Still haunted

Having been a hostage by Somali pirates for 33 days was so terrifying for a young general steward of hijacked ship MV Abdullah that he is not only scared to travel back home on the same ship, but is also considering a break from the mariner's job.

The ordeal has shattered the self-esteem of Mohammad Noor Uddin, father of a young boy aged two and a half years, from Karnaphuli upazila in Chattogram. He took up the job in 2015.

"I am physically fine now, but I have become very weak mentally. I am constantly haunted by a fear that the ordeal may come back," Noor told The Daily Star in WhatsApp yesterday when the ship was approaching the UAE port of Al Hamriyah.

The ship, released by the pirates on April 14, reached the outer anchorage of the UAE port at 4:30pm yesterday.

Two of the 23 sailors, including Noor, want to sign off from the ship at the UAE port and want to come home by air. The rest 21 would travel back to Chattogram by the same ship, said officials of the ship's owning firm SR Shipping Ltd.

"The sea route to Bangladesh from UAE is also not out of danger as the Somali pirates are now so desperate that they are attacking ships much beyond the high-risk areas," said Noor.

"I think that I may not get back to the job anytime soon," he said, and shared their 33-day ordeal at the hands of the pirates starting from the capture of the ship.

DREADFUL MARCH 12

The pirates attacked MV Abdullah around 10:00am (Somali time) on March 12, when the vessel was around 600 nautical miles (about 1,111 km) off the Somali coast, sailing from Maputo in Mozambique to Al Hamriyah in the UAE.

It was the second day of Ramadan. Since Noor had night duty, he was asleep in his cabin that morning when a sudden alarm bell woke him up.

"The captain made an announcement about a suspected pirate boat and called us all to go to the bridge room from where ship is operated," he said.

Noor rushed to the bridge to find all crewmen already gathered there. The captain was trying to contact different international authorities and Navy ships for help.

"I saw a group of pirates on a speedboat approaching our ship at speed. They reached us in no time."

Twenty crew rushed to the Citadel, a safe room in the ship where crewmembers take shelter in case of a pirate attack.

When the captain and the 4th engineer almost reached the Citadel, the 2nd officer screamed from the bridge: "Captain sir, I am captured. Please come here."

The captain rushed there only to be held hostage by the pirates who forced him to call all the crew to the bridge.

After all the crew were captured, the pirates started firing shots in the air. "They threatened us and forced us to kneel down."

The initial few days were the worst. All crewmen had to spend nights inside the small bridge.

"We could not sleep at all. We could not eat. We were always guarded by heavily armed pirates…. The 33 days seemed more than a year to me. We had no idea when the ordeal would end."

THE RELEASE

On the morning of April 13, all the crewmen were called on the hatch cover of the ship. A few moments later, a small aircraft came and started circling above them.

As the aircraft left, they all were sent to the cabins.

When asked about reported dropping of bags full of money from the aircraft, Noor said he didn't follow much as he kept his head down at gunpoint.

He saw a number of pirates patrolling around the ship on several speedboats.

The pirates left the ship a few minutes after midnight and they were finally freed in the early hours of April 14.

"We embraced each other in joy. We called our families. It was great to be free."