The Barbadian-flagged bulk carrier 'Bobic' (IMO: 9317781) on Friday fended off two waves of attacks from about 15 pirate skiffs (small boats), as per a United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) report.
The Turkish-owned vessel from Georgia—headed for China's Lianyungang port—was about 15 nautical miles away from the western coast of Yemen (near the Bab Al Mandeb Strait) when it was attacked by the skiffs, the UKMTO incident report said.
At about 3:32 UTC on Friday (9 AM IST on Friday), pirates reached 0.1-0.2 nautical miles (less than 500m) from the Bobic when they opened fire. Despite the rain of bullets, the vessel's security team returned fire, which forced some of the boats to retreat.
However, a number of the boats tried again, but were still no match for the vessel's security team, and fled.
"It is unlikely that this was the Houthis; maybe the PAG is trying new locations and tactics over the coming weeks," maritime safety expert Joshua Hutchinson wrote on LinkedIn, offering visuals of the Bobic's security team returning fire.
Another LinkedIn user pointed out that the scale of the attack—15 vessels—indicated that this was less of a piracy attempt, and more of a "coordinated swarm".
"Some people in the shipping industry tend to forget that the Houthis are not the only threat in the area," a third user wrote, agreeing with Hutchinson.
The skiffs' mother vessel could not be identified this time, as in the case of the attack on the MV Stolt Sagaland off the Somali coast last month.
"No casualties are reported and the vessel is proceeding to its next port of call," the report concluded, adding that the vessel was still on high alert. The Bobic had made its previous port call in Ukraine.
Meanwhile, just minutes after the Bobic's high-octane defence, Marshall Islands-flagged bulk carrier 'Globe Aliki' (IMO: 9687100), was passing through the area, when it observed several of the skiffs just 1 NM away, as per a Marine Traffic report. Still, it was not targeted.