Turkish maritime portal kaptanhaber.com was able to conduct a interview with the captain of the hijacked Turkish chemical tanker MV Karagöl.
Turkish maritime portal kaptanhaber.com was able to conduct a interview with the captain of the hijacked Turkish chemical tanker MV Karagöl.
This interview gives interesting information and some insight about how things are happening down there.
When I first heard the news of the hijacking, I wondered how the ship failed to hinder the pirates by aggressive maneuvering. Aggressive maneuvering sometimes helps ships to get away. According to the captain when the attack first began they started avoiding maneuvers and caused one pirate boat to capsize. Later the pirates opened fire to the bridge by machine guns causing the ship to stop.
The captain Mümtaz Temeltaş also told that the ship has supplies for another 30 days and that the crew is spending their days by doing maintenance work in and out of the ship. This is a good example of leadership. Keeping the crew busy with manual tasks will keep them focused on the job in their hand and will definitely keep the morale of the crew high. I am very impressed by the professionalism. I hope that they come home unharmed.
One of the most appealing rumors of these days is about TCG Gökova. It is said that this frigate left SNMG-2 as a protest that other NATO ships that were 20 miles away from MV Karagöl at the time of her hijacking failed to help her. Several local newspapers ran this story of that important accusation. Interestingly neither Turkish General Staff nor Turkish Navy made any public comments neither about the hijacking of the Turkish merchantmen nor about the status of TCG Gökova.
The location of TCG Gökova is still a mystery. Last week it was reported that an additional detachment of naval special forces was send as reinforcement. Again this story is not confirmed officially. And NATO still shows her as a part of the Operation Allied Provider.
