A date with the Pirates ....A true story.

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.

   

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