For those of you who would pass out cookies and pictures of Hilary
Clinton..... from the SE ASIA Mobile Maritime Net::
Pirate Attack Reported to Yemen Officials
"On 8 March 2005, two sailing yachts, Mahdi & Gandalf, were moving SW
30 miles off the coast of Yemen proceeding to the port of Aden from
Salalah, Oman.
At about 0900 two outboard powered boats, about 25 feet long with 3 men
in each one, passed off our stern moving south at about 25 knots. An
hour or two later they returned, one coming quite close and looking us
over carefully. The second boat passed our bows but quite a ways away.
These boats were obviously not engaged in a normal activity such as
fishing, etc. At that time we were south of Al Mukalla, Yemen. The area
around Al Mukalla is well documented as being a piracy problem area and
we started watching carefully for anything out of the ordinary.
At about 1600 we observed two different boats approaching us head on
from the SW. These boats were 25-30 feet long, had higher freeboard and
diesel powered. They were coming very fast directly at us. There were 4
men in each boat. The boats separated at about 200 yards, one boat
ahead of the other, coming down Mahdi¹s port side and firing into the
cockpit. The other boat was firing an automatic weapon at both Gandalf
and Mahdi from ahead, more at Gandalf. These guys were shooting
directly at the cockpits, and obviously intended to kill us.
The first boat swung around behind Mahdi¹s stern to come up and board
us. At that point I, Rod Nowlin aboard Mahdi and armed with a 12 gage
shotgun loaded with 00 buckshot, started shooting into their boat. I
forced them to keep their heads down so that they could not shoot at
us. I am not sure I hit anyone at that point although I could see the
driver of the boat crouched down behind a steering console. After
firing 3 shots at them their engine started to smoke and I swung around
to shoot at the boat ahead. At that point, I saw Jay Barry on Gandalf
ram that boat amidships almost cutting it in two and turning it almost
completely over. I turned back around to shoot again at the boat behind
Mahdi and that is when they turned away from Mahdi and were heading
toward the stern of Gandalf. Gandalf was beside us, about 100 feet
away. The bow of the pirate¹s boat came right up against Gandalf¹s
stern and two men stood up on the bow to board Gandalf. That was a
serious and probably fateful error on their part. I shot both of them.
That boat then veered away and I shot the driver, although I am not
sure of the outcome because they were farther away and I did not knock
him down like the other two.
Mahdi and Gandalf kept going at full speed to put as much distance
between the pirates and us as possible. As soon as we were out of rifle
range we looked back and both boats were drifting and appeared to be
disabled.
If Jay on Gandalf had not had the presence of mind to veer over into
one boat and ram it, the outcome of this attack would have been totally
different. All they needed to do was stand off a ways and shoot us to
pieces with automatic weapons. We were extremely lucky.
We broadcast Mayday calls on all VHF and HF radio frequencies,
including two HF emergency frequencies supplied by the US Coast Guard a
few days before. The Coalition Forces in the area were supposed to be
monitoring these frequencies. There was no response except from a
commercial ship in the area on VHF 16 who approached and observed the
disabled pirates for a bit, then sailed along side of us for 2-4 hours
until dark to make sure we would be all right.
The pirates were well organized and well armed. There were at least 4
boats involved. They had set up a picket line out from the Yemen coast
probably at least for 50-75 miles, so if you transited the area during
the day they wouldn¹t miss you. The two boats that attacked us appeared
to have come from the south.
There has been speculation in the past that this ongoing piracy
problem off the Yemen coast was being carried out by Somali pirates.
Given the number, type of boats involved, and the direction the spotter
boats came from, this does not appear to be correct in this case. This
problem is getting worse and the pirate attacks are getting deadly. One
could only expect that the Yemen Government will take more direct
action. At the very least, allow yachts to group in Salalah, Oman and
at some point on the NW Yemen coast to request an escort along the
Yemen coast."
Rodney J. Nowlin, USN Retired
[b]S/V Mahdi
|