MV Samho Jewelry - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

MV Samho Jewelry (Hangul

Hangul

Hangul,Pronounced or ; Korean: 한글 Hangeul/Han'gŭl or 조선글 Chosŏn'gŭl/Joseongeul the Korean alphabet, is the native alphabet of the Korean language. It is a separate script from Hanja, the logographic Chinese characters which are also sometimes used to write Korean...

: 삼호 주얼리) is a Norwegian

Norway

Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...

-owned and South Korea

South Korea

The Republic of Korea , , is a sovereign state in East Asia, located on the southern portion of the Korean Peninsula. It is neighbored by the People's Republic of China to the west, Japan to the east, North Korea to the north, and the East China Sea and Republic of China to the south...

n-operated chemical tanker

Chemical tanker

A chemical tanker is a type of tanker designed to transport chemicals in bulk.Ocean-going chemical tankers generally range from to in size, which is considerably smaller than the average size of other tanker types due to the specialised nature of their cargoes and the size restrictions of the...

. She was hijacked by Somali pirates on January 15, 2011 and rescued

Operation Dawn of Gulf of Aden

Operation Dawn of Gulf of Aden was a naval operation by the Republic of Korea Navy against Somali pirates in the Arabian Sea. The operation was spurred by the pirates' seizure of the South Korean chemical tanker Samho Jewelry. In response, the South Korean government sent a destroyer and 30 naval...

six days later by South Korean Navy

Republic of Korea Navy

The Republic of Korea Navy or the ROK Navy is the branch of the South Korean armed forces responsible for conducting naval operations and amphibious landing operations. The ROK Navy includes the Republic of Korea Marine Corps, which is a quasi-autonomous organization...

commandos.

Description

Built in 2001, the Samho Jewelry has a gross tonnage

Gross tonnage

Gross tonnage is a unitless index related to a ship's overall internal volume. Gross tonnage is different from gross register tonnage...

of 11,566 GT. She is 145.5 metres (477.4 ft) long, has a beam

Beam (nautical)

The beam of a ship is its width at the widest point. Generally speaking, the wider the beam of a ship , the more initial stability it has, at expense of reserve stability in the event of a capsize, where more energy is required to right the vessel from its inverted position...

of 23.7 metres (77.8 ft) and a draft

Draft (hull)

The draft of a ship's hull is the vertical distance between the waterline and the bottom of the hull , with the thickness of the hull included; in the case of not being included the draft outline would be obtained...

of 9.7 metres (31.8 ft). Owned by 2,500 investors represented by the Acta Group in Norway

Norway

, the ship is registered in the port of Valleta, Malta

Malta

Malta , officially known as the Republic of Malta , is a Southern European country consisting of an archipelago situated in the centre of the Mediterranean, south of Sicily, east of Tunisia and north of Libya, with Gibraltar to the west and Alexandria to the east.Malta covers just over in...

and operated by the Samho Shipping Company of Busan

Busan

Busan , formerly spelled Pusan is South Korea's second largest metropolis after Seoul, with a population of around 3.6 million. The Metropolitan area population is 4,399,515 as of 2010. It is the largest port city in South Korea and the fifth largest port in the world...

, South Korea

South Korea

History

In January 2008, the Samho Jewelry was placed under inspection in Mumbai

Mumbai

Mumbai , formerly known as Bombay in English, is the capital of the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is the most populous city in India, and the fourth most populous city in the world, with a total metropolitan area population of approximately 20.5 million...

by the International Transport Workers' Federation

International Transport Workers' Federation

The International Transport Workers' Federation is a global union federation of transport workers' trade unions, founded in 1896. In 2009 the ITF had 654 member organizations in 148 countries, representing a combined membership of 4.5 million workers....

for labor issues related to flag of convenience

Flag of convenience

The term flag of convenience describes the business practice of registering a merchant ship in a sovereign state different from that of the ship's owners, and flying that state's civil ensign on the ship. Ships are registered under flags of convenience to reduce operating costs or avoid the...

practices. Investigators found that Burmese, Croatian, Polish and Russian crewmembers were being paid less than ITF minimum wages and directed the owners of the vessel to sign a wage agreement with the Korean Seafarers' Union. In 2010, a record $9.5 million ransom was paid to Somali pirates for the release of the Samho Dream

MV Samho Dream

Samho Dream is a South Korean, Marshall-Island flagged supertanker that was carrying oil from Iraq to the United States when it was hijacked by Somali pirates on April 4, 2010. At the time, the vessel was manned by 24 crew: five South Koreans and nineteen Filipinos...

