Shots fired ‘mistakenly at Yemeni Coast Guard’ from yacht once owned by Richard Burton

Armed guards aboard a yacht once owned by the late Welsh actor Richard Burton have fired on approaching ships in the Gulf of Aden, prompting an intense gunfight. Yemeni authorities said the guards mistakenly opened fire on a Coast Guard vessel but the ship’s manager insisted they had clashed with pirates.

The shooting reportedly killed one Yemeni Coast Guard member and wounded another person in a hail of gunfire – the guards are said to have shot as many as 200 rounds of ammunition. The incident shows the danger faced by both shippers and security forces in the waters off the Arab world’s poorest country, even as it remains crucial for global commerce.

Details of what happened to the Kalizma remain unclear and contested, hours after the incident. The British military’s United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations initially reported it as an attack with gunfire off Nishtun, in Yemen’s far east near the border with Oman.

But later, the British military operation providing support to ships across the Mideast described the attack in the Gulf of Aden as being “confirmed by authorities as government agency activity”, without elaborating.

Ambrey, a maritime intelligence company, said in a brief that a Yemeni Coast Guard contingent had approached a Cook Islands-flagged yacht that hadn’t responded to radio calls.

According to the Coast Guard, “an armed security team … onboard the yacht then opened fire on the approaching Yemenis and attempted to escape perceived pirates,” Ambrey said. The Coast Guard “returned fire and followed the yacht for approximately an hour until communications with the yacht could be established and the misunderstanding between the parties resolved”.

Ambrey said one Yemeni Coast Guard member was killed. A later statement from the Yemeni Coast Guard, posted online, acknowledged the death and said its forces along with Yemen’s navy tried to stop the Kalizma as it was operating in a “very suspicious way” close to the shore and did not answer radio calls.

“The yacht penetrated territorial waters and sailed in them without raising the flag of the yacht’s country, as well as refused to respond and stop in clear violation of international maritime law,” the Yemeni Coast Guard said.

Aashim Mongia, the owner of Mumbai’s West Coast Marine Yacht Services, which manages the Kalizma, told The Associated Press that one of the guards on board the vessel suffered a gunshot wound to the shoulder. He insisted that “pirates” attacked the vessel first and came back in several waves to try to take the Kalizma, forcing the ship’s three guards to fire more than 200 rounds to protect the nine crew on board.

“If it was the Yemeni Coast Guard, why did they open fire?” Mongia asked.

Photos from the ship showed what appeared to be bullet holes from small arms fire scattered across the luxurious Kalizma.

Initially built in 1906, the Kalizma was bought by Burton for $220,000 in 1967. It was on board the ship where he gave actor and his twice-wife Elizabeth Taylor a 69.42-carat, pear-shaped diamond now known as the Taylor-Burton Diamond.

The ship later was bought by Indian investor Shirish Saraf, according to a profile by magazine Boat International. Requests for comment to Saraf’s investment firm Samena Capital were not answered.

Nishtun is held by forces allied to Yemen’s internationally recognised government, which is backed by a Saudi-led coalition. The Gulf of Aden is a crucial route for global trade and has seen attacks attributed to Yemen’s Iranian-backed Houthi rebels during the country’s yearslong civil war. Somali pirate attacks that once plagued the region have mostly stopped in recent years.

However, attacks have happened there before. In December 2020, a mysterious attack targeted a cargo ship off Nishtun. In Yemen’s war, bomb-carrying drone boats, as well as sea mines, have been used.