Desperate days off Somalia’s Pirate Coast


14


It’s not oſten that the container shipping industry gets to star on the silver screen, but clearly the folks at Sony Pictures can spot a decent plot when they see one. In fact, Captain Phillips, in portraying the hijack of the Maersk Alabama by pirates off the Somali coast in 2009, is something of a rarity among Hollywood blockbusters in that it doesn’t appear to have substantially doctored reality for dramatic effect – though that does depend on whose version of events you believe. It’s not the first film portrayal of


the event; there is the Danish-made A Hijacking, which, lacking a multi- million dollar budget, apparently centres much more on the tense negotiations back at Maersk company HQ in Copenhagen. In the film – and in real life – the Alabama, a 1,100teu container ship is en route from Salalah in Oman to Mombasa, Kenya. It’s a regular, humdrum feeder run until the ship gets hijacked by four Somali pirates in a small motor-powered skiff.


Film makers clearly have


much more expertise in staging car chases than shipping ones; the contest between the pirates’ nimble twin-engined skiff and the lumbering 17,000-tonne Alabama was only ever going to have one outcome. The action was filmed on the Alexander Maersk, leased by Sony Pictures at normal commercial rates, standing in for her identical sister ship. But the central part of the film is


the developing tension as Captain Phillips ends up as the pirates’ hostage. Tom Hanks is convincing as Phillips’ makes a long journey, physically and metaphorically across the ocean with his captors and from gruff, no-nonsense sea captain to decent, and quietly heroic human being.


Don’t, by the way, see this film if you’re not a Tom Hanks fan, or at least able to tolerate a good two hours of his company - the film is essentially a vehicle (or should that be vessel?) for his acting talents. His gaunt, menacing Somali captors - all recruited from the US Somali community and not professional actors - do an excellent job of being gaunt and menacing but we never really get the chance to see under their skin as their already brittle relationship cracks under the stress of several days at sea. The film does give a nod to


extenuating circumstances; the pirates are pawns in a wider game in their chaotic homeland. And as much as you deplore their actions, you can’t help a sneaking admiration for people brave or desperate enough to hold up a containership on the high seas. The Alabama may be a tiddler compared with most of the ships in Maersk’s fleet, but her sides are still a long, long way to climb on a dangling rope ladder, dodging fire-hoses and everything the crew can throw at you. (The Alabama hijacking took place before defences were tightened and ships took to carrying armed security guards.) Perhaps there is some symbolism


too, in the way in which four raggedy-arsed guys in a motorised rowing boat can give the combined technological might of the global shipping industry and, eventually, the US Navy, the run-around – and very nearly get away with it. The film appears to be a


reasonably faithful portrayal of the events portrayed in the real Captain Phillips’s book, A Captain’s Duty, published in 2010. But who do you believe? The back story is that some of the crew members – not all of whom are portrayed very flatteringly in the film – take issue with Captain


Issue 8 2013 Freight Business Journal


///FILM REVIEW NEWS ROUNDUP


FORWARDING & LOGISTICS


Hanne Sørensen will be the new chief executive officer of Maersk’s forwarding company, Damco from 1 January 2014, taking over from Rolf Habben-Jansen, who is leaving to become CEO of shipping line Hapag-Lloyd. Sørensen has been with Maersk for 19 years and is currently CEO of Maersk Tankers.


DB Schenker is building a new logistics centre in Pfungen near Zurich, Switzerland, scheduled to open in late March 2014. The SFR40 million facility, near the A1 and A51 highways, will combine the former Embrach and Kloten sites and offer integrated solutions. It will shorten cross-docking distances between land transport and air freight and offer value-added logistics services such as picking, customs clearance, production supply and warehouse logistics.


Bucher Emhart Glass has selected Kuehne + Nagel as its warehouse partner for its Parts Distribution Centre in Contern, Luxembourg. The logistics company provides Bucher Emhart Glass a range of warehousing solutions including spare parts logistics, kitting and other value-added-services.


Yorkshire-based Potter Logistics reports increased turnover across all areas of its business and continues to show profitable organic growth, the company said in its financial results for the year ending April 2013. The business posted a profit before tax (PBT) of £1.12 million, an increase of 8.5% year on year. Turnover grew by 52% to £23m. In January 2013, Potter Logistics launched a new corporate identity and livery and spent £1.3m on new vehicles.


