Shots fired as pirates attack Oceania cruise ship

[mercedes]

Pirates in the Gulf of Aden fired shots today at a cruise ship packed with hundreds of American vacationers.

The 11-deck-high Oceania Nautica, one of the cruise industry's highest rated vessels, ultimately was able to out run the attackers, who approached on two small skiffs. No one was injured.

Oceania spokesman Tim Rubacky says the Nautica, in the midst of a 32-night cruise from Rome to Singapore, was sailing full with 684 passengers and 400 crew on board at the time of the incident.

Rubacky says the ship was transiting an internationally patrolled part of the Gulf of Aden when the brazen daylight raid occurred. An officer on deck spotted the skiffs approaching the Nautica at about 9:28 a.m. local time (12:28 a.m. ET) and quickly deemed them hostile, he says. The Nautica's captain immediately ordered the ship to full speed, and it was able to pull away from the approaching vessels.

"One of the skiffs did manage to close the range to approximately 300 yards and fired eight rifle shots in the direction of the vessel before trailing off," Rubacky says. The ship was undamaged.

"All requisite international authorities have been notified," Rubacky says. "All anti-piracy precautions were in place prior to the event and all necessary measures were taken during the event."

The Nautica called in Safaga, Egypt, on Wednesday and is due Monday in Salalah, Oman, and Rubacky says the cruise will go on as scheduled.

Launched in 2002, Miami-based Oceania Cruises is a high-end line that caters mostly to North American vacationers. Rubacky says 310 Americans are on board the Nautica, along with 212 Canadians, 47 Australians and 29 residents of the United Kingdom. Citizens of nearly a dozen other countries including France, Mexico and Venezuela round out the passenger list.

The attack comes three years after a similar raid on another upscale cruise ship sailing through the Gulf of Aden, the Seabourn Spirit. But the 208-passenger Spirit, at 10,000 tons, is far smaller than the 30,000-ton Nautica, and today's attack is the latest sign that pirates in the waterway between Yemen and Somalia are eyeing bigger targets.

Cruise ships from many major lines including Royal Caribbean, Cunard and Regent Seven Seas pass through the region each year as they reposition between Europe, the Middle East and Asia. The alternative for the lines is sending ships around the southern tip of Africa, an unpopular, out-of-the-way routing that can add 20 to 30 days to a voyage.

Still, today's pirate attack should make lines think twice about operating in the region, says industry watcher Mike Driscoll, editor of Cruise Week.

"Cruise lines, due to their very nature, have the ability to avoid hot spots," Driscoll says. "That's what makes (sailing through the area) hard to defend."

Cruise lines that sail through the region long have relied on the speediness of their ships as a prime defense against pirate attacks. Most cruise ships are faster than both the vessels used by pirates and the cargo ships and oil tankers that pirates traditionally target. Cruise ship also have far more sophisticated security teams than most vessels, among other advantages. But Driscoll worries that the advantages cruise ships hold over pirate vessels won't last forever.

"If the pirate attackers are as well-funded as news sources indicate, one could reasonably speculate they will soon get boats that are faster and can't be outrun by larger (cruise) ships," Driscoll says. "Hopefully the industry learned a valuable lesson from today's situation: stay away from this region. Next time they might not be so lucky."