Reported pirate attack in Indonesia

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ATTACKED BY PIRATES IN INDONESIA.
April, 2002
[NOTE: This piracy report was sent to us by our friend Graem, an Australian sailor in his early to mid-30s. Graem has lived in the Philippines for the past several years, and has sailed his 40’ Hunter down to Malaysia several times. He was at Sebana Cove Marina when Chris, a single-handed cruiser came through. Chris, about 70 years old, was on his way to Western Australia, where Graem is from, and so Graem decided to accompany him to Perth. This is the story of their experience in Indonesia.]

"On 11 April, 2002, while passing through Indonesian waters, our cruising yacht S/Y September Song, a 43-foot pilothouse ketch was beset upon and boarded by armed pirates.

With only Chris, the owner/skipper, and myself onboard, we had departed Sebana Cove Marina, Johore, Malaysia on April 4 bound for Western Australia, passing through Indonesia with a planned fuel stop in Surabaya. After eight days of motor sailing, we entered the main shipping channel into Surabaya harbor in the eary hours of the morning. It being too difficult to locate the fuel barge in the dark, we motor sailed down the channel and just before reaching the main harbor, decided to anchor off to the west side out of the main channel until daylight, at a place called Gresick. While we were looking for a place to anchor we noticed some small fishing boats coming past us, but staying out of reach of our torch light. Once we had anchored Chris went below to sleep until daylight. I decided to have a shower in the back cockpit before also going to sleep for an hour. On deck alone and very tired after eight days of motor sailing, a small fishing boat approached the starboard side of our yacht. The two Indonesians were males probably in their late teens or early twenties. I thought they were local fisherman typically curious to have a closer look at our yacht. Speaking some Indonesian I had the usual conversation, “Yes, we have come from Singapore, and yes, we are on our way to Australia. There are only two of us on board and as soon as it is daylight we will proceed into Surabaya harbor and take on fuel from the fuel barge.”

They asked if they could come on board and I politely refused them permission. They then asked if I wanted to buy some fish and I said “no thank you”. While I was talking to the first one I noticed the second one was roving his eyes all over the yacht and particularly the two outboards chained to the stern rail. They soon departed and we bid each other farewell and I watched them leave.

I had my shower and feeling fresher decided to stay on deck and watch the sunrise rather than try and sleep for half an hour or so. Some more small fishing boats passed close by and I flashed my torch at each of them while waiting for the sunrise.

The sun was just starting to come up, and feeling uncomfortable where we were, I went below to wake Chris and suggest there was enough daylight now so we should get going. We both came up on deck to get ready, raise the anchor and get some fuel. While on deck, a fishing boat with four male occupants came along side. This boat was the same one with the two young men that I had spoken to earlier.

They wanted to come on board and I said no. They were still persisting while Chris and I stood alongside the rail looking down at them (and I am 6’1” and weigh ninety five kilograms [JP Note: Chris is about 5’10”, thin and wiry]. We politely said they could not come on board, and Chris told them we were getting ready to raise the anchor and get underway. Chris had started the main engine and had asked me to go below to lay the chain while he raised the anchor chain.

While I was down below laying the chain in the noisy anchor well, I heard some shouts, and then the anchor chain stopped. I put my head up through the front hatch to see what was happening but couldn’t see Chris. I called out to Chris but there was no answer, so I walked back through the cabin and up onto the deck to see what the problem was. I reached the wheelhouse and was surprised to see one of the Indonesian men I had spoken to earlier down in the wheelhouse looking around. I told him “Out!”, grabbed him by the collar and waist and carried him up the stairs and onto the deck. Once on deck I saw Chris wrestling with two young men, trying to push them back onto their boat. I was about to go and help when I saw they were all carrying sickles (small curved-bladed knives), one in each hand. The one I pushed out of the wheelhouse was also carrying one in each hand and started trying to get around me to go back down the companionway into the wheelhouse. I blocked his passage and said, “Please, you are not allowed downstairs.” Meanwhile Chris was still wrestling with the leader trying to force him back over the rail into their boat with the other one standing next to Chris looking on. There were three on board and a fourth standing in their boat holding the rail.

