Nearly a year to the day after Edison Chouest's supply vessel C-Retriever was hijacked and its captain and chief engineer kidnapped off Nigeria, a lawsuit has been filed in Houston against the two companies for gross negligence and failure to "take appropriate remedial measures to protect its employees," namely Captain Wren Thomas. In October 2013, Captain Thomas spent 18 … [Read more...]
Kidnapped off Nigeria – An American Ship Captain Unveils the Truth
Surrounded by rolling cornfields, Sidney, Illinois is a sleepy midwestern town with a population hovering just above 1,000. Captain Wren Thomas III grew up on a farm here, about as far away from the ocean as one can be in the United States. Much farther away still was a drug-filled pirate lair in the swamps of Nigeria that 30 years later, he would find himself in as an … [Read more...]
$2 Million in Cash Allegedly Paid to Release American Hostages in Nigeria
In an emailed statement today from the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, a.k.a MEND, the Americans kidnapped from the Edison Chouest-owned supply vessel C-Retriever were released last week after an alleged $2 million cash ransom had been paid. This appears to be the first time that specific details of a ransom payment have been made public as the result of a … [Read more...]
Nigerian Pirates Release American Captain and Chief Engineer – UPDATE
Update: The release of the two hostages has been confirmed by a U.S. State Department statement to the media. "We welcome the release of the two U.S. citizens who were kidnapped from the M/V C-Retriever. For privacy reasons, we will not provide any additional information," a State Department official said in a statement. "It is the policy of the United States not to pay … [Read more...]
Edison Chouest Threatened by Nigerian Locals Before Kidnapping
gCaptain sources note that the primary driver of piracy offshore Nigeria is the fuel theft trade, however as we reported last week, hiring local workers is another hot-button issue, one that may be a direct factor in the hijacking of the platform supply vessel C-Retriever on Wednesday, 23 October 2013. The following letter was sent out to Edison Chouest personnel working … [Read more...]
Betrayal On Board the PSV C-Retriever? Or Perhaps a Deal Gone Bad?
Very little information is available about the circumstances surrounding the capture of the two Americans from the platform supply vessel, C-Retriever on Wednesday, yet Automatic Identification System (AIS) track data of the vessel may provide a clue. As the above picture shows, the vessel had been tracking back and forth between Port Harcourt and the Pacific Bora, a … [Read more...]
Americans Kidnapped from Supply Boat Offshore Nigeria, Victim’s Family Interviewed
"Things are definitely getting more intense here," remarked one of our sources working offshore Nigeria this afternoon. A security boat manned with Joint Task Force (JTF) Nigeria personnel was allegedly attacked by militants this morning off Nigeria. According to one of our sources, all JTF personnel were killed and their weapons taken by the militants. "This is the … [Read more...]