By Tanya Fong, TODAY | Posted:
01 April 2011 2320 hrs
The group of more than 10 pirates, mainly
Indonesians, took over the S$5.8 million tugboat called "Marina
26", as well as a barge it was pulling. The vessels had left
Singapore 24 hours earlier.
The pirates destroyed the tugboat's Global Positioning System
device and the 10-men crew were tied up and locked up in one of the
cabins.
"We were all shivering," the vessel's master, Captain Amri Arsyad,
31, told MediaCorp in Bahasa Indonesian.
They were held captive for two days while the pirates re-painted
the vessel with leftover green paint they found onboard. The
pirates then forced the crew to jump into a life-raft with some
food, mineral water and their passports.
The next 40 hours were hell.
"We spotted a cargo ship and started waving and shouting for
attention but it passed us by. We felt really helpless. Later that
afternoon, the boat started to deflate and we paddled with our
hands to try to reach Tioman, which was far away on the horizon,"
said Mr Amri.
Soon, they were tired and stopped paddling, letting the boat
drift.
"It seemed hopeless. At the back of my mind, I thought that was the
end of my life," he said.
Their fate changed when they were spotted by a fisherman who was
passing by and came to their rescue. The crew, mostly Indonesians,
are now recovering at Natuna Island in Indonesia.
A search and recovery was not carried out because the area is
believed to be too large to cover.
International information sharing centre for maritime matters,
ReCAAP ISC, has confirmed the incident and has circulated an
incident alert with photos of the tugboat.
A similar hijacking off Pulau Tioman was reported in February last
year.
The tugboat and barge is owned by Indonesian shipping company PT.
Pelnas Bahtera Bestari Shipping. Its director, Miss Tresya, an avid
diver who frequents Pulau Tioman, contacted MediaCorp with news of
the incident.
She said "We hope to alert vessel owners and the relevant
authorities to the piracy problems around our region which, we
feel, have been neglected.
"The fact that this incident happened close to the coast of a
populated area shows that the pirates have no fear. Many
Singaporeans dive off Tioman and those who own vessels go there
often. We want to warn them of the potential danger."
-TODAY/ac