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Seven pirates held after Nato warship races to the rescue - with picture

This is the moment a Royal Navy vessel thwarted an attack by pirates on a Spanish fishing vessel.

RFA Fort Victoria was patrolling in an area approximately 420 nautical miles from the Seychelles and 350 nautical miles from the Somali coast as part of NATO’s counter piracy task force 508 when it received received information that the vessel was coming under attack.

Fort Victoria’s Royal Marines board the pirates’ skiff

The ship’s Lynx helicopter was quickly despatched to investigate. Once at the scene, the helicopter identified two suspect vessels, a whaler and a skiff, in the vicinity of the fishing vessel. 

The skiff sped away at over 25 knots as the helicopter gave chase and when it ignored orders to stop, the helicopter fired warning shots. The fleeing vessel stopped and the suspected pirates were then transferred to Fort Victoria via boat.

Fort Victoria’s Royal Marines boarding team then boarded the whaler and another skiff in the vicinity. As a result of the day’s action, even suspected pirates were detained.

Captain Gerry Northwood Royal Navy, embarked in Fort Victoria said: “Fort Victoria has once again demonstrated that multinational coordination can be successfully deployed to disrupt piracy in this area in order to protect international merchant shipping.”