The Taiwanese fishing boat, Shiuh Fu 1 (or No 1 as it’s sometimes called) has apparently been sighted by a security team onboard an MV this week. According to a report from our colleagues at OCEANUSLive.org, the vessel was seen in position 02.44.7N-056.42E, around 500 miles off the Somali coast on June 17th.
The Shiuh Fu 1 was hijacked on December 25th, 2010. Stories emerged in January this year to suggest that the pirates holding the vessel and crew had amputated the arm of its Captain, Chao-I Wu, in an attempt to pressure the owner in to paying the $3 million ransom demanded.
The vessel is seen in an image supplied by EU NAVFOR and is in a significant state of disrepair. If it is indeed being used by pirates as a mother ship during the current monsoon period, it will be interesting to see if it survives the weather.
This article was posted by Neptune Maritime Security via OCEANUSLive.org. MaritimeSecurity.Asia in cooperation with www.neptunemaritimesecurity.com
