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Pam
I hope the ship and most importantly her crew come out of this ordeal unharmed. My thoughts are with everyone on board.
At least CIP had the good sense not to sail in this area of the world with passengers, but if it were my ship I would want some ex-special forces types on board!
J
Both Queen Victoria and Costa Romantica have passed through recently.
My solidarity to the cruise line, which is fact is my favourite one. I do expect all be released soon, and that I don´t know any of them.
It´s really disturbing.
quote:Originally posted by Iberian Cruiser:Well not so small PAM, 64 cabins makes her really big for rich private owners.
She is quite small for a cruise ship, though very large for a yacht.
[ 04-11-2008: Message edited by: Ernst ]
NO more ransoms paid please, as long as they think they will get paid they will keep doing this, then it will only be a matter of time before innocents are killed. If they get away with it again it is only a matter of time before they hijack a ship with pax on.
The international community (whatever that means - read as in Zimbabwe) needs to pull their collective fingers out and deal with Somalia where these guys operate from. Of course forgot neither have oil................so much for the fight against terror.
THE 30-plus crew members of CMA CGM-owned French cruise ship Le Ponant have been released by the pirates who have been holding them aboard the vessel off the Somali coast for the last week.
Sources close to the French presidency, which announced the news late this morning, said that the liberation had been achieved by negotiation and without armed intervention.
“No shots were fired,” said one source. “Everything went off calmly”
The French presidency added that no details of the circumstances of the liberation would be released until French president Nicolas Sarkozy had been able to meet relatives of crew members at the end today afternoon.
Foreign affairs minister Bernard Kouchner said that the French government would be organising the return of the crew members to France as soon as possible.
Twenty two of the Ponant’s crew members are French. The others are understood to be Filipino and Ukrainian.
The vessel, which was seized by the pirates at the entry to the Gulf of Aden last Friday afternoon, has been lying off the coastal town of Garacad, south of the port of Eyl, since Sunday.
Local sources indicated that it was being held by one of the best organised pirate groups known as the Somali Marines. The group is reported to be organised as a military group under tribal warlord protection, with ransom talks conducted by a separate “business” structure.
The French authorities were known to have established contact with the pirates or their representatives as early as last Sunday but there has been little news about the vessel and its crew since then.
A local non-governmental organisation, Somali Tribal Rights Watch, said on Wednesday that it had provided the vessel with water and food at the pirates’ request.
quote:Originally posted by Ernst:It says that the crew has been released - what about the ship?
I believe Le Ponant has been handed over by the pirates also. The rest of the world's media seems more concerned with the people involved than the vessel. Clearly they do not have the same priorities as CruiseTalk.
French luxury sailing ship Le Ponant, whose crew have been freed by pirates, is expected in Djibouti next Tuesday, a spokesman for the owners of the vessel said.
"Le Ponant is expected in Djibouti on Tuesday, with or without the crew. We do not yet have details on the way in which they will be repatriated," said Jean-Louis Gaudaire, a spokesman for CMA-CGM, on Friday.
"It takes several days of sailing from where they are to reach Djibouti and the boat goes a lot slower than the navy. It is possible the skipper will stay on board with navy crew to bring the boat back under escort," he said.
The French presidency announced earlier Friday that the pirates had released the 30 crew, including six Filipinos and 22 French nationals, who had been held for a week.
It simply gives the message that the risk may be worth it.
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