Beluga Shipping has had its second run-in with Somali pirates after another of its vessel was hijacked on Sunday.
The seizure of the 12,744-dwt Beluga Fortune (built 2008) comes just over two years since the German owner had another vessel taken and less than a day after a Greek LPG carrier was hijacked.
The Antigua & Barbuda-flagged heavy-lift ship was snatched an incredible 1,200 miles off the coast of East Africa some time on Sunday.
There is no indication of the number or nationalities of crew members onboard but there are also no reports of casualties.
The ship was en route from UAE to South Africa when it was boarded and taken by pirates.
Bremen-based Beluga will be hoping for a similarly swift release which it achieved when its 9,775-dwt BBC Trinidad (renamed Beluga Navigation, built 2006) was taken on 21 August 2008 in the Gulf of Aden. The ship, which was en route from Houston to Muscat with construction equipment and 13 crew, was freed impressively quickly on 11 September that year.
Sunday’s hijacking came after the seizure of the 6,311-cbm LPG carrier York (built 2000) a short distance off the coast of Mombasa, Kenya on Saturday. The Greek-owned ship has 17 crew onboard, including a German master.
