International Marine Survey - Marine Consultants

In the early hours of tuesday morning, a Ukrainian Officer was tragically killed by pirates aboard the Monrovia flagged Cancale Star.

Pirates boarded the vessel in darkness, 18 nautical miles off the West coast of Africa. The officer was shot dead in an onboard confrontation, the pirates escaping with the contents of the ship's safe. 

The tanker's Master, Captain Semenovics, reported that around six or seven pirates had approached the tanker in a speed boat.

"They came on deck" he said, "pointed a pistol to the head of one of the sailors, marched him to my cabin" (they) "asked me to open the safe and they collected all the cash" 

The Master did not state directly how much money the pirates stole.

The vessel was reportedly carrying some 89,000 m3 of Crude from Nigeria's Niger Delta.

The tanker's owners Chemikalien Seetransport have issued a statement from Germany confirming that the vessel's chief officer "has tragically lost his life in a piracy attack off the coast of Benin in the early hours of November 24th"