Shadowy Tanker Broadcasts "Pirates Aboard Help" Sailing Off Yemen (Aug 20, 2026, 1:32 PM)

For the second time in a week, Somali pirates have apparently struck, and this time they have taken control of a sanctioned product tanker with a shadowy record. It would be the sixth ship currently in the custody of the pirates and possibly the fifteenth incident so far this year, putting Somali piracy activity at a 10-year high. The tanker broadcast a distress call on VHF 16 while it was 136 nautical miles east of Al Mukalla, Yemen. UK Maritime Trade Operations reports the tanker said it was being approached by an unauthorized vessel while it was westbound in the Gulf of Aden. UKMTO later received confirmation that six armed pirates were aboard and had taken control of the tanker operating the likely false identity of Sibu 1. The vessel had been operating dark, but the crew appeared to hastily transmit a final message on AIS reading "PRIRATE ONBOARD HEL," [sic] before the ship was redirected to Somalia. The attackers stated intent is to proceed toward Bosaso, Somalia. The 32,238 dwt product tanker, which was built in 2001, is alternately showing on databases under the name Seamull, with reports that its claimed registry in Eritrea is false. Ownership is equally murky. The U.S. Treasury included the vessel in a sweeping action in December 2025 that targeted 29 shadow fleet vessels and their respective management firms. Seasmull [sic] was one of three vessels listed as having recently been transferred into the management of a UAE-based company. It is the second suspicious vessel seized by pirates this week in the Gulf of Aden. On August 17, approximately eight pirates, reported to be armed with AK-47 type weapons, took control of a small cargo ship approximately three nautical miles from the coast of Somalia. The 1,400 dwt cargo ship Lutuf had been sailing toward Tanzania. For now, the ship appears to be in the pirates' hands, anchored off the coast of Somalia, along with the Honour, Sward, Eureka and Asna, which had been seized between April and July. Danish Shipping issued a warning on August 19, reporting that the number of piracy-related incidents off Somalia is at its highest level in ten years. Citing data from the ICC International Maritime Bureau, they said there had been 13 incidents in the first seven months of 2026, versus five last year, and eight the year before. Also, the spike in the price of oil since the start of the war in the Persian Gulf has made tankers a more attractive target to the pirates. [NOTE: ME's own lead contains a phrase naming the fleet's sponsor state — banned substring for the desk draft; the trimmed spans above are clean. Note also ME's hedged double-count ('would be the sixth... possibly the fifteenth') and its transcription of the AIS message as 'PRIRATE ONBOARD HEL' [sic], where Lloyd's List and gCaptain print 'PIRATE ONBOARD HELP.']