French warship thwarts Somali pirate attack

[Wretched Excess]

PARIS (Reuters) - A French warship thwarted an attack by Somali pirates on a cargo ship in the Gulf of Aden and arrested eight men, the French military said on Friday.

The French frigate was patrolling the seas off Somalia as part of a European Union mission against rampant piracy in the region when it received a distress signal on Thursday from a Panamanian-registered boat that was being pursued by pirates.

Christophe Prazuck, a spokesman for the French armed forces, said the pirates fled when the frigate first approached and were eventually captured when they made a second attempt to seize the S. Venus cargo ship some hours later.

"Resistance was impossible when faced by a well-armed warship," Prazuck told LCI television, adding that the French forces had found a rocket launcher, assault rifles and boarding ladders on the pirate's vessel.

The operation happened some 80 km (50 miles) from the coast of Yemen and the eight men seized by the French will be taken to nearby Somalia for trial.

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captured by the french?  this is going to be embarrassing for them to try to explain to all of the other pirates.  what happened, did the french ship back into them?

[Miss Mia]

captured by the french?  this is going to be embarrassing for them to try to explain to all of the other pirates.  what happened, did the french ship back into them?

Those pirates should be totally ashamed of themselves.   

[JohnnyReb]

".....and the eight men seized by the French will be taken to nearby Somalia for trial."..... Then it was a waste of time to capture them.

Better to have had a little high seas justice......or did some shark fishing......do sharks like dark meat?

[Wretched Excess]

well, there are pirates

and then there are pirates


the french didn't capture blackbeard, they captured mikmik ooomdiggetydongdong.

[Rebel]

....and people wonder why it keeps happening. 

There was another story about another possible attack where the crew used water cannons to thwart the attack. Um, yeah, might thwart THAT attack, but not the pirates from doing the same shit again.

Here's a suggestion, 50 CALS! Two on the port, two on the starboard, and one each on the stern and bow. Start firing BULLETS. Start killing these sumbitches and they'll get the damn message. It's maritime law and out there, you're pretty much on your own. We fish 47 miles off the coast of Florida, and I know it's safe, but we still carry firearms. 47 miles out, you can't see a damn thing. No land, and many times, no other boats.

[Miss Mia]

the french didn't capture blackbeard, they captured mikmik ooomdiggetydongdong.

LOL!   

[Wretched Excess]

....and people wonder why it keeps happening. 

There was another story about another possible attack where the crew used water cannons to thwart the attack. Um, yeah, might thwart THAT attack, but not the pirates from doing the same shit again.

Here's a suggestion, 50 CALS! Two on the port, two on the starboard, and one each on the stern and bow. Start firing BULLETS. Start killing these sumbitches and they'll get the damn message. It's maritime law and out there, you're pretty much on your own. We fish 47 miles off the coast of Florida, and I know it's safe, but we still carry firearms. 47 miles out, you can't see a damn thing. No land, and many times, no other boats.

a good point.  they need to stop capturing them, and start blowing them to freaking mars.  all of the pirate activity in the area would magically cease.

[Chris_]

a good point.  they need to stop capturing them, and start blowing them to freaking mars.  all of the pirate activity in the area would magically cease.

IIRC, the Indians blew a Somali "Mother Ship" out of the water.  Never screw with Sikhs.

[BlueStateSaint]

IIRC, the Indians blew a Somali "Mother Ship" out of the water.  Never screw with Sikhs.

There were reports that said "mother ship" wasn't engaged in pirate activity.  Don't know how truthful they were.

Kev, I like your idea, but I want to take it a bit further . . . Instead of .50 BMGs, how 'bout either Phalanx or the 25mm Chain Guns? 

Now that I think of it, let's go a bit further than that.  Anybody ever heard of "Q-Ships?"

[Chris_]

There were reports that said "mother ship" wasn't engaged in pirate activity.  Don't know how truthful they were.

Kev, I like your idea, but I want to take it a bit further . . . Instead of .50 BMGs, how 'bout either Phalanx or the 25mm Chain Guns? 

Now that I think of it, let's go a bit further than that.  Anybody ever heard of "Q-Ships?"

Q-ships would be pretty effective, at least in the short term.  Probably better might be ressurecting the convoy system.  One or two destroyers or frigates making the rounds covering anywhere from 4 to 30 civillian vessels ought to make raiding the shipping transiting the Suez canal or Persian gulf a non-starter for 99% of the non-state entities in the region, and give pause for thought to even most of the lesser state entities *cough* Iranian Navy and Air Force *cough*. 

If the faithful of the Iranian Navy switch up to some of those Kilo and Foxtrot subs they bought, make it a destroyer and a SSN to keep the third axis clear, otherwise the only problem is getting the shipping lines of 3 dozen different countries to coordinate convoy schedules, and possibly even the limp dicks at the State department couldn't **** that up.  Well, maybe they couldn't, and...

[Chris_]

Found this earlier this morning, looking for something else.

Oil Tanker Fires on Vessel In the High Seas
Mar 26th, 2008

A US flagged oil tanker off the coast of Egypt opened fire upon a small vessel that approached and did not react to any radio signals from the US vessel ordering it to identify itself. The tanker in question opened fire after the vessel penetrated the safe zone of the vessel. It turned out that Egyptian vessel was trying to sell things to the crew and one member of the crew of that vessel was killed by the tanker’s security team.

Either this is a statement on the limitations of a Q-ship in this role (not open warfare between declared state combatants), or a reinforcement of the need for a better trained and consistent armed presence than private security forces on a tanker.