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Amphib lights up, but loses Somali pirates

The dock landing ship Carter Hall shot flares, fired warning bursts and unleashed a volley that set fire to three skiffs towed behind a hijacked Danish cargo ship off Somalia on Tuesday, but it could not prevent the freighter from slipping out of international waters and toward a known pirate camp, the Navy said.

The Danica White, a Danish-flagged merchant vessel with a crew of five, was hijacked by pirates early Saturday in view of a French warship that could not cross into Somali territorial waters to offer help. The Danica White never radioed for assistance, but the Carter Hall called to ask if it needed help, said Lt. John Gay, a spokesman with Navy Forces Central Command in Bahrain.

“They made several calls and tried to hail the ship,” he said. “They responded they were under control of pirates.”

The hijacked ship then tried to get the Carter Hall to change course so it could proceed to Somali waters unobstructed, which was when American sailors spotted at least one armed man on the freighter’s bridge wing, Gay said. That’s when the amphib’s guns opened fire.

“The USS Carter Hall fired flares and several shots across the bow as well as several disabling shots at the three skiffs in tow,” he said. “They shot at the skiffs and they caught on fire.”

Sailors used the ship’s .50-caliber machine guns, 7.62 mm miniguns and 25 mm Bushmaster cannons in the encounter, Gay said.

“As long as they’re in international waters, they can engage,” he said.

But the hijacked Danica White made it into Somali waters and the Carter Hall had to back off and watch.

“We’re observing them at this point,” Gay said. “It’s ongoing.”

The Carter Hall, a ship designed to haul Marines and their gear, left its homeport of Naval Amphibious Base Little Creek, Va., on April 10 without a Marine contingent on what was described as catch-all “maritime security operations” in the Middle East. Gay said the Carter Hall is in the waters off eastern Africa specifically for “anti-piracy search operations.”

The waters off the vast coastline of lawless Somalia has proved a hazardous passage in recent years, with several pirate attacks on commercial shipping as well as cruise ships. Combined Task Force 150, a maritime force of warships from several allied nations, patrols the Gulf of Aden, Gulf of Oman, the Red Sea, the Arabian Sea and Indian Ocean against pirates and other transnational threats. Carter Hall is currently assigned to CTF-150.

On Friday, a U.S. Navy destroyer is reported to have bombarded a terrorist position in Somalia, although officials would not provide any details.