Incident: Bow Asir taken

The 23,000-ton Norwegian chemical tanker Bow Asir is taken 250 miles off the Somali coast under Panamanian colors with a crew of 27 on board. It was carrying 20,000 tons of product. "[Owner] Salhus Shipping said it so far had no indication that any of the crew, including 19 Philippinos, one Russian, a Lithuanian and the Norwegian captain, had been injured." (AFP, 03/26/09)

The Norwegian-owned, Panamanian-registered ship

was being chased by two small boats with suspected pirates on board. At 0745 her captain reported that pirates had boarded the vessel. Approximately 3 hours later Salhus Shipping reported receiving an email from the vessel confirming that 16 to 18 pirates armed with machine guns had gained control of the ship.

(Wikipedia, "List of ships attacked by Somali pirates," 12/31/09)