UPDATE: Amver ship heads towards Libya

The Greeks aren't wasting any time in evacuating their citizens from Libya. The Greek government chartered the Amver participating tanker Minerva Antonia to evacuate its citizens from the port Ras Lanuf Tradewinds reported Wednesday.  The Minerva Antonia is managed by Minerva Marine and enrolled in the Amver system on December 1, 2008.  Greece isn't alone in using ships to evacuate citizens.  The United States and Turkey are using ferries to evacuate citizens as well.

Using vessels as a means of evacuating personnel from danger zones isn't new. We've discussed the topic before after reading Chris Albon's post on the Naval Institute blog.

UPDATE

According to a report from Lloyd's List, the Greek tanker Minerva Antonia loaded a cargo of low sulfur fuel at the port of Ros Lanuf but did not embark any Greek citizens for evacuation out of Libya. Clearance for the Greeks to be evacuated could not be obtained through the national oil company controlling the terminal, the report continued.  Lloyd's List also stated that reports the Greek ship was prepared to evacuate up to 300 people was exaggerated.


Efforts to evacuate United States citizens by ferry were continuing.  According to State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley, on Twitter, the ferry was unable to depart Libya because of bad weather but would depart for Malta when weather conditions were favorable.

Photo credit:  www.marinetraffic.com