MV Abdullah’s turbulent passage ends

The long wait for the 23 crewmen of MV Abdullah to come home ended as the vessel dropped anchor at Kutubdia around 6:00pm yesterday.

About a month ago, the Somali pirates released the ship after holding it and its crew members hostage for 33 days. 

The ship then travelled to the UAE and later set sail for Bangladesh. It reached Bangladesh's territorial waters yesterday morning.

Captain Mohammad Abdur Rashid told The Daily Star, "All the crewmen are physically fine and eagerly waiting to go back to their homes."

All the seafarers would be brought to the KSRM lighter jetty in the port city's Sadarghat area this afternoon.

Meherul Karim, chief executive officer of the ship's owning firm SR Shipping Ltd, yesterday said replacement crew members have left Chattogram for MV Abdullah on a vessel.

After crew swap, the same vessel would return with the 23 crew members, he said.

The ship transported 56,000 tonnes of limestone from the UAE.

A portion of the cargo would be unloaded to smaller lighter vessels at Kutubdia and then the vessel would go to the outer anchorage of Chattogram port, sources said.

In a text message sent to this correspondent yesterday afternoon, Tanveer Ahmad, the fourth engineer at the ship, said he is very happy to have come home.

Josna Begum, mother of the young mariner, said she could not express how happy she was. She plans to prepare her son's favourite dishes, including beef curry, on his arrival.

On March 12, the Somali pirates hijacked the ship when it was carrying 55,000 tonnes of coal from the Maputo port of Mozambique to Al Hamriyah port in the UAE.

The pirates freed the vessel on April 14 after reportedly receiving ransom.

Getting released, the ship went to Al Hamriyah port on April 22 and unloaded the cargo. After that, it went to another UAE port Mina Saqr for loading cargo for Bangladesh.

The vessel left the port on April 30 and then went to a nearby port to refuel before heading for Chattogram.