Owner says sunken "Pirate" ship was actually Thai trawler

[charlie]

Uh-oh.

Last week, India's navy reported that the frigate INS Tabar had battled a pirate "mother vessel" in the gulf November 18, leaving the ship ablaze and likely sunk. Wicharn said that vessel was his ship, which was in the process of being seized by pirates when it came under fire.

...

"We fired in self-defense and in response to firing upon our vessel. It was a pirate vessel in the international waters and its stance was aggressive," Commodore Nirad Sinha, a navy spokesman, told CNN. He said the ship the Tabar fired upon was laden with ammunition.

...

Wicharn told reporters that the Ekawat Nava 5 was headed from Oman to Yemen to deliver fishing equipment when it was set upon by pirates off the Horn of Africa. The pirates were seizing control of the ship when the Tabar moved in, he said.

...

Wicharn said his ship made a distress call on November 18 as it was chased by pirates in two speedboats, but the connection was lost midway. The owners, Sirichai Fisheries, had not heard from the crew since then.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/africa/11/25/thai.trawler.india.navy/index.html

[Ian David]

1. The Indian Navy's Tech Support Rep they called on the telephone said it was a pirate ship. n/t

[Recursion]

2. AFAIK the laws on this are still pretty old-school

If they operated a vessel as a pirate vessel, it is a pirate vessel, no matter who they took it from.

[malaise]

3. Oh the irony

The Thai trawler was pirating Somali fish.