Richard Phillips’s version of events. This being America, a lawsuit is in progress, with crew members arguing that Captain Philips failed to take proper precautions and was, to some extent, the author of his own downfall. There is also a moral dilemma


in serving up such recent events for what is, essentially, our entertainment. The Maritime Piracy Humanitarian Response Programme (MPHRP) points out that, for the 4,800 seafarers involved in similar incidents there has not necessarily been a happy ending. Many have spent months and even years at the hands of the oſten ruthless pirates. MPHRP, an alliance of ship


owners, managers, manning agents, insurers and welfare associations, asks movier-goers to consider the 64 seafarers still being held in Somalia by pirates. Most, of course, are not US citizens but come from developing countries - no special US naval forces to come to their rescue; even if they did, the risks would probably be too great. MPHRP is also supporting


widows of seafarers who died when navies attempted to ‘rescue’ the vessel, with crew members suffering the trauma of being used as human shields while the ‘rescuers’ continued firing, killing crew members. The remaining seafarers in Somalia are now all being held


on land as the vessels they were captured on have all either sunk or been beached. With the loss of their vessels, the owners have walked away as they have no money to pay any ransoms and no interest in releasing their seafarers, says MPHRP – they are not mainstream quality companies like Maersk who respond professionally. Few of the kidnapped sailors were employed through their country’s shipping departments, nor


are


they members of maritime unions which would have given them some protection and support. A big risk to take for a salary


of round $350 a month – and meanwhile


their wives and


families are being bombarded with calls from pirates threatening the lives of their loved ones and demanding ransoms. Working with the UN Hostage


Release Programme the task at the moment is to convince the pirates that there is no one who can, or will, pay the ransom. Roy Paul adds: “In reality for


these owners the value is in the vessel, not the crew. Now their vessels have gone they are not interested in releasing the crew members mainly because once their vessels sank then so did any wealth they had. There are no benefactors out there willing to help and so the pirates should release these people on humanitarian grounds.”


The White Company, one of the UK’s fastest growing multi-channel retailers, has chosen Allport Cargo Services to manage its global sea, air and overland freight movements – and to re-define its supply chain operations to support its international growth plans. ACS group solutions director, Clyde Buntrock, said: “Our LIMA supply chain management system will streamline and optimise their inbound supply chain, putting information in the hands of buyers and merchandisers, as we work with them to achieve their objectives in the UK and as they expand internationally.”


Kuehne + Nagel has appointed Pamela Doyle as national manager for Ireland. She succeeds Marcus Bennett who was recently appointed UK national manager. With 13 years’ service in Kuehne + Nagel, Pamela Doyle has held senior positions within airfreight, human resources and general management and was most recently national operations director. KN has also appointed Reinhard Schullerus as head of global sales and marketing from January 2014.


The Freight Transport Association’s general manager for Ireland, Tom Wilson, retired from the association on 8 November. FTA said that in just over ten years, he had made a major contribution towards developing the association’s profile and influence in Northern Ireland, and his extensive experience has more recently been invaluable in the development of FTA Ireland in Dublin. Seamus Leheney has been appointed policy and member relations manager for Northern Ireland and Neil McDonnel general manager – Ireland.


DB Schenker Logistics has opened a new multi-customer facility in Kenya. Located on the main highway from the port of Mombasa and only 5km from Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, it offers 6,200sq m of warehousing and 5,600sq m of open yard space. It is aimed at customers from the industrial, electronics, healthcare and consumer industries.


DB Schenker Logistics has expanded its smartbox temperature monitoring services. Smartbox easypharma is a certified solution for the pharma industry and for medical transport. It measures and stores temperature and humidity readings collected during transport. The stored data can be read with a USB connection and it can take up to 32,000 measurements which can be sent to the customer via the DB Schenker website. Smartbox logistics monitors temperature and humidity levels in standard or cold storage warehouse and transfers the data to a computer in real time, where it is stored in a database. If set thresholds are exceeded, an alarm is automatically triggered.


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