A Chinese cargo ship has been rescued from a pirate attack off the Gulf of Guinea by a combined team of the Nigerian Navy and Ocean Marine Solution Limited.
According to FleetMon Explorer, an international news agency, a general cargo ship ‘Huanghai Glory,’ which left the Lekki Port, east of Lagos Nigeria on Thursday, March 5, was attacked and boarded by pirates some 85 nautical miles south of Lagos.
The ship and its 23 crew members (all Chinese), were under siege for about 24 hours before the rescue, the report added.
Narrating the incident, FleetMon Explorer stated: “General cargo ship, Huanghai Glory,’ reported by Dryad Global as attacked, boarded by pirates at 1820 UTC March 5, some 85 NM south of Lagos Nigeria, Gulf of Guinea.”
According to the report, the tracking process monitored showed that the ship started moving at around 1300 UTC March 6, after about an hour and went adrift again. As of 1500 UTC March 6, the ship was still adrift or moving at slow speed.
It, however, explained that the Nigerian Navy patrol boat NNS SPARROW approached nearly 24 hours after the alert, in the vicinity of Lagos.
It stated, “The ship left Lekki port, east of Lagos, understood on March 5, though AIS track looks somewhat different with positions and time not exactly fitting in the story.
The patrol boat, NNS SPARROW, deployed in the rescue is reportedly owned by OMSL, one of the vessels purchased by the firm and hitherto deployed to the Lagos water coast in assisting the Nigerian Navy to carry out patrol operations.
