{"id":7518,"date":"2020-04-07T03:46:27","date_gmt":"2020-04-07T00:46:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/venezuelan-patrol-boat-sinks-after-colliding-with-cruise-ship\/7518\/"},"modified":"2020-04-07T03:46:27","modified_gmt":"2020-04-07T00:46:27","slug":"venezuelan-patrol-boat-sinks-after-colliding-with-cruise-ship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/venezuelan-patrol-boat-sinks-after-colliding-with-cruise-ship\/7518\/","title":{"rendered":"Venezuelan Patrol Boat Sinks after Colliding with Cruise Ship"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Venezuelan patrol boat sank after allegedly ramming an expedition cruise ship off Venezuela\u2019s northern coast last week.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The incident occurred in the early morning hours (local time) of March 30, 2020.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201c(T)he cruise vessel RCGS Resolute has been subject to an act of aggression by the Venezuelan Navy in international waters, around 13.3 nautical miles from Isla de Tortuga with 32 crew member and no passengers on board,\u201d <\/em>Hamburg-based ship manager Columbia Cruise Services said.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

As explained, the Portugal-flagged cruise ship had been drifting for one day off the coast of the island to conduct some routine engine maintenance on its idle voyage to Willemstad\/ Cura\u00e7ao.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cShortly after mid-night, the cruise vessel was approached by an armed Venezuelan Navy vessel, which via radio questioning the intentions of the RCGS Resolute\u2019s presence and gave the order to follow to Puerto Moreno on Isla De Margarita.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile the Master was in contact with the head office, gun shots were fired and, shortly thereafter, the navy vessel approached the starboard side at speed with an angle of 135\u00b0 and purposely collided with the RCGS Resolute,\u201d <\/em>Columbia Cruise Services further said.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cThe navy vessel continued to ram the starboard bow in an apparent attempt to turn the ship\u2019s head towards Venezuelan territorial waters.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The ice-strengthened expedition vessel sustained only minor damages not affecting its seaworthiness. However, the patrol boat Naiguata (GC-23) was severely damaged and started to take on water.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Columbia Cruise Services said that the 8,300-ton cruise ship remained in the vicinity of the scene for more than one hour and reached out to the Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre (MRCC) Cura\u00e7ao. All attempts to contact those on board the navy ship were reportedly unanswered. After receiving the order to resume passage, Resolute continued sailing towards its destination at Cura\u00e7ao.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

A full investigation into the circumstances surrounding the incident will now be carried out, the company added.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

In a separate statement, the Venezuelan government claimed that the incident took place in the country\u2019s territorial waters, near the La Tortuga Island, and that the cruise ship entered Venezuela\u2019s jurisdictional waters illegally.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The government also suggested that the cruise ship may have carrying mercenaries that intended \u201cto attack military bases in Venezuela.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cBeing escorted, it (the cruise ship) decided to ram the Bolivarian navy ship, which caused its sinking,\u201d <\/em>Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino L\u00f3pez noted.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The country\u2019s defense ministry accused Resolute of a \u201ccowardly and criminal\u201d<\/em> action as the ship \u201cdid not attend to the rescue of the crew.\u201d\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

world maritime news<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Venezuelan patrol boat sank after allegedly ramming an expedition cruise ship off Venezuela\u2019s northern coast last week. The incident occurred in the early morning hours (local time) of March 30, 2020. \u201c(T)he cruise vessel RCGS Resolute has been subject to an act of aggression by the Venezuelan Navy in international waters, around 13.3 nautical …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7519,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[1467,4328,1153,1466,1070,2990,1189],"class_list":["post-7518","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-maritime-news","tag-boat","tag-colliding","tag-cruise","tag-patrol","tag-ship","tag-sinks","tag-venezuelan"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7518","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7518"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7518\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/7519"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7518"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7518"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7518"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}