss off’. All pirates retreated to the front deck.

In the beholding Malaysia Anti-Piracy Center called that the coalition helicopters and Malaysian warships was closing in.

Local time 12:45, all pirates got off the ship escaped on the only left boat. The two thugs thumbed up a friendly gesture.

21:00 Beijing time, HQ of Zhenhua Port announced that in recognition of their heroic defense, it will reward the 30 crew members of “Zhenhua 4″ of 300,000 U.S. dollars.