A second U.S. warship was off the coast of Somalia near the captive vessel, a 115–foot tugboat called the Svitzer Korsakov with an international crew.
As long as the pirates didn’t mistreat the crew and continued to negotiate a ransom with the ship’s owner, the U.S. would not intervene. But if the pirates became violent or deprived crew
members of food and water, heavily armed U.S. sailors were prepared to storm the Svitzer Korsakov and free the crew.
“We want the pirates to know there will be consequences if they escalate,” said Rear Adm. Mark Balmert, commander of Expeditionary Strike Group Three and point man for the Navy’s 5th Fleet on piracy in the region.
The consequences are real: In October, the U.S. guided–missile destroyer Porter sank two pirate skiffs after receiving a distress call from a Panamanian–flagged, Japanese–owned cargo ship in international waters in the Indian Ocean.
Fighting piracy on the high seas is an increasingly significant part of Balmert’s overall mission to maintain maritime security in an ever–volatile region.
Although the United States, along with various partners, has long taken on the job of stability in the Persian Gulf and Gulf of Aden, the mission has expanded in the past year to include piracy off Somalia. Since October, the U.S., leading a coalition of 20 nations, has kept at least one warship in international waters off Somalia.
U.S. sailors are also on the lookout for pirates in the Persian Gulf.
“We’re like a cop walking a beat,” said Capt. David Adler, commander of the guided–missile cruiser Port Royal in the Persian Gulf. “We haven’t had any piracy incidents, but that’s because we’re here.”
Pottengal Mukundan, director of the London–based International Maritime Bureau, said the involvement of the U.S. Navy and its coalition partners “may prove to be the only way to stop the pirates, which have until now shown complete disregard for the law.”
The sea off Somalia, which connects the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean, has become a favorite hunting ground for pirates in recent years.
Although attacks have declined in more traditional pirate areas such as the waters around Indonesia and Bangladesh, incidents off Somalia have increased, with pirates showing a greater tendency toward violence, according to the International Maritime Bureau, a division of the International Chamber of Commerce.
Thirty–one acts of piracy were reported off Somalia in 2007, more than anywhere else and a 10 percent increase from the previous year, according to the bureau. Pirates held 154 crew members hostage. A Chinese sailor aboard the fishing trawler Ching Fong Hwa was killed in one incident.
The shipping industry and their insurance companies prefer to negotiate for the release of the ships and crews and have asked the U.S. to stand off unless loss of life appears imminent. Negotiations can drag on for months, while the U.S. ships maintain contact with both the pirates and the captains of the seized vessels.
“It’s sort of a standoff now,” said Vice Adm. Kevin Cosgriff, commander of the 5th Fleet, based in Bahrain. “If the pirates just hold the ships and crews for ransom, that’s one thing. But if the pirates change the rules and get violent, that’s when the shipowners get excited. That’s why we’ve told the pirates: ‘If you change the rules, we’ll change the rules and you won’t like it.’”
In March, the International Maritime Bureau warned merchant vessels to be wary of boats asking for assistance. Pirates use such tactics to lure merchants into stopping to render aid under the immutable law of the sea.
The U.S. is bracing for a possible increase in piracy incidents off Somalia as the summer, and its smoother seas, approaches. In late January, a swarm of pirate boats took over the Svitzer Korsakov, which was bound for Russia’s Sakhalin island near Japan. On board were a British captain, an Irish mate and four Russian sailors. A U.S. ship reportedly fired warning shots at a boat resupplying the pirates.
The U.S. was in daily communication with the Svitzer Korasakov to determine the condition of its crew.
Through interpreters, the U.S. told the pirates that it wouldn’t stand by if the merchant sailors were harmed.
On March 19, the standoff finally ended: The pirates released the ship after a reported $700,000 ransom was paid.
