Captain Avinash Rawat, the master of MV Marlin Luanda, on Saturday thanked the Indian Navy for its help in extinguishing the fire on his ship following a missile strike by the Houthis in the Gulf of Eden.
Rawat said, “Half of the world knows that yesterday we were struck by a missile in the Gulf of Aden. Due to the attack, our vessel was on massive fire. I would really like to thank Indian warship INS Visakhapatnam…,”
“We had lost hope, but these (Indian Navy) guys have done a tremendous (firefighting) job. They really went out of the way to help us out,” he added.
The crew of the merchant vessel comprised of 22 Indians and one person from Bangladesh.
Indian Navy spokesperson Commander Vivek Madhwal said, “After six hours of battling the fire along with the crew of MV Marlin Luanda, the Indian Naval fire fighting team has successfully brought the fire under control.” Madhwal stated that the team is overseeing the situation to eliminate potential for ‘re-ignition.’
Indian missile destroyer INS Visakhapatnam on Saturday answered a distress signal from MV Marlin Luanda, an oil tanker operated by the UK-based Oceonix Services, that had come under a missile attack from the Iranian-backed Houthis in the Gulf of Aden on Friday.
This incident is the latest in a string of attacks on commercial vessels in the broader region, encompassing the Red Sea and portions of the Arabian Sea.
“Based on a request from MV Marlin Luanda, INS Visakhapatnam has deployed its NBCD (nuclear biological chemical defence and damage control) team along with firefighting equipment to render assistance to the crew towards augmenting firefighting efforts on board the distressed MV,” the Indian Navy said in a statement on Saturday.
In the previous week, INS Visakhapatnam intercepted a cargo vessel carrying 22 crew members, including nine Indians, shortly after the Marshall Island-flagged ship faced a drone strike in the Gulf of Aden.
On January 5, the Navy successfully prevented the hijacking of the Liberian-flagged vessel MV Lila Norfolk in the North Arabian Sea, rescuing all crew members.
(With agencies’ inputs)
