Friday - September 10, 2010

Marines 9, Pirates 0

U.S. Marine commandos stormed a pirate-held cargo ship off the Somalia coast Thursday, reclaiming control and taking nine prisoners without firing a shot in the first such boarding raid by the international anti-piracy flotilla, U.S. Navy officials said.

The mission — using small craft to reach the deck of German-owned vessel as the crew huddled in a safe room below — ranks among the most dramatic high seas confrontations with pirates by the task force created to protect shipping lanes off lawless Somalia.

The crew managed to kill the engines before taking refuge in an panic room-style chamber, leaving the ship adrift and the pirates so frustrated they started damaging equipment after hijacking the vessel Wednesday, Navy officials and the ship’s operator say.

Lt. John Fage, a spokesman at the U.S. Fifth Fleet headquarters in Bahrain, described the pre-dawn raid as an “air and sea” assault that included Cobra attack helicopters for surveillance and coordination.

Marine Corps officers involved in the raid told reporters in a conference call that the attack involved “overwhelming force” and the element of surprise. Marines were able to separate the pirates and confront them singly or in small groups, while helicopters bore down.

The armed pirates gave up quickly when faced with large numbers of Marines carrying heavier weaponry.

Getting to the crew barricaded behind three walls in a safe room proved to be a quite a challenge, however, and the Marines had to drill through steel walls to reach the suspicious sailors.

Capt. Alexander Martin said the crew was finally persuaded that they were being rescued when a Marine ripped the American flag patch from his uniform and stuffed it through a hole the rescuers had bored in the final steel door.
...
Fage said there were no injuries reported among the Marines or 11-member crew of the Magellan Star. The pirates were armed with AK-47 assault rifles, but “there were no shots fired” on either side, Fage said.

A Turkish frigate on antipiracy patrols, TCG Gokceada, first responded to a distress call from the ship, which flies the flag of Antigua and Barbuda. Fage said the crew — which include Polish, Russian, Ukrainian and Filipino seamen — was able to maintain contact with maritime officials from their safe room using a satellite phone.

The crew also shut down the engines as the pirates approached, leaving the ship to drift at sea, said Juergen Salamon, the ship’s operator based in Dortmund, Germany.

“The pirates had entered a ship that they couldn’t steer and there was no crew,” he said.

The pirates then hit an emergency button that connected them directly with the ship operators in Germany.

“They asked us where the crew is,” he said. “We told them, ‘They’re on leave.”’

There was no demands for ransom, he said.

The ship was travelling from Bilbao, Spain, to Singapore with a cargo of anchor chains, Salamon said. It is now en route to Dubai for repairs.

“The pirates were angry and vandalised the ship badly,” he said.

The TCG Gokceada (F 494) is the former USS Mahlon S. Tisdale (FFG-27), an Oliver Hazard Perry class guided missile frigate 453 feet long. Launched in 1981, Tisdale was sold to Turkey in 1999.

The Marines were operating from the USS Dubuque (LPD-8), a 569 foot long amphibious assault vessel of such useful design that it isn’t even called a ship. It’s a dock. It holds several extra large hovercraft assault vehicles, a whole bunch of Strikers, Humvees, trucks, and a huge pile of angry Marines. 840 of them. Several helicopters and Osprey aircraft are carried on deck. USS Dubuque has been in service since 1967.

USS Princeton (CG-59), a guided missile cruiser 113 feet longer and 8 years younger than the TCG Gokceada was also on hand.



Now if only our navy would take a tip from the Russian navy, and return these poor pirates to their mother ship. As it sinks. And burns. With lawyers charging what they do, in the long run this saves money.

Posted by Drew458     on 09/10/2010 at 10:03 AM   
Filed Under: • Pirates, aarrgh! •  
• Comments (4) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

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