U.S. Navy Triumphs Over Pirates on the High Seas

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November 05, 2007 3:08 PM

The U.S. Navy says it helped regain control of three vessels over the weekend that had been under the control of Somali pirates for almost five months.

In all three cases, the pirates were persuaded by the Navy to leave the ships. 

The destroyer USS James E. Williams aided the crew of the Taiwanese ship, M/V Ching Fong Hwa, regain control earlier today.

After the pirates returned to shore, the destroyer escorted the Taiwanese ship out of Somali waters and provided needed supplies and medical assistance.

The U.S. Navy aided two South Korean vessels – both hijacked in May – in retaking their ships after ship-to-ship communications on Sunday.

Those ships – Mavuno 1 and Mavuno 2 -- are now safe in Yemenese waters.

The three rescued vessels cap off a busy week for the Navy.

Earlier, Navy corpsmen boarded a North Korean cargo ship to provide medical assistance to the crew after they had overpowered their hijackers. And another U.S. Navy destroyer had fired on pirate skiffs  attached to Japan's Golden Nori in Somali waters, as previously reported on the Blotter.

The Golden Nori continues to be under pirate control as does the Al Marjan, a cargo ship registered in Comoros.

"We continue to encourage the pirates to leave the ships," Cmdr. Lydia Robertson said in Bahrain. "We have bridge-to-bridge communications with the pirates aboard the remaining two ships encouraging them to leave the vessels."

The U.S. Navy patrols the seas as part of the Combined Maritime Forces, based in Manama, Bahrain.

Along with naval forces from Australia, France, Germany, Italy, Pakistan and the U.K., the U.S. Navy patrols "more than 2.5 million square miles of international waters to conduct both integrated and coordinated operations...to preserve the free and secure the world’s oceans by legitimate mariners," according to the Navy.

Krista Kjellman contributed to this report.

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