Pirates attack aussie cruise ship

A traveller on board the Australian cruise ship MV Athena says owners are trying to cover up news of a pirate attack...

Pirates did attack a cruise ship carrying 400 Aussies off Somalia, says an Australian passenger, but the cruise company - which claimed that the 52 boats reported to have approached the ship were manned by ‘friendly' fishermen - is trying to cover up the incident, the passenger says.

The Melbourne woman, who remains on board the MV Athena and does not want to be named, said passengers who informed relatives back home of the attack had been given "a real dressing down'' by the ship's crew.

Classic International Cruises Australia, which owns the Athena, has said there was no substance to reports that dozens of pirate boats attacked the ship and tried to board it on Tuesday.

A spokeswoman for the company said the boats turned out to be fishing vessels whose crew were "very friendly''.

However, the Melbourne woman who contacted wire service AAP said there was no doubt the ship was the target of a coordinated pirate attack as it passed through the Gulf of Aden, separating Yemen and Somalia.

The Athena's Captain Antonio Morais had even used the public address system to tell passengers "that two attacks by pirates had taken place,'' she said.

She said the crew had ordered passengers to stay indoors after small motorboats surrounded the vessel.

Observers using binoculars on the bridge reportedly counted between 30 and 40 small boats to the port side and 12 to starboard at the height of the incident, she said.

"Less than an hour later the master of the vessel, Captain Antonio Morais of Portugal, confirmed to listeners that two attacks by pirates had taken place.''

Crew members used blasts from high-powered water cannon to drive back the pirates who clearly wanted to board the Athena, the woman said.

She said the official line now being put around the ship was that "as no shots were fired by the assailants it was merely a reconnaissance mission by those in the motorboats rather than an attack as such''.

"This insistence is merely splitting hairs,'' the Melbourne traveller said.

She said passengers who had alerted family members about the attack had been scolded for spreading misinformation that had caused widespread alarm.

And yesterday, two days after the attack, Captain Morais again addressed passengers to stress that "no attack'' had occurred.

While Athena officers had denied their ship had been the target of an attack, they had admitted pirates fired shots at three other vessels following the Athena on the same day, she said.

The Athena is making its maiden voyage to Australia and is due to dock in Fremantle in Western Australia on December 20.

Piracy is rife in the waters off Somalia, with 100 vessels attacked this year.

Source: www.news.com.au