Hamza, 26, the only Saudi among the 25 hostages on board the oil-laden Saudi supertanker Sirius Star, which was seized by Somali pirates last weekend, was only on his second voyage, his tearful mother said here. Clearing discrepancy about when the ship was seized, the mother said that Saudi Aramco subsidiary Vela International, owners of the ship, had informed her husband, Mousa Hassan Al –Hamza, an Aramco employee, on Saturday about the hijacking and the seizure of their son and other crew – 19 from the Philippines, two from Britain, two from Poland and one Croatian. Hussein is the eldest of ten brothers and sisters. The mother told Arabic newspapers that she was shocked to hear of the hijacking as only that morning her daughter had received an SMS from Hussein enquiring about his mother. The SMS assured everyone that he was doing well, had been on the Arabian Sea for three days and was en route to the Caribbean the Atlantic Ocean where the supertanker was to spend a month. The mother said that she had last seen Hussein eight months ago. She said she has been trying to get him on his cellphone since Saturday but it is switched off. Hussein had dropped out of technical college to work in an Aramco oil field in Al-Majmma in the Eastern Province before he found a job in Vela, his mother said. He is crazy about the sea, she said, and has at least 12 maritime training certificates from courses he paid for in the Kingdom and in Cairo, Egypt. He also underwent the Prince Muhammed Program for Youth Development, she said. Hussein's first voyage as seaman was on a tanker from Ras Al-Juaimah in the Eastern Province but he missed it and had to fly to Amsterdam to board it. He returned on Oct. I and soon afterwards went aboard the Sirius Star bound for the United States via the Cape of Good Hope. His mother is holding on to hope that he would return safely. “He will return and I will propose to him the most beautiful girl in the area, Allah willing,” she said. __
