Somali pirates 'likely cause' of cruise ship stand-off
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Surrounded...the M V Athena cruise ship. (Classic International cruises)
The company operating a cruise liner involved in a stand-off in the Gulf of Aden says it is likely Somali pirates were responsible.
Close to 400 Australians were aboard the ship when it was surrounded by more than 20 tuna fishing boats on Tuesday evening.
The company's managing director Grant Hunter says the ship was sailing with other cruise liners when the incident occurred.
He says the ship rarely travels through those waters.
"This was a one off route that we have with this particular voyage," he said.
"The normal routing that we've had over the last five years has taken another route over towards India.
"There wasn't any identification if they were pirates or that type," he said.
"They were smallish vessels and they contained six-odd people in each - some of our passengers actually had their binoculars on them."
But Classic Cruises marketing spokesman Ann Hope said the boats had turned out to be local fishing vessels whose crew were "very friendly" towards the Athena.
"Precautions were taken when the boats were sighted but there was never any suggestion that the boat was going to be attacked," she said.
She said water cannons were dropped from the side of the ship as a standard measure, but were not used at any stage.
Ms Hope said the company had exchanged emails with the Department of Foreign Affairs and had sent a message to all its travel partners to inform them there was no piracy attempt.
"We would like to advise you that Athena has not in any way been under attack by pirates or even under direct threat and the current situation on board is as it was at the beginning of the cruise," the email said.
The ship is scheduled to dock in Fremantle, in Western Australia, later this month.
- ABC/AAP
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