Blue Marlin, Photo: Spanish Navy

On Sunday, May 5th, armed pirates boarded the semi-submersible heavy-lift vessel Blue Marlin, 80 nautical miles offshore of Equatorial Guinea on the west coast of Africa. The ship, operated by the Dutch firm Boskalis, had unloaded cargo near Luba port, Bioko island, and was bound for Valetta, Malta when the pirates attacked.

Boskalis said in a statement, “By acting quickly and professionally, all twenty crew members were able to secure themselves in the citadel.” A citadel is a secured space in the vessel equipped with various means of communication and emergency rations. The captain activated the Ship Security Alert System (SSAS) which alerted the Spanish and Equatorial Guinean navies of the attack. Two helicopters were mobilized from Equatorial Guinea, followed by two navy vessels from Equatorial Guinea and the Spanish navy to rescue the ship. On the morning of March 6th, a special operations team boarded and searched the ship, by which point the pirates appear to have fled.

Despite small arms fire from the pirates in the early part of the attack, no crew members were injured. The ship’s control systems on the bridge deck were damaged, however, by the gunfire and rendered inoperable. The ship is currently drifting near the attack site and Boskalis is arranged an ocean-going tug to tow the ship to safety.