5 captured crew hired by city firm
The DG Shipping on Tuesday said that of the 17 Indian crew members onboard MT Royal Grace that has been captured by the pirates off the Oman coast, five had been recruited by a Mumbai-based agent while the remaining had been recruited by unregistered agencies.
The agent has said that the owner’s representatives are already in Somalia for negotiations with the pirates and the crew members are reported to be safe, the DG Shipping said in a press release issued on Tuesday.
MT Royal Grace, a chemical and oil products tanker with a multinational crew of 22 — 17 Indians (including the Master), three Nigerians, one Pakistani and one Bangladeshi — was hijacked after it set off on its maiden voyage from a Sharjah port on March 2.
“We contacted the vessel’s managers M/s Oyster Cargo & Shipping LLC, Dubai for details of the Indian crew, who the recruitment agents are in India and the welfare of the crew,” said a DG Shipping official. According to the official, the managers revealed that the vessel had been sold to M/s Snow Whyte energy owned by a Nigerian national and all efforts to contact the new owners have failed so far.
The DG Shipping, in a press release handed out on Tuesday said that 12 crew members were recruited on the vessel by unregistered agents. “The vessel still remains in captivity. Efforts are being made to contact the ship owner to obtain the details of the remaining crew members,” it read.
Manu Chauhan, spokesperson for the East India Shipping Agency that recruited the five crew members, said, “We are in touch with Oasis Shipping, our principal agent in Dubai who is in touch with the owners of the ship. They have assured us that in the next two to three days, they will provide us with the addresses of the remaining 12 members who have been recruited by other unknown agents.”
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