, another vessel operated by the Samho Shipping Company.

2011 hijacking

The Samho Jewelry was traveling from the United Arab Emirates

United Arab Emirates

The United Arab Emirates, abbreviated as the UAE, or shortened to "the Emirates", is a state situated in the southeast of the Arabian Peninsula in Western Asia on the Persian Gulf, bordering Oman, and Saudi Arabia, and sharing sea borders with Iraq, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, and Iran.The UAE is a...

to Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka is a country off the southern coast of the Indian subcontinent. Known until 1972 as Ceylon , Sri Lanka is an island surrounded by the Indian Ocean, the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait, and lies in the vicinity of India and the...

when it was captured off the Somali coast by pirates on January 15, 2011. Tanker captain Seok Hae-gyun changed the ship's course to keep in international waters as long as possible. The crew of eight South Koreans, 11 Burmese and two Indonesia

Indonesia

Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...

ns were held as hostages. The Norwegian government had been criticized for not being part of the anti-piracy effort and had no military presence in the area at the time. The Samho Shipping Company was facing huge losses because it was obliged to continue paying Acta under its charter even while the vessel was held by pirates. Though Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance and Green Insurance had insured the ship for up to $45 million, their reinsurance

Reinsurance

Reinsurance is insurance that is purchased by an insurance company from another insurance company as a means of risk management...

policy through the Korean Reinsurance company would not cover "war risk".
On January 16, 2011, South Korean President Lee Myung-bak

Lee Myung-bak

Lee Myung-bak is the President of South Korea. Prior to his presidency, he was the CEO of Hyundai Engineering and Construction and the mayor of Seoul. He is married to Kim Yoon-ok and has three daughters and one son. His older brother is Lee Sang-deuk, a South Korean politician. He attends the...

issued an order to "comprehensively deal with" the crisis. The South Korean destroyer

Destroyer

In naval terminology, a destroyer is a fast and maneuverable yet long-endurance warship intended to escort larger vessels in a fleet, convoy or battle group and defend them against smaller, powerful, short-range attackers. Destroyers, originally called torpedo-boat destroyers in 1892, evolved from...

ROKS Choi Young

ROKS Choi Young (DDH-981)

ROKS Choi Young is a Chungmugong Yi Sun-sin class destroyer in the South Korean navy. It is named after the Korean general Choe Yeong.-Design:...

was dispatched to the area to launch the operation, dubbed "Dawn of Gulf of Aden

Operation Dawn of Gulf of Aden

", at 9:58 am Korea Standard Time

Korea Standard Time

Korea Standard Time is the standard time zone in North and South Korea and is 9 hours ahead of UTC : i.e., when it is midnight UTC, it is 9 am Korea Standard Time. Korea does not currently observe daylight saving time but has experimented with it in the past...

on January 21, 2011. ROK Navy commandos used a speed boat and ladders to climb aboard while a Westland Lynx

Westland Lynx

The Westland Lynx is a British multi-purpose military helicopter designed and built by Westland Helicopters at its factory in Yeovil. Originally intended as a utility craft for both civil and naval usage, military interest led to the development of both battlefield and naval variants...

helicopter and the destroyer provided covering fire. Once on board, the commandos fought a five-hour battle, going compartment to compartment in search of pirates. The pirates were found all over the ship, including in the board, pontoon and engine room. All 21 crew members were freed, though Seok, the captain, survived multiple gunshot wounds at close range by a pirate who was believed to be the leader. Seok had executed a risky plan to mix water into the ship's engine oil to disrupt its propulsion and slow it down. Chief officer Kim Doo-Chan stated that he had lost several teeth from being "trampled and beaten ... just for talking with our captain." Eight pirates were killed in the raid and five captured alive.

President Lee announced the successful rescue on the national television networks. In his address, he stated, “We will not tolerate any behavior that threatens the lives and safety of our people in the future." The Christian Science Monitor

The Christian Science Monitor

The Christian Science Monitor is an international newspaper published daily online, Monday to Friday, and weekly in print. It was started in 1908 by Mary Baker Eddy, the founder of the Church of Christ, Scientist. As of 2009, the print circulation was 67,703.The CSM is a newspaper that covers...

