Maersk Alabama visits Noro port
MAERSK Alabama, which was hijacked by pirates near Somalia in 2009 and her crew held hostage, made her first trip to Noro Port, Western Province, on Thursday.
The container ship arrived at Noro Port around midday on her maiden trip to the nation’s second international port.
Onboard Maersk Alabama were 12 crews, and among them was one of the crew that was held hostage during the 2009 hijack.
He was the first engineer of Maersk Alabama.
The purpose of her visit to Noro is to load fish product exports from National Fisheries Development (NFD). She replaced a sister vessel and will make her trip to Noro after every two weeks.
Since yesterday afternoon, the ship continues loading fish products at Noro Port before its departure today lunchtime.
“Noro community and expats living in Noro were aware of the true story about this container ship,” a local resident said.
“The extraordinary thing is her first visit to Noro which many have the privilege to see the vessel,” he added.
Another resident said perhaps the visit of Maersk Alabama to Noro means increase of products in the country that needs a wider container vessel like Maersk Alabama to carry cargo that reflects the country’s economy is boosted.
A photo of Maersk Alabama was also posted on Facebook.
The interesting news the public might want to know about Maersk Alabama is the US cargo vessel captured by Somali Pirates in the Gulf of Aden four years ago.
The story was then turned into a film titled ‘Captain Phillips’ that was released in 2013.
History
Alva Maersk was built by china shipbuilding corporation, Keelung, Taiwan at yard number 676 and launched in 1998. As Alva Maersk, she was flagged to Denmark. In 2004, Alva Maersk was renamed Maersk Alabama and reflagged to the United States, with its operator, Maersk Line, Limited, based in Norfolk, Virginia.
She has been involved in seven incidents, and remains in active service on Maersk Line’s East Africa 4 service.
Her regular route is from Mombasa, Kenya to Salalah, Oman to Djibouti and then returning to Mombasa.
MV Maersk Alabama is a container ship owned by Maersk Line Limited and operated by Waterman Steamship Corporation.
She has a light-blue hull and a beige superstructure like all Maersk vessels, regardless of their flag of registry. She was hijacked by pirates near Somalia in 2009 and her crew held hostage. Four additional unsuccessful hijacking attempts were made later that year, 2010 and 2011.
Maersk Alabama will depart Noro this afternoon and will make her next journey to PNG.
Her next trip to Noro will be next month.
