ORESBY 9

General information

Course/Position

Latest news

Allision on Trang River

On May 20, 2015, around 2 p.m. the "Moresby 9" allided with a bridge on the Trang River in the Kantang District of Thailand, south of Phuket. The tanker was proceeding to a ship repair facility upriver. The bridge was seriously damaged on a length of 10 meters, its concrete crushed, and it had to be closed, the tanker, which usually was carrying oil from Singapore to Myanmar, ran aground on a river bank after the initial accident. The allision was caused by an engine failure, so that strong currents and winds pushed the ship into the construction. On May 22 the bridge closure forced many people to use a nearby ferry or an alternate bridge five km downstream to cross the river, while the ship remained grounded. Authorities were assessing the scale of damages. Thai report with photos: http://www.marinerthai.net/forum/index.php?topic=6282.msg30373#msg30373

Cargo stolen from hijacked tanker Moresby 9

The cargo of a small product tanker hijacked in the South China Sea last week has been stolen, authorities have confirmed. An estimated 2.5m litres of marine gas oil (MGO) was siphoned from the Moresby 9 (built 1977) in the 4 July incident. Accounts have also emerged of the level of violence used by the robbers in the attack with reports of weapons being discharged multiple times. Latest details about the incident come from the Singapore-based Regional Cooperation Agreement on Combating Piracy and Armed Robbery against Ships in Asia (ReCAAP) Information Sharing Centre. The attackers used a small fishing vessel to come alongside the Moresby 9 at about 20:15 local time on 4 July in position 03° 45.93’N, 105° 10.24’E about 46nm northwest of Pulau Anambas. “The crew reportedly heard a gunshot and suddenly nine robbers armed with machetes and three pistols were sighted on the deck of the Moresby 9,” ReCAAP said. “The perpetrators gathered the crew at the starboard bridge wing and then tied and locked them in the engine room.”About 90 minutes later the ship reportedly anchored in position 03° 35.81’N, 105° 12.53’E and a 3,000-gt unnamed orange tanker came alongside. The robbers are said to have then forced the chief engineer and bosun to restart the ship’s engine and pump; and open the cargo valves. Both were then tied up and locked in the engine control room with the other cargo, while the siphoning process was carried out. Some of the crew later managed to escape from the engine control room through the funnel and untied the remainder of the crew. However, there was no sign of the pirates on deck or any vessel alongside. The robbers did however steal the ship’s navigation and communication equipment, the crew’s belongings and damaged the anchor windlass and steering systems. Source : tradewinds

Tanker boarded by attackers

On July 4, 2014, at 7.38 p.m. the "Moresby 9", carrying 2,200 metric tonnes of MGO, was boarded by an unknown number of attackers 34 nautical miles from the Anambas Islands. Regional navies and enforcement agencies were alerted to the attack. The Indonesian Navy visited the site where the incident took place but was unable to locate the ship. Since then, the owners have made contact with the ship, although its location and status remained a mystery. The "Moresby 9" had a previous incident in 2013, but siphoning of fuel was foiled by the presence of Malaysian authorities at that occasion.