The Sydney (Australia) Morning Herald had a fascinating column covering the recent capture of 11 pirates off the Kenyan coast by the French Navy. What makes this column different is the emphasis on the tactics of pirate hunting.

The French frigate, the Nivose, had identified the pirates well before the attack. As the Herald describes it:

But the trademark nine-metre pirate "mother-ship" escorting two small skiffs had been spotted long before by its intended prey, a French warship bristling with cannons, radar and well-trained servicemen.

The frigate Nivose, one of the ships regularly patrolling the region as part of the European Union anti-piracy mission called Atalanta, made every effort to keep the pirates thinking it was a merchant vessel.

The lieutenant commander of the Nivose, Jean-Marc Le Quilliec, dashed out of his cabin, certain the pirates spotted by a Spanish vessel the previous day were at his mercy.

At about 3pm Sydney time, the French vessel moved into the sun to keep its cover. "They're speeding right towards us," Commander Le Quilliec marvelled.

"Let's just head into the sun - and then we'll turn around to hit them head on."

When the unsuspecting pirates were close enough, the Nivose unleashed commandos on outboards and dispatched a helicopter to intercept the pirates, leaving them no chance.

"It's the exact same location as the case of the Safmarine Asia," Commander Le Quilliec said, referring to an interception his ship carried out on April 15 during an attack on a Liberia-flagged merchant vessel.

This time, the helicopter fired two warning shots to stop one of the two skiffs from fleeing. There was only one pirate left on the mother ship, which was also intercepted moments later, with nothing on board except fuel and sacks of potatoes.

 

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