On the morning of 17 April 1998, the Singapore merchant ship Petro Ranger set sail carrying 9600 tonnes of diesel and 1200 tonnes of Jet A-1 fuel for delivery to Vietnam. Three hours beyond Singapore's territorial waters, north of what is called the Horsburgh Light, the Petro Ranger's Australian captain, Ken Blyth, found himself surrounded by armed men on the bridge. A dozen pirates, faces covered in balaclavas, had apparently boarded the tanker from a small craft that the crew did not see. They put a machete to Blyth's throat, then another to his scrotum, and told him he must order the crew to surrender.

LRB 18 December 2003 | PDF Download