Page 19 - Insurance Times November 2023

As it came closer, Marquez could make out seven people.six the oil spill would pour into the water. When the 'USS
of them in desert-style camouflage, holding what looked like Philippine Sea' was close enough, it sent two inflatable boats
rifles. His superior on the watch, Second Officer Roberto to collect the rejoicing Filipino Crew. Then, at 5 a.m., the
Artezuela, rang Gonzaga in his cabin, and Marquez made helicopter crew saw movement again on the deck. Mr.
his way to the deck. On enquiring, one of the men produced Tabares was alive, waving a flashlight. The flames were too
a megaphone. He said they were the security team, and intense for an aerial rescue. He leapt into the sea. Seeing a
asked to board. Marquez didn't know what to do. Something Navy boat, he reached out with both hands and was pulled
didn't seem normal. There were too many men, at the to safety.
wrong time, and one wasn't even wearing shoes. Letting
armed strangers onto the ship went against every antipiracy Aboard the cruiser, Gonzaga began to tell the Americans
protocol. Marquez radioed up for instructions. After a few what had happened while he'd been separated from the
minutes an order came back: 'Lower a ladder'. Six men crew. The hijackers, he said, ordered him to turn over
climbed up. They had light brown skin and wore red-and- $100,000 and sail for Somalia; they'd fired their weapons
white keffiyehs and blue hospital masks. Their rifles looked at the ship's safe when he was slow to open it. He couldn't
like Kalashnikovs, and they carried black pistols in holsters say what caused the explosion. When Tabares arrived to
on their thighs. share his tale, he said he'd managed to disable the
Brillante's engines when his captors weren't looking, then
When Marquez asked for ID, they refused, seized his radio, escaped, hiding for so long that he missed the evacuation.
and demanded to be taken to the captain. For a long time, The 'USS Philippine Sea' searched for fleeing pirates, but the
the 24 sailors sat in the TV room, wondering what was motorboat was long gone. A tugboat arrived from Aden and
happening to their captain and chief engineer, until a clatter pumped seawater onto the Brillante, taming the fire until
of gunshots suggested the worst. They dared not open the the dead tanker drifted serenely in the morning light, low
door. At one point, the Brillante's engine roared to life; the in the water, trailing a thick column of smoke.
ship was moving, but no one knew where. Suddenly, at
around 3 a.m., an explosion sounded within the tanker, After a shipwreck, insurers and insured alike have an interest
knocking out the electricity and setting off alarms. Fearful in preserving as much value as possible, so they turn to
of their guards, the crew waited in place but when smoke salvage. Under Lloyd's rules, salvors are entitled to a
began to fill the room, a few crept out and discovered that percentage of anything they save from destruction, and it
the intruders had fled Guided by dim emergency lights, is widely assumed that some shipowners steer business to
Marquez and several other crewmen rushed to the top of favoured companies in return for a cut of their
the ship, where they found Gonzaga on the bridge, alone compensation. Just minutes after the Brillante's distress
and unharmed, bound by plastic ties. They sliced him free. signal went out, the tanker's owner, Suez Fortune,
contacted a company named "Poseidon Salvage
As smoke poured out of the tanker's funnels, sailors made a International", which got two of its boats in Aden to the
distress call that was picked up by the 'USS Philippine Sea', scene by 7 a.m. Four days later, Suez's owner, a Greek
a guided-missile cruiser on pirate patrol nearby. Gonzaga named' Mr.Marios Iliopoulos', flew to Aden. He secured the
gave the order: "Prepare to abandon ship". On deck, the Brillante's crew in a hotel. On the other side, Iliopoulos also
crew counted off. Twenty-five men all but Tabares -- were prepared to submit a claim for his ruined tanker. But before
missing. The fire had reached their level, and they could hear the insurers would pay, they would want a better
loud, ominous cracks from metal buckling in the heat. A understanding of the hijacking. And for that, they would
search party went back for Tabares, but the smoke was too need the marine surveyor, Captain David Mockett.
thick. At 4 a.m. the crew gave up and took to the gulf in a
large, orange lifeboat. As they did, the whirring of a rotor Captain David Mockett, a British Marine Surveyor and
chopper beat down from above.it was a U.S. Navy Seahawk Maritime Legal Consultant who was investigating the
helicopter, launched by the approaching 'USS Philippine Sea'. incident, was reported to have believed that the attack on
From the air, the American crew saw fireballs rising from the Brillante Virtuoso was carried out by a criminal gang as
the stricken tanker and felt the threat of explosions within. part of an insurance fraud. According to the testimony of
They trained infrared cameras on the hull seeking signs that the ship's crew members, Iliopoulos and his employees were

18 November 2023 The Insurance Times