, among other political analysts, believe the operation and presidential address were intended as "a thinly veiled warning to Pyongyang that South Korean forces are prepared to fight." The South Korean government had been heavily criticized by citizens for a weak response to North Korean attacks in the past year including the ROKS Cheonan sinking

ROKS Cheonan sinking

The ROKS Cheonan sinking occurred on 26 March 2010, when the Cheonan, a South Korean Navy ship carrying 104 personnel, sank off the country's west coast near Baengnyeong Island in the Yellow Sea, killing 46 seamen...

and the Yeonpyeong bombing.

Aftermath

After the rescue, the Samho Jewelry headed for the Oman

Oman

Oman , officially called the Sultanate of Oman , is an Arab state in southwest Asia on the southeast coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It is bordered by the United Arab Emirates to the northwest, Saudi Arabia to the west, and Yemen to the southwest. The coast is formed by the Arabian Sea on the...

i port of Salalah

Salalah

Salalah , is the capital and seat of the governor or Wali of the southern Omani province of Dhofar. The population of Salalah was 197,169 in 2009....

, where the crew was to receive medical checkups before being flown back to South Korea. Seok was stabilized after five hours of surgery at a hospital in Salalah. Local Korean workers donated blood on his behalf. On January 29, Seok was airlifted to Seoul Airbase

Seoul Airbase

Seoul Air Base is an air base holding the 15th Composite Wing of the Republic of Korea Air Force. It is located in Seongnam city, right below Seoul. It has 2 runways. Runway 19 is equipped with ILS. The Seoul Air Show is held annually in this airfield...

in Seongnam

Seongnam

Seongnam is the second largest city in South Korea's Gyeonggi province after Suwon and the 9th largest city in the country, with a population of nearly 1 million...

. He underwent three additional hours of surgery at Ajou University

Ajou University

Ajou University is a private, co-educational, doctoral institution. It is located in Suwon, 20 km south from Seoul, the capital of South Korea.-Founding:...

Hospital. Ryu Hee-sug, the director of the hospital, stated that Seok's condition had deteriorated because of the onset of infection from six gunshot wounds: "Things could have taken a turn for the worse had he stayed in Oman for a few more days. It was an appropriate decision to bring him to Korea for the surgery." Seok has been called a hero for his actions during the hijacking. President Lee called the hospital to offer words of encouragement: "Many citizens have high expectations and are cheering [for you]."

The five captured pirates were flown to Seoul

Seoul

Seoul , officially the Seoul Special City, is the capital and largest metropolis of South Korea. A megacity with a population of over 10 million, it is the largest city proper in the OECD developed world...

on January 29, and arrived in Busan

Busan

on the next day for their upcoming trial. The defendants face charges of maritime robbery, attempted murder and ship hijacking. During interrogation, the pirates denied knowing one another nor who had shot the captain of the tanker, though investigators believe Arai Mahomed to be the gunman. The shooter would have been eligible for the death penalty if Seok had died. On February 2, the crew of the Samho Jewelry arrived at Gimhae International Airport

Gimhae International Airport

Gimhae International Airport is located on the western end of Busan, South Korea. It opened in 1976. A new international terminal opened on October 31, 2007. Gimhae International Airport is the main hub for Air Busan...

in Busan, recounting that they had been violently beaten by the pirates and threatened with death. Chief engineer Chung Mann-Ki revealed that the crew had secretly sabotaged the tanker's systems, including the rudder

Rudder

A rudder is a device used to steer a ship, boat, submarine, hovercraft, aircraft or other conveyance that moves through a medium . On an aircraft the rudder is used primarily to counter adverse yaw and p-factor and is not the primary control used to turn the airplane...

, in an effort to thwart the pirates. Most of the crew members had been on the bridge when the commandos stormed the ship. Republic of Korea Coast Guard

Republic of Korea Coast Guard

The Korea Coast Guard is responsible for maritime safety and control off the coast of South Korea. The KCG is an external branch of Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs at peacetime...

chief Kim Chung-kyu stated that the investigation found one of the bullets retrieved from Seok's body appeared to match that of the Navy, indicating that he had also been hit by friendly fire

Friendly fire

Friendly fire is inadvertent firing towards one's own or otherwise friendly forces while attempting to engage enemy forces, particularly where this results in injury or death. A death resulting from a negligent discharge is not considered friendly fire...

.

In response to the rescue operation, other pirates in Somalia claimed that they will kill any future Korean hostages and may have moved other Korean hostages off existing hijacked ships to inland locations.

External links

Samho Jewelry at MarineTraffic.com
Samho Jewelry at VesselTracker.com

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.

Description

History

2011 hijacking

Aftermath

See also

External links