Ocean Marine: We rescued Chinese vessel from pirate attack on Nigerian waters

Ocean Marine Solutions Limited (OMSL), a maritime security company, says it has rescued a Chinese vessel from pirates attack.

In a statement, the company said it “saved Nigeria from what would have been a monumental international embarrassment” with the operation.

It quoted Fleetmon, a public vessel data collection, to have reported that the Hungarian Glory, a general cargo ship which is managed by Tianjin Xinhai Intl. Ship Management, was attacked by pirates at the coastal side of Lagos on Thursday, March 5.

“The ship was drifting after the attack, not responding to contact requests. According to track, the ship started moving at around 1300 UTC Mar 6, after about an hour went adrift again,” it quoted Fleetmon to have reported.

“As of 1500 UTC Mar 6, the ship was still adrift or moving at slow speed, Nigerian Navy patrol boat NNS SPARROW approaching – in nearly 24 hours after the alert, in the vicinity of Lagos with 23 crew reportedly all Chinese.”

OMSL said it deployed its NNS sparrow to carry out a rescue operation.

“The NNS Sparrow is one of the patrol boats of the OMSL audited and approved by the Nigerian Navy and fitted with comprehensive communication equipment, enabling full situational awareness for clients’ enhanced protection. It executed the rescue mission and safely brought the vessel back to Lagos,” it said.

The company said the vessel does not belong to its client but it assisted the navy with the rescue “considering the amount of bureaucracy it would take for them to execute”.

Editor’s note: Picture used for representative purpose