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| Liberian merchant ship Brilliante Virturoso on fire/US Navy |
GULF OF ADEN (NNS) -- USS Philippine Sea (CG 58) responded to a distress call issued by the Marshall Islands-owned, Liberian-flagged, motor vessel Brilliante Virtuoso at approximately 3:30 a.m. (local time) July 6.
Brilliante Virtuoso, a 144,000-ton very large crude carrier, was approximately 20 nautical miles southwest of Aden, Yemen when they issued the call which stated they believed they were under attack by suspected pirates and required assistance. The motor vessel was travelling eastbound from the Suez Canal through the Gulf of Aden at the time of the attack.
Shortly after the suspected attack, Brilliant Virtuoso reported a fire on board which was beyond their control and that their intention was to abandon ship.
Philippine Sea, operating under Combined Maritime Forces (CMF), responded to the distress call. Upon their arrival, they observed smoke coming from the superstructure of the ship and that the crew had abandoned ship in a life-raft. They found no evidence of pirates and concentrated their efforts on assisting the crew members.
The owner of Brilliante Virtuoso has confirmed that all 26 Filipino crew members have been recovered safely by Philippine Sea.
Hello everyone, just wanted to make a little note in my blogs since I haven't worked on them basically since Jan 24th when I went to the hospital, and since then there has been a lot going on, I am healthy enough now that I am back in college, for the summer semester I am at South Western college, normally I am a student at San Diego City college, but because it is a public school with the largest percentage of their income to keep the school open and students in class and California is having a serious budget problem, all summer classes at San Diego City where cancelled because the state and the city of San Diego it's self are broke.Brilliante Virtuoso, a 144,000-ton very large crude carrier, was approximately 20 nautical miles southwest of Aden, Yemen when they issued the call which stated they believed they were under attack by suspected pirates and required assistance. The motor vessel was travelling eastbound from the Suez Canal through the Gulf of Aden at the time of the attack.
Shortly after the suspected attack, Brilliant Virtuoso reported a fire on board which was beyond their control and that their intention was to abandon ship.
Philippine Sea, operating under Combined Maritime Forces (CMF), responded to the distress call. Upon their arrival, they observed smoke coming from the superstructure of the ship and that the crew had abandoned ship in a life-raft. They found no evidence of pirates and concentrated their efforts on assisting the crew members.
The owner of Brilliante Virtuoso has confirmed that all 26 Filipino crew members have been recovered safely by Philippine Sea.
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| Map of the Gulf of Aden/Photo Worldatlus.com |
At first I about had a heart attack because besides my navy retirement the 9/11 GI Bill is my main source of income, however luckily City farmed out the veterans attending class there so we wouldn't loose our GI Bill income. The good thing is that we didn't have to do the normal transferring of records, all we had to do is get a Parental letter from our original school.
Now that I am back on me feet completely and going back to school, you should see more posts from me in all my blogs. God Bless everyone of you and I pray everyone is doing well.
