In early April a Somali man became the first pirate to be sentenced to jail in the US for an act of piracy against a ship that was not US-flagged. This was for the 71-day hijacking of Clipper Group’s CEC Future in the Gulf of Aden.
At the same time news came that the general cargo ship with container capacity Susan K (2007/3,642gt, below) had been attacked and boarded by at least ten pirates when 200 miles north-east of Salalah, Oman and 35 miles from the Omani coastline.
The Antigua and Barbuda-flagged but German owned Susan K was on a voyage to Port Sudan from Mumbai at the time with a crew of ten. The vessel tramps widely around the world and last year was a visitor to the river Trent.
