The Royal Navy has turned down a request by a Dutch couple who asked for a warship escort for a yacht flotilla across pirate zones of the Indian Ocean. Rene and Edith Tiemessen told the Daily Express they have the right to protection as they make their way home from Thailand on their 60-foot yacht, Alondra. The Tiemessens, who are traveling with their two-year-old daughter, had previously sailed with Paul and Rachel Chandler, who were kidnapped by Somali pirates in 2009.
The Tiemessens said that they have organized a convoy of about 30 yachts from Thailand to Turkey, and asked the Royal Navy for protection for about a four-day stretch of that journey. Rene Tiemessen told www.sail-world.com that there are at least 200 to 250 other cruising sailors on 100 yachts that are seeking the same sort of protection given to commercial vessels. The sailors say they are “stranded,” waiting for a safe time to cross.
“We have been begging for help for months (from the EU anti-piracy task force), because we knew we would have to make this journey to get home, which is the same for all the other sailors stranded here,” he told the website. “We are not simply cruising around irresponsibly. We are caught on the wrong side of an ever-changing and expanding problem. But now they have told us there is nothing they can do. It’s like asking for help from the police, and being told you are not eligible.”
The Royal Navy heads the EU anti-piracy task force, which includes 27 vessels from Spain, Germany, Italy and France patrolling an area larger than Europe. “This is a totally unrealistic request. The naval vessels of Operation Atlanta have to prioritize their duties, and protecting merchant vessels leaves them with little scope for protecting unnecessary sailing,” was the response from the Ministry of Defense.
For the complete story, go to www.ibinews.com.
Surely this couple, by organizing a large flotilla, are showing great responsibility. As citizens of the EU they are entitled to official protection. It would be understandable if they were just a single yacht but this is a huge flotilla. If they were a single yacht and put out a genuine distress signal, would it be ignored because they are not a merchant vessel? It seems the Royal Navy has become a mercenary force who only protects those who sail the seas for profit.
Cruising yachts have no right to escorts. If one is available fine but not as a right. They could go round the Cape or not go at all – they have a chioce & I speak as one of them. If they sailed with the Chandlers they will presumably be aware of the considerale problems created entirely by the Chandler’s stupidity in going where they were advised not to on a number of occasions.
Iam trying to understand this, if Cruisers don’t have any hopes of an Navy Escort,
do they have the right to carry weapons to protect their selves.
And as to previous comment, it does seem to me cruising into waters they have been advised to avoid does seem pretty reckless.
What is this part about not having the right to go where you want in open seas.
It should be the responsibility of local countries and authorities to offer safe passage and protection and if they don’t everyone should have a right to protect themselves, soon they the (pirates) will be telling everyone what to do.
It’s like the bully that sits atop the slide and makes you pay a toll with stones he is just a bully. In addition you are promoting the luxury right of the pirate to take what is not legally theirs including lives. The best law would be very strict laws on international waters so that a peaceful planet can be had.
Did Cousteau have all of these problems?
There are enough worries at sea without pirates they should be captured and made a lesson of the excuses they come up with are crazy.
I don’t believe that one cruising boat has the right to its own naval escort but I am curious as to what the criteria are for granting an escort.
Is just being a merchant vessel adequate criteria? If that is the case then would a 50 ft vessel which is licensed commercially and carrying paid cargo qualify for its own escort?
Does the EU Anti-piracy task force only escort EU merchant vessels? Is it a matter of a fee (and if so what entity benefits from the revenues)?
If a fee is involved, it seems to me that perhaps both sides in this conflict are demanding a money for safe passage………..
Don’t commercial vessels have a choice as well? They don’t have to traverse pirate waters either. Citizens who pays taxes should have the services they pay for.
In this high-tech world, I can’t understand how a bunch of rag-tag Somalis can give the free world such a hard time. How about some minimal air support and some fast movers on the surface for about a month.
Australian customs planes intercepted me every other day in September of last year. They knew where all the boats in our rally were at all times. Why can’t the military forces of the world find and track a few pirates in a very defined part of the world?
Why would these people get an escort other than the fact they are the tax paying citizens for these armed forces? They foot the bill for the protection of the merchant ships, who by the way, should in most cases be able to afford their own protection, especially the oil companies. The cruisers seemed responsible in getting organized for the journey. It would be good practice for the navies to escort such a fine group! Not long ago I read where an American cruiser got away from the pirates because they were armed and were chided online for doing so. They choose individual freedom over being held captive over months and years and allowing a ransom to be paid to these pirates. If at all possible when I get the opportunity to cruise, I will enjoy all the sights and wonders of the cruising world, but will be prepared for the pirates and thugs that come along.
Cruising is a voluntary activity. Cruisers can pick and choose their route and destination. We have always sought local advise before entering or traversing an area and have avoided troubled waters. I never would have thought to ask for protection prior to entering a dangerous area. Cruisers in Southeast Asia have two choices: go around South Africa or return to the Pacific and go east and back through Panama. In light of recent events in Egypt and the Arab world, the risks of a Red Sea passage are more complicated then just the waters off the Horn of Africa and in the Gulf of Aden. Should cruisers expect a navy escort all the way to the Mediterranean Sea should trouble arise on that route? The first rule of cruising is to stay out of harm’s way.
Repeated attacks on civilians of any country by the citizens of another, would constitute an act of war, would it not? And in this case, that act appears to me to be one of terrorism.
These pirates, and their country, should be dealt with, as would any terrorist country, once and forever, and these politically correct games stopped. The world has become weak and feeble when it allows this crazy situation to continue, not only wasting everyone’s money and putting lives and property at so much risk, but also removing our freedom to travel this beautiful world.
Of course a country has an obligation to protect and assist it’s citizens wherever wherever they may be in the world, it’s just that I believe they have all got wrapped up in legal or other issues around this practice.
Bomb them, shoot them, do whatever it takes, as they are holding us to ransom under armed threat. Retaliate, hard and fast, blow them out of the water, ask the questions later.
If this continues. it will not be long before this idea of such easy money spreads around the world when, off the coast of any land where law and order is questionable, we will find pirates with guns in their pockets, and hands outstretched to the world to pay ransoms.
For instance, there have been two severe car-jackings right here in the heart of Sydney in the past 2 days, and it doesn’t need much of an imagination to know the the folk behind them have got their ideas from other parts of the world where the practice is common and successful.
Hit them hard, and hit them now.
Well said, Mr. Edgar! It will be hard to stop proliferation of these acts of piracy if the strong nations don’t stop it quickly now.
International Waters do not have a police force to protect the crusing public. You would think that if I choose to cruise in the waters close to shore that the local (country)would protect the off shore boats. However, The somalis have a cottage industry going and the ” politicly correct” donot want to take them on. Crusing was fun and I was ready to defend My Home on the Sea’s, as I am ready to defend my home on land. A 12 gauge makes people think that it may not be a good idea to invade the” home”. If you go there be prepared to protect yourself.