Unnecessary Tragic End of Yacht Voyage in Somalia

U.S.American Yacht Hostages Confirmed Dead - 4 Americans and 4 Somalis killed.

Bob Riggle and Phyllis Macay

(NAIROBI, Kenya ECOTERRA) - According to U.S. officials, quoted first by selected media, the four U.S. American hostages on SY QUEST are confirmed dead. Rumours in Somalia had spoken already earlier that something tragic had happened.

The US military said in a statement by the U.S. Central Command, its forces trailing the vessel had responded to gunfire heard aboard, but found all the captives and two Somalis dead. During the boarding two Somalis were shot and killed by the U.S. forces and 13 were arrested.

US Forces have been closely monitoring the S/V Quest for approximately 3 days, once it became known to be pirated, a statement said.

Four U.S. Navy warships comprised the response force dedicated to recovering the yacht: The aircraft carrier USS Enterprise (CVN 65), which just had come through the Suez canal into that part of the world with the guided-missile cruiser USS Leyte Gulf (CG 55), and mainly the guided-missile destroyers USS Sterett (DDG 104) as well as USS Bulkeley (DDG 84).

Before today's tragic turn of the incident, the U.S. naval forces had found and boarded the Yemeni dhow, which had been used by the pirates to capture the sailing yacht. 2 Somalis from that vessel had been arrested also.

Analysts believe that an attack against the Somali hostage takers on SY QUEST must have occurred either from the outside or staged by the one passenger on board, who was reportedly trusted to have certain "capabilities".

All observers agree that the Somali hostage takers would never have killed their own protective human shield in the first place.

The U.S. Central command statement elaborates that some of the Americans must have been still alive when the boarding team stormed the yacht, by saying: "Despite immediate steps to provide life-saving care, all four hostages ultimately died of their wounds. Other sources confirmed this by saying at that moment two hostages were dead and two badly wounded. Mahamoud, a businessman in Puntland and close relative to one of the killed pirates, claimed that all the killing only happened due to the attack of the Americans.

"But," he said, "we can't say yet for sure who was killed by a Somali bullet and who was killed by an American bullet." And he added: "Something must have gone badly wrong, since without any attack nothing like this would have happened."

SY QUEST was seized February 18, 2010. The The 58-foot yacht - a Davidson 58 pilot house sloop - was attacked by pirates in the Indian Ocean in position Latitude: 18°00 N and Longitude: 061°02 E at 13h23 UTC (16h23 LT) just 240nm off the Oman coast. NATO confirmed the incident. The sailing yacht was reportedly en route from India to Mina Raysut, the industrial port of Salalah, Oman.

The sailing yacht was attacked by pirates in the Arabian Sea part of the Indian Ocean. and the 4 Americans on board are being held hostage. Owners of the Davidson 58 pilot house sloop are Jean and Scott Adam.

"If the owners are on board it would be a sad log for the couple on their 7 year world journey.

They are on an "around-the-world" trip since mid December of 2004 after sailing the yacht to the United States of America from New Zealand in 2002 and it would be a shame for Somalia if the voyage ended in Somalia in trouble," an ECOTERRA spokesperson said in an early statement, while urging the Somali clan elders of the captors to see to the immediate release of these private sailors.

One U.S. official later confirmed there were two males and two females aboard the vessel at the time that it was seized and meanwhile it has been clarified that Jean Adam, a retired dentist, and Scott Adam, 68, a retired veterinarian from California, as well as Phyllis Mackay, from San Francisco, and Bob Riggle, 67, a retired veterinarian from Seattle, are the hostages on the boat.

A spokesman at the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi, Kenya, Matt Goshko, told VOA all relevant U.S. government agencies were monitoring the situation.

Another U.S. official, who asked not to be named due to the sensitivity of the situation, said, according to CNN, the United States is determining what military assets are in the region and the capabilities of the personnel onboard.

The official said that the pirates are believed to be on board the yacht with the Americans, and the next step would be to determine if the military could keep the yacht from reaching the shore -- either by blocking or harassing it.

French Commandos have previously tried to rescue the crews of seajacked French yachts by military intervention. In the second of these events, the rescue of SY TANIT in April 2009 went terribly wrong and the skipper Florent Lemacon was killed by friendly fire, while his now widow Chloe and small son Colin were rescued.

The crew of SY QUEST was earlier traveling with a group called Blue Water Rally, a sailing group that travels together through a dangerous section of the Indian Ocean, but according to the group the Adams broke off from the convoy just days before their yacht was attacked and abducted.

