Sailors from the USS Philippine Sea approach a lifeboat, right, to rescue crew members from the Brillante Virtuoso last month in the Gulf of Aden. The tanker is burning in the background.
Photo courtesy Information Systems Command
Posted on 08/13/2011 5:27:07 AM PDT by Pan_Yan
A 2006 Bonny Eagle graduate who joined the Navy right out of high school found himself amid a dramatic piracy rescue last month off the coast of Yemen.
Hollis native Lucas Alderette, an electronics technician serving aboard the guided-missile cruiser USS Philippine Sea, said a pre-dawn alarm led to the rescue of the crew of the Brillante Virtuoso, an oil tanker that had been attacked by pirates in the Gulf of Aden and set ablaze on July 6.
"When we showed up, it was of course still very dark out, but the tanker was easily visible because large sections were on fire, with occasional fireballs -- almost like an action movie, but from far away," Alderette wrote in a recent email.
"The actual pirates had been gone long before we arrived on scene. It's just a business for them, so if something starts going bad and it's easier to leave than to try to get what they want, they'll take the easier route," he wrote.
Alderette and 13 others from his ship rescued 25 crew members from a lifeboat and one who was still aboard the Brillante Virtuoso, according to Navy spokesman Lt. Frederick Martin.
The pirates posed as authorities when boarding the 900-foot oil tanker while it was anchored off the coast of Yemen. The vessel, carrying 1 million barrels of fuel oil from Ukraine to China, had stopped to pick up unarmed guards.
The vessel's owner, Suez Fortune Investments Ltd., issued a statement describing the attack. The company said the gunmen came aboard, ordered the crew to start the engines and sail to Somalia. They then ransacked parts of the ship, including the bridge and the engine room, before leaving amid threats to return if there were "any moves against them."
(Excerpt) Read more at pressherald.com ...
Sailors from the USS Philippine Sea approach a lifeboat, right, to rescue crew members from the Brillante Virtuoso last month in the Gulf of Aden. The tanker is burning in the background.
Photo courtesy Information Systems Command
The vessel, carrying 1 million barrels of fuel oil from Ukraine to China, had stopped to pick up unarmed guards.
Unarmed guards? Isn’t that a waste of money?
I'm assuming they are skilled hostage negotiators since that is the obvious outcome of having unarmed guards.
Pirates and other fun stuff ping.
Does Free Republic have a piracy ping list? If not, why not?
I’m not aware of one. I guess nobody has thought to start it.
HOZE-EM!!! 
There was one, but it got kidnapped.
And nobody paid the ransom because we were all donating to the FReepathon ;-).
Believe it or not, but there are several fly-by-night company’s that place gaurds on boats without weapons, or with obsolete arms.
If I were a ship owner and hired guards in pirate infested water they’d sure as heck be armed!
I would not want to be on that team.
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