Released Stolt tanker gets naval aid
2009/4/28
U.S., German and Chinese navies operating in the pirate-infested waters off the Somali Coast aided parcel tanker Stolt Strength and its crew, which was released by its pirate-captors last week.
The U.S. Navy provided five days worth of fuel to the vessel, and the Chinese were expected to deliver food and additional fuel to the ship on Sunday, according to the Associated Press. A German naval vessel provided food and medicine to the crew shortly after its release on Tuesday.
The vessel and its 23 Filipino crewmen were seized by pirates in November. The Stolt Strength was transporting a load of phospheric acid to Kandla, India.
The AP reported that the Philippine government was “thankful for the foreign assistance,” because the country’s navy is too small to protect Philippine-flagged ships operating in the Gulf of Aden, and that the Stolt Strength’s crew was worried that pirates would attack the ship again.
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