By Tanya Fong, TODAY | Posted: 01 April 2011 2320 hrs
The group of more
than 10 pirates, mainly Indonesians, took over the S$5.8 million tugboat
called "Marina 26", as well as a barge it was pulling. The vessels had
left Singapore 24 hours earlier.
The pirates destroyed the
tugboat's Global Positioning System device and the 10-men crew were tied
up and locked up in one of the cabins.
"We were all shivering," the vessel's master, Captain Amri Arsyad, 31, told MediaCorp in Bahasa Indonesian.
They
were held captive for two days while the pirates re-painted the vessel
with leftover green paint they found onboard. The pirates then forced
the crew to jump into a life-raft with some food, mineral water and
their passports.
The next 40 hours were hell.
"We spotted
a cargo ship and started waving and shouting for attention but it
passed us by. We felt really helpless. Later that afternoon, the boat
started to deflate and we paddled with our hands to try to reach Tioman,
which was far away on the horizon," said Mr Amri.
Soon, they were tired and stopped paddling, letting the boat drift.
"It seemed hopeless. At the back of my mind, I thought that was the end of my life," he said.
Their
fate changed when they were spotted by a fisherman who was passing by
and came to their rescue. The crew, mostly Indonesians, are now
recovering at Natuna Island in Indonesia.
A search and recovery was not carried out because the area is believed to be too large to cover.
International
information sharing centre for maritime matters, ReCAAP ISC, has
confirmed the incident and has circulated an incident alert with photos
of the tugboat.
A similar hijacking off Pulau Tioman was reported in February last year.
The
tugboat and barge is owned by Indonesian shipping company PT. Pelnas
Bahtera Bestari Shipping. Its director, Miss Tresya, an avid diver who
frequents Pulau Tioman, contacted MediaCorp with news of the incident.
She
said "We hope to alert vessel owners and the relevant authorities to
the piracy problems around our region which, we feel, have been
neglected.
"The fact that this incident happened close to the
coast of a populated area shows that the pirates have no fear. Many
Singaporeans dive off Tioman and those who own vessels go there often.
We want to warn them of the potential danger."
-TODAY/ac