Bunga Melati Dua-Pirate Attack!! Marine Insurance!! -Historical Maritime Fraud

Marine insurance is one of the earliest forms of insurance type in the history. Its importance continues because of the massive sea trade traffic. Almost 80% of the world trade travels by sea. The fact that ships are carrying goods more than people affects both the policies and approach for vessels and other insurable subjects. Policies are more focused on goods and offer solutions for them, while crews become a secondary part of the insurances.

- Dr. Soumi Mukherjee

Marine insurance is one of the earliest forms of insurance type in the history. Its importance continues because of the massive sea trade traffic. Almost 80% of the world trade travels by sea. The fact that ships are carrying goods more than people affects both the policies and approach for vessels and other insurable subjects. Policies are more focused on goods and offer solutions for them, while crews become a secondary part of the insurances.

From the first day through present time, seaways have their distinctive dangers and problems. Maybe the most important issue is piracy. This old way of robbery is still popular in these days, especially, at African offshore Gulf of Aden. By examining the recent cases from Somalia, what can we say about the relation between marine insurance and risk of piracy?

Nowadays pirates do not care about the value of the goods or crew. What they aim is to gain a high ransom from ship owners without getting into trouble. By this way, they do not take any risks in terms of selling the seized goods in the market and therefore the variety of goods does not affect whether it is saleable or not, because what the pirates care is cash ransom money and not the goods itself. Nowadays pirate attacks are mainly seen at three spots which are South East Asia, West Africa-Gulf of Guinea and the most famous one, the Gulf of Aden-Somalia. Especially, the Gulf of Aden is a critical point where one third of international oil trade and almost 20.000 vessels pass by from Somalia offshore. Therefore, it is an attractive place for pirates.