I called out and told them I would call the police on the radio of they didn’t leave. To my surprise, they all started to wave their sickles about and became extremely agitated. They threatened to cut our throats and used their arms and sickles to show us very clearly what they meant. I stopped threatening to call the police to calm the situation down and lower the “ante.” I said I would not call the police but they had to get off our boat. Chris then started to move from the starboard rail and into the cockpit to put the engine throttle in gear and get going. Their leader tackled him again in the cockpit and a struggle ensued, and he knocked the engine throttle out of gear. After a further struggle Chris managed to push the throttle lever back down again. Our yacht started moving and this caught the person holding their boat alongside by surprise. He lost his grip temporarily and was struggling to hold onto our moving boat. He called out for help and the one on the starboard rail jumped down to help him. There were now only two left on board. The one next to me demanded my watch, money, etc. I flatly refused and he finally decided to jump back on board their boat to help hold it. By this stage we were probably making four knots and accelerating. Finally, the one wrestling with Chris, discovering he was alone, stopped wrestling and bolted for their boat. Less than a minute later he would have had to leap into the water to escape.

They headed back to shore and we motored towards the main harbor and the fuel barge about 5 miles away. This whole incident lasted about twenty minutes.

At the fuel barge we were informed that they regularly harassed the fuel barge for money and were from Manado, not from Java.

LESSONS LEARNED

The whole incident happened so quickly and so unexpectedly that we were truly caught by surprise. We didn’t have time to even think about going below and getting a knife to use against them. With three of them boarding so quickly, we had our hands full trying to fend them off and keep them together. We don’t carry firearms on board, though it wouldn’t have helped anyway as we would not have had the time to get them.

Chris’s putting the yacht in gear and starting to get underway was clearly the deciding factor in their hasty retreat. They departed in less than a minute once we were moving. Even if we were at anchor, this would still be effective against armed intruders. I continually tried to calm the situation down and not get them too excited. I am sure if they were serious, they would have had their way and we would have been seriously injured if we resisted. And I am sure these four pirates have also learned from this and will do it better next time.

There would have been no chance to fight back successfully if I were alone or just with my girlfriend.

Next time I’m approached I will always say there are many of us on board and keep the music up loud enough to be clearly heard on deck."

Further comments from Jeanne: Surabaya is the second largest city in Indonesia, with a population of approximately 3 million people. We stopped there on our way through Indonesia in 1997, and though we found the locals to be somewhat greedy, we were not bothered. Since that time, however, Indonesia has had terrible political and financial problems, and it is my opinion that the country has descended into anarchy. There has been a dramatic rise in reports of piracy in Indonesian waters, reflecting the country’s worsening economic and political situation. I think that lone yachts cruising through Indonesian waters nowadays would risk some type of theft. Graem said the locals said that the four thieves were from Manado, but I think that he might have misheard the man - I think that it was very likely that these fellows were from the island of Madura, which is just two or three miles across the shipping channel from Surabaya. My reasons for thinking that they’re Maduranese is because these islanders have a reputation among Indonesians of being somewhat aggressive and unscrupulous. They are the people that have been attacked by the indigenous people in Kalimantan, the Indonesian state on the island of Borneo. The Madurese, like the Malaitan people in the Solomons, tend to go off island to find work and are viewed with suspicion by the other islanders.

One other comment, about the two outboards that were on the stern rail of SEPTEMBER SONG. The only significant theft we have ever encountered was of our two outboards, padlocked to our stern rail several years ago while anchored off Sibu City, Sarawak, Malaysia. There, too, the locals felt that the theft was done by foreign crew on a barge that had been anchored near us until the morning that we discovered the theft. Outboard motors are very valuable in these island nations, and since this theft we now remove our outboard from the rail when we are anchored in a strange place, locking it in our lazarette.