Citadel Symposium, hosted by SAMI
Leading figures from across the maritime industry gathered last week to discuss the use of citadels onboard ships.
Parallel to the debate on armed guards, the use of citadels is on the rise and the Citadel Symposium, hosted by the Security Association for the Maritime Industry (SAMI), heard from a panel of industry experts.
The International Maritime Organization has stated that citadels can only be established with the input and guidance of professional security experts, and security consultant John Twiss, COO of UK-based Independent Maritime Security Associates (IMSA), spoke of his personal experience of successfully withdrawing a crew into a citadel.
The audience heard how he and three colleagues had boarded the Maltese-flagged chemical tanker Sichem Pandora last October to carry out a security appraisal and put measures into place when the vessel was approached by a skiff carrying pirates as they were crossing from Mozambique into Tanzania waters.
Fortunately a citadel had been created and after five hours in which the crew had managed to make contact with a coalition helicopter and Turkish Naval coalition warship, the pirates gave up their attempts to penetrate the citadel and fled.
The symposium, held onboard HQS Wellington in London, also heard from SAMI founder Peter Cook, Kier Head, of counter-IED (Improvised Explosive Devices) company Allen Vanguard, Chief Maritime Security Officer at BIMCO Giles Noakes, CDR Alex Mons ND Navy- NATO and Graeme Gibbon Brooks, Managing Director of Dryad Maritime intelligence service.
Mr Gibbon Brooks, a former principal warfare officer in the Royal Navy, said statistics showed that citadels had an 87% success rate, and failure of the remainder was often due to not having the correct procedure in place.
“A citadel is absolutely essential. We must layer defence and it’s an absolutely last line of defence,” he said.
Peter Cook, said SAMI’s membership had grown exponentially to currently 91 members and its maritime security accreditation programme, which started on a pilot basis recently, was going well and due to be rolled out properly in the new year.
He also said SAMI had been involved in its first government board meeting yesterday morning, and the next step would be setting up an advisory board on maritime security.
“We are going to be building a bridge with SAMI, between the shipping industry and the private maritime security industry,” he said.
To view the “Citadel Symposium” by SAMI, click here
Source: SAMI
