Royal Navy Vs. Somali Pirates

[Darrell]

Good on 'em, looks like there's still a few Great Brits out there:

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/w ... 141745.ece

Pirates caught redhanded by one of Her Majesty’s warships after trying to hijack a cargo ship off Somalia made the grave mistake of opening fire on two Royal Navy assault craft packed with commandos armed with machineguns and SA80 rifles.

In the ensuing gunfight, two Somali pirates in a Yemeni-registered fishing dhow were killed, and a third pirate, believed to be a Yemeni, suffered injuries and subsequently died. It was the first time the Royal Navy had been engaged in a fatal shoot-out on the high seas in living memory.

By the time the Royal Marines boarded the pirates’ vessel, the enemy had lost the will to fight and surrendered quietly. The Royal Navy described the boarding as “compliant”.

More at the link above. Time was, if any of the pirates survived the encounter, they'd have been hung.

[Steamforger]

But not us. We're looking into skin warmers and ear splitters when there's a perfectly good
5"-54 on the fok'sl that can handle any pirate problems they can come up with. It's refreshing to know someone in Britain still has a spine, but it's sad to realize that British SF are the last ones...

BZ mates! Nicely done.

[The Quiet Man]

Prisoners? Why was there anyone left to surrender? Someone needs to tell these lads "what happens at sea stays at sea".