The Background
·
The time:1979
·
The subject: A ship
with a cargo of Barite destined for Iraq National Oil Company (INOC) was seized
by pirates.
·
Contract delivery term
for cargo : CANDF Umqasr
Inside INOC:
·
Import department
represented by AHK: INOC should retrieve
cargo unless it can prove supplier acted in bad faith.
· Legal Department:
Supplier is responsible to retrieve and deliver cargo.
· Executing the view of legal dept. AHK hammered
the supplier with telexes demanding that they bring the cargo to Umqasr or face
legal action and blacklisting.
· The supplier in turn
kept denying responsibility citing International Chamber of Commerce Terms.
·
Telexes received from Unknowns
in Athens saying they are holding the cargo and they are willing to negotiate.
· New manager TM for the
legal department (a Cambridge law graduate) was appointed.
·
AHK explained the case
to TM and they called the insurance
department manager HA and together they wrote a memo to the Minister
recommending action to retrieve the cargo by INOC.
The Minister called the three and ordered
that they should meet the pirates in Athens and advise him on the next step. .
Confronting the
Pirates
In Athens the
three stayed in the same hotel the pirates designated for the negotiations but
the pirates did not show up though they telephoned to indicate readiness.
The three decided
to seek help of the Iraqi Embassy.
The Embassy they
did not offer any advice or help , a
senior officer told them : After the
sharp rise in oil prices after the 1973 Arab- Israeli war a lot of Arab cargos were seized by pirates believing that the Arabs are now very rich and would pay large ransoms .
A Greek person
who seemed to know the senior official chipped in on the meeting and the conversation,
he seemed to be well versed in shipping matters. TM and HA suggested to AHK to
enlist the help of the Greek gentleman.
AHK asked the man
if he has the time and willingness to help. The man agreed then the delegation asked
the Embassy for permission to include him in the search for the pirates.
The Greek help
first positive action was to take the delegation to the registrar of ships. There it was discovered, the ship was owned by
a Cypriot company of the same name as it was their sole possession .and that
company had an office in Piraeus port 12 Km. South west the center of Athens.
Off to Piraeus,
the group found the office of the company at a third floor of a building. A
young blonde girl was sitting at the reception desk of a small reception hall
and a big wide shouldered bear looking man sitting at his desk inside the only
room leading from the reception with the door wide open.
After saying
hello to the secretary the group dashed in through the open door and were immediately in
half a circle around the man's (Pirate) desk .
The Pirate was
taken by surprise ….. Four men in their thirties with black samsonite briefcases.
HA: We are from Iraq,
we came for the barite.
The Pirate stood
up looking terrified and started shouting to the secretary in a very loud
shrieking voice.
The Greek help to AHK: He is calling on the girl to call men
for help immediately.
AHK realized the
reputation of the Iraqi regime must have preceded the delegation, and the man must've
thought, the samsonites will open and guns will come out and action commences
for his kidnap or punishment. .
To quieten
the man AHK opens up his samsonite : Look man there is no guns . We only
came to talk about our cargo.
Four wrestler
built men appeared, the pirate now calm, signal the
men not to engage in hostilities and go and stand by the secretary.
The pirate suggested
to negotiate in ano the hotel and ordered the men to get the cars.
The three Iraqis
consulted in Arabic and decided that their hosts cannot be trusted, there could
be an attempted hostage taking or possibly a knife fight .They resolved that
they should be at least in pairs including their Greek help in each car and that immediately after they arrive
at the hotel TM should phone the Iraqi Embassy, give them the hotel name and tell
them of the dangers the group is in and ask them for immediate dispatch of
embassy guards for protection.
At the hotel
cafeteria, the two groups sat facing each other across the table.
AHK fearing the worst
ask the pirate: Who are these people?
The pirate: My legal advisors.
AHK: Keep one
"legal advisor" and ask the other three to move to another table.
The pirate
disagreed and AHK insisted, eventually the three men moved to another table.
A tall well-built
man with a very thick black mustache and fierce eyes come to the table and ask
for TM saying he brought a message from the Embassy for him. TM stood up and
joined the man aside where the man handed him an empty folded paper.
AHK joins the two
and ask the guard: What's your name brother?
The guard: Fadhil
Sir.
AHK: My dear
brother Fadhil, you see these three men sitting there?
Fadhil : Yes ,
AHK: Those are
your quota if a fight develops, none of us been in the army or even had a fist
fight before, we are depending on Allah and you.
Fadhil with a
light grin under the mustache: Don’t
worry sir, then he pulls a small table
across and sit facing them with his long
arms spread on the table in front of him.
The pirate
addressing AHK: Now if I hit you with a knife, is it my hand that knifed you or
me behind the knife?
AHK: Leave knifes
and pistols alone and tell us what you want? 1
The pirate: But I
want to explain ….
AHK interrupts:
No need we know...You are supposed to be the owner of the ship ,your charterer supposed not to have paid
you the rent for the vessel so you pirate your own ship and our cargo
thinking the Arabs are rich and will solve your problem…. And the ship now idle
near Karachi and needs repair ….
Ok? Now kindly get on with the job and
tell us what you want.
The pirate get a
piece of paper and a small pencil from
his trouser pocket and start slowly and majestically drawing the figure of $3,000,000 ,then passes the
paper to AHK .
AHK pass it
around to TM and HA
HA in Arabic: He
must be crazy .We will not pay a single fills.
TM addressing the
Pirate: You know, piracy is a criminal act and governments around the world don
not talk or reward pirates. We are government representatives therefore we don’t
pay ransom.
