PETALING JAYA, June 15 — Durairajah Gopalan, 56, was the chief officer aboard a merchant costal tanker transporting liquefied natural gas from Kemaman, Terengganu, to Butterworth, Penang, in 1996.

They were passing Raffles Lighthouse which marks the western approach of the Singapore Straits.

“It was just after midnight when a crew member woke me up to say pirates had boarded the ship.”

It turned out at least two intruders had boarded the ship and forced a deckhand at knife point to the captain’s cabin.

“They told him to be quiet or he was dead. Of course, he did as he was told.

“We suspected they were Indonesians from the language they spoke.”

He noticed they had pistols tucked into their belts and he had the impression they had military training. They wore ski masks.

They then tied him up. After finding the safe, they unloaded it with the rope used to fly the ship’s flag.

“They were professionals, definitely seamen. No one except for the deckhand had noticed them and fortunately, nobody was harmed.

“They left behind a grapple hook and we figured they had used at least two boats as the modus operandi — stringing a cable between two smaller boats and waiting in the path of a ship.”

As the ship passes between the boats, they would be drawn to the sides of the ship and stay there as long as the ship moved forward. They would then use grappling hooks to board.

Oil and gas tankers are particularly vulnerable as they have a low free board — the distance between the waterline and the deck.

“We are a floating signboard at night. They use our navigational lights to locate us.

“Ships in the area have to use a fixed route and the pirates can strike from an island south or east of Singapore. With inside help, it’s a done deal,” Durairajah said.

He added inside jobs were common as pirates seem to know which ship to hit, what the cargo is and the layout and crew habits.

“You wouldn’t just wait around on the high seas and randomly board any ship. They have been ‘tipped off’.

“If there are no ransom demands, you know they did it for the cargo and not the crew. These people are criminals, not terrorists. They don’t like attention,” he said.

If a ship has been hijacked, it is taken to a safe area where the pirates will offload the cargo.

“It’s not difficult as they can use the ship’s firefighting system or bilge pumps if it is a tanker.”

Bilge pumps are used to pump out water that gradually collects in a ship.

“If it is a cargo ship, they can offload the goods with the ship’s crane or even by hand.”

The area where Orkim Harmony went missing is notorious as a pirate hot spot.

It includes the territorial waters of Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia and lax cooperation between the three allows the pirates to operate freely from the many islands in the area.

“They tend not to approach ships with crew on deck. Our standard operating procedure is to have deck patrols,” 

said Durairajah.

“If they approach, we will use the high pressure fire hoses to keep them off and radio for help. In the event the pirates are able to board, crews have been instructed not to aggravate the situation and cooperate. They are after the cargo, not our lives.”