Good News From The Royal Navy!

[Nausikaa]

Two Somali 'pirates' killed in clash with British navy: ministry

LONDON (AFP) — Two suspected Somali pirates were killed in an exchange of fire with the British navy, the defence ministry said on Wednesday.

The HMS Cumberland was conducting a routine NATO-led patrol in the Gulf of Aden on Tuesday when it spotted a dhow which had been identified in an attempt to hijack a Danish vessel, the MV Powerful, earlier in the day.

The defence ministry said in a statement that the British ship had used "non-forcible methods" in an attempt to stop the dhow, and boats were then launched to circle and intercept the vessel.

"These boats were fired at from the dhow and the crews returned fire in self defence," the statement said.

"Two foreign nationals, believed to be Somali pirates, were shot and killed in self defence."

A Yemeni man was also found injured and later died, although the defence ministry said it was unclear whether he had sustained his injuries in the firefight "or in a previous incident involving the pirates".

Piracy is rife in the region where Somalia's northeastern tip juts into the Indian Ocean, on a key maritime route leading to the Suez Canal.

The pirates are equipped with speedboats and armed with automatic weapons and rocket-propelled grenades.

A Turkish-flagged tanker with a 14-man crew became the latest victim of the pirates when it was hijacked off Yemen on Wednesday, the Anatolia news agency reported.

Last month, a maritime watchdog said Somali pirates were responsible for nearly a third of all reported attacks on ships.

HMS Cumberland is the current British contribution to the NATO mission in the Maritime Security Patrol Area (MSPA), which provides security to shipping crossing the Gulf of Aden

Thank you the Royal Navy for the best news in a long time. The R.N. may have shrunk but you guys still do a first class job!

H.M.S. Cumberland (R.N. website)

Aye // Nausikaa

[gslabbert5119]

Hallelujah ; It's a start and every bit helps, but a plan of action needs to be set in place or each of these small victories will end up having little effect.

Thanks RN

[Lighthouse]

GREAT STUFF!

[edsailing]

A couple of bits of news

http://www.news24.com/News24/Africa/News/0...2424392,00.html

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/worl...icle5141745.ece

[delatbabel]

The RN may have shrunk, but:

In the 17th - 19th centuries (and the early part of the 20th), the RN maintained dominance over the seas by two means. One was to have more ships -- British government policy at the time varied but was based on the principle of having a larger navy than the next two largest navies in the world combined.

The other was by having the best seafarers. Even in the days of press-ganging, the RN took its crews from the merchant marine and other seafaring communities where available, and spent time at sea training them. Typically, during the wars of Napoleon, the Spanish and French navies were recruited from the countryside or from the army.

The days of having the largest navy may have gone, but the days of having the best navy may have not.