A Bulgarian handysize bulker was likely boarded by unknown assailants in the open Arabian Sea.
The 41,600-dwt Ruen (built 2016) was previously reported to have been moving erratically at increasing and decreasing speeds, likely in evasive manoeuvres, as TradeWinds reported earlier on Thursday.
The Malta-flagged vessel was transiting at 12 knots, but then appeared to be adrift about 380 miles (610 km) east of Yemen’s Socotra Island, according to Ambrey Analytics.
At 15.00 GMT, the UK Marine Trade Operations (UKMTO) reported that it “received a report of a distress call heard over VHF of a vessel being boarded by unknown persons”.
Further details have not been forthcoming.
Navibulgar has been contacted for comment.
In a separate incident this week, an unidentified vessel in the Arabian Sea off Oman was approached by five or six armed, high-speed boats that came within a distance of six to eight cables.
Both this and the Ruen incident took place far away from the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea, where Yemen’s Houthi regime has been sending armed skiffs and firing missiles after merchant ships it believes to be controlled by Israeli interests or calling at Israeli ports.
In the latest such incident on Thursday, the 10,100-teu AP Moller-Maersk-operated container ship Maersk Gibraltar (built 2016) suffered a near miss in a missile attack near the Hanish islands off south-west Yemen.
Shipping in the region has been on high alert since last month, when the Houthi regime, which controls large swathes of Yemen, started attacking commercial vessels to put pressure on Israel in its war with Hamas in Gaza.
The alert status was significantly increased on 9 December, when the Houthis announced they would no longer attack just ships they consider to be controlled by Israeli interests, but any vessel calling at Israeli ports, regardless of its nationality.
The Ruen does not appear to have sailed to Israel recently. However, a Navibulgar vessel with a similar name — the 44,900-dwt Rojen (built 2019) — was in Ashdod when the Hamas-Israel war broke out in October.
The Houthi escalation goes hand-in-hand with numerous reports from ship masters in the wider region of suspicious activity by small craft at the entrance to the Red Sea.
The US military attributed the attack and brief boarding on 26 November of Zodiac Maritime’s 20,000-dwt tanker Central Park (built 2015) to piracy, allegedly by Somali nationals.
However, this claim has been met with scepticism by security experts. Somali piracy has virtually been eradicated in recent years. After the attempted boarding, the Central Park’s attackers fled towards Yemen, rather than Somalia, security sources told TradeWinds.
