Royal Marines from RFA Victoria board a pirate vessel in November 2010. Click on the pic for the NATO story on the op.

Eleven men were detained by British Royal Marines as suspected pirates today, October 11, 2011, after the Marines boarded the MV Montecristo about 1,000 kilometers off the coast of Somalia. Montecristo, with a crew of 23, had been hijacked yesterday. Two ships from NATO’s Operation Ocean Shield were able to immediately respond. RFA Fort Victoria, and the USS De Wert, closed on the ship and forced the pirates’ surrender.

Royal Marines from RFA Fort Victoria boarded the Montecristo without resistance. Eleven suspected pirates were detained. The twenty-three members of the crew were then able to leave their strong room and resume control of the ship. The ship is loaded with scrap metal and bound for a port in Vietnam.

MV Montecristo is owned by the Italian firm The D’Alessio Group. It was delivered new in June. A bulk carrier, it can carry up to 70,700 cubic meters of cargo. Calling the operation “brilliant”, the ship’s owners expressed their appreciation to the Italian military and those of the United Kingdom and the United States.

NATO’s SNMG1, which dispatched the two Naval vessels, is currently under the command of Rear Admiral Gualtiero Mattesi (Italian Navy). The unit consists of an Italian Navy ship, two American ships and one from Portugal. NATO’s SNMG2 is also engaged in anti-piracy operations in the region with four ships under the command of a Dutch officer.

The Italian government and the Italian Confederation of Ship Owners have signed an agreement that will allow the Italian military to station armed troops aboard Italian merchant ships traveling through areas where there is a threat of piracy. Six person teams will be provided to those ships. The owners will pay the costs of this military operation.

Forget your mental images of gleaming metal and swarthy men in trendy clothes. This is a picture of a pirate mothership from Somalia. Click on it for a larger version. You almost, almost, feel sorry for the poor buggers. Almost but not quite.

Members of a USS Gettysburg visit, board, search and seizure team and a U.S. Coast Guard law enforcement vessel approach a suspected pirate mothership after responding to a merchant vessel distress signal while operating in the Combined Maritime Forces area of responsibility as part of CombineTask Force 151 in the Gulf of Aden, May 13, 2009. Gettysburg, a guided-missile cruiser, is serving as the flagship of CTF 151, a multinational task force to conduct counter-piracy operations. U.S. Navy photo by Petty Officer 1st Class Eric L. Beauregard

Update 2 pm EDT: Crew is reported to have retaken the ship. Some reports say the captain is still hostage. Crew may be holding 1 pirate, and 4 are reported to be “in the water”.

Maersk A Class vessel similer to Maersk Alabama

CNN is among the agencies reporting that an America-flagged ship, the Maersk Alabama , has been seized by Somali pirates. It was enroute to Mombasa, Kenya with relief supplies.

As we reported here, Task Force 151 has established a safe-transit lane in the Gulf of Aden where ships will be under the observation and erstwhile protection of the various navies supporting the anti-piracy efforts in the region. We have captured a number of pirates, and the idea was that they would be detained, transferred to Kenya and tried there for piracy.

The forseeable result of creating a safe transit lane was that the pirates would move their attacks elsewhere. That is what has been happening this week, including with the Maersk Alabama.

Maersk Line