A transport vessel for carrying fish attacked by pirates in the Malacca Straits has safely arrived at Singapore Harbor yesterday evening, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said yesterday.
Two pirate ships chased and attacked the Taiwanese vessel Dong Yih at around 5pm last Saturday, damaging part of the vessel's body and its equipment.
Lo Ying-hsiung (羅英雄), captain of the vessel, was shot in his left leg, but his crew was unharmed, said the foreign affairs ministry. The identities of the pirates remained unknown.
The Taipei Representative Office in Singapore said the Dong Yih arrived at Singapore Harbor at around 6pm and anchored there.
Lo was ferried to the coast and then taken to the Singapore General Hospital for treatment while his crew stayed on board to undergo health checks by Singaporean officials in accordance with quarantine regulations.
Officials from the representative office visited Lo in the hospital last night.
The vessel will not enter the harbor to unload its fish until tomorrow, said Henry Lin (林啟達), the vessel's agent in Singapore.
The 2,600-tonne Dong Yih departed Kaohsiung Harbor on Aug. 4 and collected about 1,500 tonnes of fish from the Indian Ocean. It was heading toward Singapore when the pirates attacked.
During the incident, the Dong Yih had crew of 31, nine of whom are Taiwanese.
The others are Philippine, Vietnamese and Chinese nationals.
Dong Shun Yih Fishery Company, the ship's owner based in Kaohsiung, said the 1,500 tonnes of fish the Dong Yih carried were worth about NT$100 million.
The company said it was aware of the high frequency of pirate attacks on Indonesian waters and had cautioned the Dong Yih crew against pirate attacks in the Malacca Straits before the voyage.
According to Lo, the Dong Yih encountered the pirate ships shortly after it entered the Malacca Straits.
"The ships approached us and suddenly opened fire at the Dong Yih," recalled Lo, who immediately commanded his crew to speed up to escape the assault.
It took Dong Yih nearly two hours to shake off the pirates, Lo said.
Lo, still recovering from the shock of the attack, said the engine sounded funny as they escaped from the pirates.
"We were worried our engine might fall apart because we were cruising at full speed ahead. If our engine failed, we would be in the hands of the pirates," Lo said.
Aside from the bullet hole in his leg, which his crew attended to onboard, Lo said that the vessel's body is riddled with at least 100 more.
"I still can hobble along. We all survived the attack and all our crew are safe. It is lucky enough. My wound doesn't matter," Lo said.
Lo said the vessel's automatic navigation system and radar were damaged during the attack. Nevertheless, his crew found their way to Singapore by visual measurement and the help of navigation maps.
Lo said it was not an easy task because the Malacca Straits was busy with ships.
"Being a seaman is really a risky matter... We really want to thank Heaven we all survived the attack," Lo added.
Earlier this year, pirates attacked another Taiwanese transport vessel on Indonesian waters, according to the Council of Agriculture's Fisheries Agency.
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