The Arctic Sea, a cargo ship hijacked in the Atlantic? Piracy? According to reports, this is what may have happened and there have been several arrests. See photos, video and find out more about the unusual turn of events.
Arctic Sea, a 4,000-ton cargo ship seemed to have vanished in July 2009 in the waters off Portugal. The ship was operated by Oy Solchart Management, a company in Finland, and operating under a Maltese flag. It left Finland on July 23 bound for Algeria with a load of timber with an estimated worth of 2 million U.S. dollars.
Now word comes from the Russian Defense Ministry that the ship had been hijacked in the Baltic Sea.
The Arctic Sea had a 15-member Russian crew. According to the Kremlin Web site quoting Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov, crew members were freed thanks to the efforts of the crew of a Russian anti-submarine ship. The rescue occurred on Monday August 17 some 300 miles from the Cape Verde islands in the Atlantic Ocean. All eight hijackers were arrested, and no shots were fired. They are not identified by name, but by nationality as two Russians, two Latvians and four Estonians.
According to CNN, an official, Vladimir Dushin, vice president of Renaissance Insurance, the company that insured the vessel, the Arctic Sea, said that that the hijackers of the Arctic Sea and its crew demanded a $1.5 million ransom earlier this month. He said:
“The person spoke in English, apparently trying to change his voice to avoid being recognized, and introduced himself as a go-between.”
Nonetheless, there is still mystery surrounding the incident. According to The Independent, the Malta Maritime Authority admitted that the ship “had never really disappeared.”
An article in Businessweek, seen here suggests this could be part of a trend, due in no small measure to the world economic crisis.
More photos and video reports of Arctic Sea, the cargo ship hijacked, are below.
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