NAVY NEWS, MAY 2010

3

YOU’VE seen a replenishment at sea

here...) of ocean are three gunlines, plus the larger refuelling pipe. The recipient of these lines and tube is the Japanese fleet tanker JDS Mashuu. Watching proceedings from on high is Lancaster’s Lynx. And hanging out of the side of said helicopter is LA(Phot) Tel Boughton who captured the moment with this stunning shot. Mashuu’s an old hand at topping up

Type 23 frigates; RN vessels have been making use of her copious reserves of oil for a good year or so. As for the Red Rose, she’s into the second half of a six-month- plus deployment East of Suez to tackle piracy/people traffi ck

smuggling/illegal arms trade. That led most recently to a six-week

ing/drug

patrol working with two of the Combined Task Forces in the region: 150 (one-five-zero rather than one hundred and fifty) and 151 (one- five-one).

the Horn of Africa, Arabian Sea and vast tracts of the Indian Ocean; 151 has a smaller realm, chiefly the Gulf of Aden and the ‘transit corridor’ used by shipping.

After her mid-deployment overhaul in Dubai, the Red Rose spent ten days attached to CTF 151. We’re now in ‘Pirate Season’ in ‘Pirate Alley’. The winter’s end and calmer seas entices the marauders from their lairs along the Somali coast.

CTF 150 covers a vast domain encompassing

before in these pages.

Many times. But probably not like this. On the right is Her Majesty’s Ship Lancaster. Arcing over a few yards (we prefer imperial

boarding

suspected of being in breach of international law. And for law-abiding merchant men and fi shermen in the region there were ‘reassurance visits’ to explain the coalition’s efforts to combat criminal activity.

The Red Rose’s Royal Marines/Royal Navy party inspected several vessels

In the middle of this busy period, Lancaster was visited by Commander-in-Chief Fleet Admiral Sir Trevor Soar, who was dropping in on various RN ships and activities East of Suez, keen to learn more from the men and women on the ‘ground’ about current ops.

We’ve featured quite a lot of athletic activities involving the ship’s company in our back pages. We’ve not featured dodgeball. We’ve certainly not featured dodgeball involving players dressed as characters from the Village People. Admittedly, not all players were

The methods this season so far are the same as last year: a freebooters’ (we’re running out of pseudonymns for pirates...) mother ship sending out skiffs to carry out the attacks. But the first attacks of the new season –

there were a dozen unsuccessful and three successful raids in one week alone – revealed that the pirates were operating ever further from home waters.

(that’s 500 miles from the Somali coastline) the tanker MV Evita came under attack from pirates who fired their rifles and aimed rocket-propelled grenades at the vessel.

reported the attack to the RN-headed UK Maritime Trade Organisation in Dubai which monitors shipping movements in the region and is the vital liaison between merchant and military vessels.

intercepted the pirates, American sailors boarded their skiffs, disposed of all the pirates’ weaponry and sank the mother ship. No such drama for Lancaster during her ten- day piracy sweep, but things became more interesting when she was attached to 150 and the task group’s wider remit of strangling maritime crime.

CTF 151 flagship USS Farragut subsequently Some 300 miles north-west of the Seychelles Evita managed to evade the brigands, but

dressed as cowboys, Indians, builders and policemen. Just the wardroom. Much to the amusement of the rest of the ship’s company. But it was the officers who had the last laugh. Despite some highly-accurate throwing from the RM sniper team aboard Lancaster... and thanks to some highly-agile dodging balls (hence the name), the officers triumphed – their first sporting victory of the deployment.

He arrived carrying a rather large award to present to the ship’s company: the Rock Race Trophy is an impressive replica of said promontory presented to the vessel with the fastest combined time running from Gibraltar naval base to the top of the Rock in the past 12 months (the time to beat for other RN vessels visiting Gib is 2h 33m 27s). Running isn’t the only sport practised aboard Lancaster.

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