NAVY NEWS, DECEMBER 2010


3


● Not an episode from the Battle of the Atlantic, but all that is left of a pirate action group after Fort Victoria has dealt with it and (below) watching you watching us... Montrose’s Lynx fl ies over a mother ship


m and a fl ash... Before the international


community pats itself on the back too much, however, the pirates are still scoring successes, such is the scale of the problem – and the size of the ocean.


The MV Aly Zoulfecar was hijacked between the Comoros Islands and Dar Es Salam in Tanzania; the pirates took 29 crew hostage. Montrose’s Lynx was sent to investigate – and found pirates crawling over the vessel, brandishing their weapons at the helicopter.


Air power is a key factor in defeating pirates: Vixen has been busy flying hours of sorties up and down the coast of Somalia conducting intelligence and reconnaissance missions of the known pirate camps to gather information on the freebooters’ movements and those of their craft.


But the Lynx’s most important mission this deployment – wiping


out a pirate action


group as it stalked a North Korean merchantman, which we reported last month – very nearly didn’t happen.


Until just a few hours before the frigate received the mayday from the MV Mi Rae, Vixen was out of action with a main rotor gear box problem.


With 203 Flight wondering if they’d ever get their day to fight the Somali pirates, a Merlin from 820 NAS kindly delivered a replacement gearbox at sea via vertical replenishment – no mean feat as said gearbox and container weighed one tonne and was the size of a small car. The flight’s maintainers then got to work over the following week


changing the gearbox


at sea (a feat reportedly never before accomplished at sea in a Type 23). Barely was Vixen declared serviceable than she was called upon to intercept the pirates... “After a frustrating start this has turned into an extremely successful deployment – it just goes to show what a small band of professional, dedicated and hard-working maintainers can achieve,” said 203 Flight


Commander Lt Stuart Irwin. “The incredibly challenging maintenance issues, which would have been difficult to rectify ashore let alone at sea on operations, have all been overcome by the maintainers with ingenuity, intelligence and above all good humour.” Lt Irwin continued: “I have no doubt that there are people in merchant ships at sea who safely reached their destination only because we were able to stop the pirates before they could attack – we were only able to achieve this because of the dedication of the 203 Flight maintainers, and their ability to keep our Lynx flying despite encountering some of the most complex maintenance issues I’ve seen at sea. I couldn’t have asked any more of them.” The Royal Navy is, of course, not the sole warrior in the struggle against piracy; Montrose was attached to a Danish-led NATO task force (F236 is now on her way home) .


As part of that international


effort, the frigate visited Dar Es Salaam where Montrose’s commandos offered advice on board and search techniques, close-quarters battle and contact drills to the Tanzanian People’s Defence Force. The visit coincided with Remembrance Sunday; 50 sailors and marines attended a service at the Commonwealth War Graves Cemetery in the Tanzanian port where 1,764 Allied dead, mostly from the fighting for German East Africa in WW1, are buried. Eleven hundred miles to the east of Dar Es Salaam lies the idyllic archipelago of the Seychelles.


And it was there that


Montrose’s marines again were called upon to help train local forces, while the frigate’s ME department was asked to sort out the engines of a Seychelles Coast Guard patrol boat. “Eight hours, three goffas, six bottles of water and a chicken and rice meal later the task was complete,” said CPO Simon Bray. His boss, marine engineer


officer Lt Cdr Duncan Humphery, added : “It’s fantastic to be able to say we have achieved something out here which makes all our hard work all the more rewarding and we’ve visited some amazing places which make the trip


that bit


more special.” Montrose is not the only Type 23 to call on the Seychelles recently – nor the only Type 23 returning to Devonport from anti-piracy duties.


HMS Northumberland has


dropped off the media radar for much of her deployment as she’s been doing quite a lot of undercover stuff aimed at disrupting the activities of the Somali pirates. That’s also meant few port


visits (admittedly it’s a part of the world not necessarily renowned for runs ashore...) so what time there has been on dry land has been seized with both hands. Enter a two-day stand-down in the Seychelles – the second visit to the islands (the previous stop-off was in June). The return visit afforded a


rematch for Northumberland’s 1st XV against an expat rugby team (the latter triumphed) but a more successful run-out for the footballers, who trounced the Seychelles Defence Force 8-2. Ten sailors


also tried


● Wave your hands in the air if you’re pirates and you can’t spell fi sh... A group surrenders to HMS Montrose’s Lynx


● Royal Marines practise their marksmanship skills aboard RFA Fort Victoria out


scuba diving for the first time; the waters around the islands are regarded as among the best in the world for divers. And that was two days gone in the blink of an eye. Back to sea and a gunnery exercise as the ship returned to ... a true baptism of fire for the frigate’s new Captain of the Turret, CPOET(WE) ‘Bagsy’ Baker. Both


Montrose and


Northumberland are due back in Devonport before Christmas. The latter ship’s chalked up two milestones during her eight months away; the odometer has now passed the 500,000-mile mark, while her flight observer, Lt ‘Les’ Sharples clocked up his 1,000th flying hour (you’d never believe it from his youthful looks...). ■ Fleet Focus and our global map can be found overleaf


pictures: lt jimmy hawley ran, 815 nas; la(phots) al macleod and caroline davies


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