Navy Ships Respond To Yacht's SOS Off Yemen Coast

Created by doina. Last modified on 2007-03-27 10:12:30
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Topic: Piracy Reports 2006

Noonsite received an initial report that US-flagged yacht Tir na nOg was attacked in the Gulf of Aden by pirates on Sunday April 16th. Further reports then revealed that the yacht, with three people on board, had become alarmed by the behaviour of "fishing boats" in their vicinity and had sent out an SOS radio message.

The message was picked up by an Italian container ship and quickly relayed to the US Navy which sent two ships along with a Dutch navy ship to investigate the incident, which occurred about 25 miles off the Yemeni coast. At present it would appear that the navy ships prevented an incident of piracy taking place. Noonsite will post any updates as received.

Tir na nOg is a 38' Choey Lee ketch and was heading up the Red Sea after having crossed the Indian Ocean via the Andamans and Maldives.

In another development, the Somali government claimed this week that an agreement has been reached with the US to patrol Somali territorial waters in a bid to clamp down on the increasing numbers of pirates operating out of this area. However, US officials have denied that any such deal has been made.