High seas piracy of modern day maritime vessels seems an anachronism of the absurdly highest level. Yet there is a new piracy occurring in the busy South East Asian corridor where merchant ships offload cargo to ports such as Singapore and Hong Kong where this old maritime crime happens all too often. A long but fascinating read.
On the morning of 17 April 1998, the Singapore merchant ship Petro Ranger set sail carrying 9600 tonnes of diesel and 1200 tonnes of Jet A-1 fuel for delivery to Vietnam. Three hours beyond Singapore’s territorial waters, north of what is called the Horsburgh Light, the Petro Ranger’s Australian captain, Ken Blyth, found himself surrounded by armed men on the bridge. A dozen pirates, faces covered in balaclavas, had apparently boarded the tanker from a small craft that the crew did not see. They put a machete to Blyth’s throat, then another to his scrotum, and told him he must order the crew to surrender.