AHK takes back
the paper and pass it back to the pirate then said:
I want to make
few things clear to you: If you think you got a good catch you are terribly mistaken,
the cargo you are holding is not gold .It is mud, a drilling mud .It is mixed
with other muds and sent down the oil well to help with the drilling operation
.I repeat it is mud of little value. As my colleague told you we are government
officials and we cannot legally pay you anything for seizing our cargo. You say
the ship need repairs, now here we may be able to fork out few dollars for you
to assist with the repairs and enable you to fulfil your contract of
carriage and bring the goods to Umqasr.
The pirate and
his "legal advisor" ease their chair backward and got engaged in along whisper discussion. The Iraqis and their Greek help also eased back and
chatted in Arabic and English.
Fadhil the
embassy guard in the meantime sat upright motionless with eyes fixed on the
three as though ready to bounce on them or draw first should they
initiate any suspicious movement (we
don’t know in fact if he was armed under
the jacket or not ).
Chairs back to
their normal places, the meeting resumes, the Pirate get his
piece of paper and draw a very large $2,000,000 and pass it to AHK. AHK shows
it to his colleagues and another bout of heated arguments started basically
reiterating the same principles of the first round.
Another
intermission was called and the parties left their chairs to stretch their
legs, the pirate was joined by his three "musketeers" and we were
joined by our lonely guard.
AHK, TM and HA thank Fadhil for his courage
and patience facing those three rough looking thugs.
Everybody back to
his chair, the Pirate got his paper out again drew another number then raised
his hand in anger and thumped a full stop beside the figure and hand it over to
AHK.
AHK showed it to
his colleagues, they were unanimous in their rejection of the sum demanded
($1,500,000).
HA (in Arabic): I
think we have to leave it.
TM: This is ransom.
AHK to the Pirate:
We told you ransom we shall not pay, few dollars for repair may be. We are in
Athens for another 48 hours before flying back to Baghdad, if you change your mind
you know where we are.
The participants
left their table with no handshakes or Bye Bye.
The Minister
considers unfeasible actions
At the Minister's
office in Baghdad , the Minister was very annoyed at what he heard from the
delegation , I think I will ask the
Iraqi Air force to sink the vessel rather than allowing those thieves to take
our cargo .
AHK: But Excellency
the position of the vessel is too far away, our planes need to refuel from
airports en route or in the air.
The Minister
posed for a while then asked: Any of you have any suggestions?
TM: Excellency we
know that there is only about 20 people on board the vessel and the vessel is
in international waters .Now if those people were persuaded somehow to leave
the vessel then under maritime international law the vessel can be regarded as
abandoned property on the high seas and any party can board the vessel and
raise their national flag on it as their property.
AHK: There is
another problem though, the vessel engines have stopped working and therefore
it has to be towed to Umqasr .
The Minister: Can
that be done?
AHK: Excellency
for that we need an ocean going tug and I do not think our port authorities
have it.
The Minister
called on his secretary across the intercom: Get the port authority on the
phone and let AHK talk to them.
AHK goes out to
the secretary office.
AHK: Hello I am
talking to you on behalf of the Minister of Oil , do you have an ocean going
tug :
The port official
was taken by surprise: What would you do with such a tug?
AHK: We want to
tow a ship anchored on the high seas near Karachi to Umqasr.
The port official:
Really!!!
AHK: Honestly.
The port official:
Unfortunately we do not have. The tugs we have are only good enough to work
around the port and cannot go on the high seas.
AHK: Thank you
The port official:
Bye Bye then murmurs to himself I don’t know what these people are up to.
AHK knock the
door of the Minister and enter: Excellency they don’t have the tug we need.
The Minister: A
well, thank you all for your effort, we shall leave this matter for now.
The unexpected
visitor
A
couple of months later, the Iraq National Insurance Company with whom the cargo
was insured telephoned HA of INOC insurance dept. And informed him that a trustworthy
international specialist in releasing pirated cargoes is currently visiting them
and he has a plan which could release INOC cargo and suggested that INOC see
him for a possible solution.
The man came to
INOC and was met by AHK,TM and HA .The man appear to be in his sixties with
gray hair elegantly dressed as an English country gentleman ,introduced himself
as Mr. Wilson and went straight to the
point .
He said: National
Westminster Bank has a prime debt on the ship owner of the vessel carrying the
INOC cargo. The ship owner is currently insolvent. He had agreed with National Westminster
Bank that the bank should call in the debt and force the ship owner into bankruptcy.
The vessel will then be auctioned to pay the bank and he, Mr. Wilson will buy
the ship and then sell it for scrap in South East Asia shipyards. If the purchase
is successfully executed, then he must get rid of the cargo before taking the
ship to South East Asia. To deliver the Barite to Umqasr is out of his way and
would be an extra voyage and an extra cost. If INOC is willing to contribute to
that cost then he will proceed with the deal.
After
consultations inside INOC and the Iraq National Insurance Company and
calculation of freight to Umqasr from Karachi and other considerations a small
but reasonable contribution was agreed for Mr. Wilson if he bring the cargo to
Umqasr .
Few months passed
and a notification came from Mr. Wilson that he is in control of the ship and
ordered the ship to proceed to Umqaser.
On the day the
Iraqi – Iranian war broke out another notification came that the ship now is in
Kuwait and requests permission to unload there because of the hostilities .
Permission off course
was granted and INOC sent trucks to bring the dear MUD home.
.