The organisers of the Blue Water Rally stated that the SY QUEST crew had decided to leave the rally in Mumbai on 15th February and make their own way to Salalah in Oman.

Currently many yachts are waiting for a safe opportunity to do the passage from the Indian Ocean into the Mediterranean Sea through the Gulf of Aden, termed now the "pirate alley", because the navies have persistently refused to safeguard or escort these ships.

Rene Tiemessen, leader of one of the convoys consisting mostly of American and European yachts attempting to reach their home countries from Asia hopes the latest hijacking will cause 'all politicians to wake up and see what has become of their doing nothing to protect us.'

After his words had been proven true, he told Sail-World.Com by satellite: 'Although very very sad, this is what we have been warning about all the time.' He added that 'people felt abandoned', since the yachting community, as opposed to merchant seamen, 'have been neglected.'

CONVOY REQUESTS NEGLECTED

Rene and Edith Tiemessen, sailing with their two-year-old child on Alondra, are leading a convoy of around 30 yachts from Thailand to Turkey. For months the Tiemessens have begged the UK Navy to give an escort for approximately 250 sailors travelling on about 100 yachts, while they sail the last part of the journey across the Indian Ocean to Salalah in Oman. They were caught by the developing piracy situation while being on the other side of the Indian Ocean and their simple request to safeguard their voyage home has been consistently refused.

ECOTERRA Intl. and ECOP-marine fully support the rights of free sailors to cross the international oceans and to visit countries and peoples, who welcome them with natural hospitality. It is a shame for all Somalis that criminal gangs now prey on private sailors in non-Somali waters and it is a shame for the so-called international community to not be able to provide protection for convoys of these yachts twice or three times per year.

Serious questions have come up and it hast been asked, if the navies do work in cohorts with business interests of the shipping industry or private security companies. To load a yacht like the SY QUEST on a cargo ship and to bring it to the Mediterranean from the Maldives - whereby such cargo vessel then could be protected by the navies - would have costed the owner e.g. of SY QUEST exactly US$37,700 - an amount most yacht-owners simply can not afford, because the majority of them are not the rich - as they are often falsely portrayed by the media. But that wrong picture is then believed by the readers of glossy magazines as well as Somali sea-bandits. The only other alternative for a safe transit would be to hire a private security escort - an undertaking, which could prove to be even more costly.

The gang, which boarded the U.S. American yacht, was expected at Ceel Dhanaane, observers in Somalia reported, but had not reached the Somali shores.

FEARS AND FEAR RESPONSE

Fears had been growing for the safety of the four Americans after warnings they could be killed in our used for retaliation since just days ago a pirate from Puntland was sentenced in the U.S.A. to more than 33 years in jail or in anger against the Bible-distributing and proselytizing voyage of the Quest owners after these informations were spread by some media. But these fears were also quickly rebuffed by local sources close to the Majerteen sub-clan of Omar Mahamud from which most of the actual hostage takers now arrested hail. "They only want the money," a relative of the gang stated in Garacad at the North-Eastern Indian Ocean coast. Serious questions were raised, if certain media were preparing for a case of a Christian martyrdom or were pushing for a crusader-like, unwise military action.

"They are less than two days off the Somali coast," a U.S. military official still said Tuesday to CNN, while the U.S. Navy was reportedly carefully tracking the SY QUEST with at least one warship and helicopters monitoring the vessel as she was commandeered to Somalia, but then the sad news broke.

Further details of the tragic end are awaited, while our deep and sorrow feelings go out to the families of those so unnecessarily slain sailors, an ECOTERRA spokeswoman said. The Transitional Federal Government of Somalia in a statement said it deeply regrets the deaths of the four Americans hijacked by pirates off the coast of Somalia. The Prime Minister said: "We are all deeply saddened by the news of these killings. Our thoughts and prayers are with their families and friends and we offer our sincere condolences. "We condemn the actions of these and all pirates operating from our shores and we will ensure that the captured pirates are brought to justice. "It is deplorable that these callous men hijacked this yacht but to then kill innocent hostages is truly shameful. "The pirates do not represent the Somali people. Somalis inside and outside the country are repulsed by this horrendous crime".

Deborah Calitz and Bruno Pellizarri, the sailing couple from South Africa, also still wait for their hopefully fast and safe release.

Source: ECOTERRA