Wow! What a tale of bravery by some retirees enjoying a cruise out on the Indian Ocean! Now even the unarmed civilians targeted by these cowardly jihadi pirate scum are fighting back!
Hero cruise ship Britons fight off armed Somali pirates with deckchairs and tables
British pensioners on a cruise ship bravely fought off machine gun-armed Somali pirates by hurling deckchairs and tables at them.
The holidaymakers were enjoying a midnight Mozart concert onboard MSC Melody when pirates armed with Kalashnikovs attempted to board it using grappling hooks and ladders.
But passengers forced them back to their boats by throwing chairs and tables over the stern of the ship as Israeli security guards onboard the cruise liner fired warning shots.
The ship was a week into a 22-day cruise in the Indian Ocean, 180 miles north of the Seychelles, when it came under attack from pirates in speedboats.
Maureen Gawthrop, 66, from Barnsley, said: ‘We were enjoying a classical concerto on the pool deck when everyone heard a cracking sound.
‘The applause for the musicians died down suddenly and someone came running in from the open deck and shouted “pirates”.
‘Crew members acted quickly to evacuate passengers into their cabins and told them to lock their doors.
‘We went to our cabin and we could hear bullets whizzing and clanging as they hit the ship.
‘I saw a white speed boat riding alongside on the wake of the ship about 15 yards away. There were eight men dressed in green camouflage who turned and fired at us.
‘We couldn’t believe it was happening, it was unreal.’
Husband Roy, 66, added: ‘We later learned what we witnessed was the aftermath of the incident. The pirates had tried to get on board the ship with short rope ladders and failed.’
Ian Moakes, 62, from Forest Town, Mansfield, said passengers were terrified as the hijackers began shooting at the ship.
He said: ‘We were told to go to our cabins, lock the doors and not to answer the door to anyone and they would let us know what was happening.
‘A lot of the crew were elderly and very frightened because they didn’t know what was going on.
‘I was very frustrated because there was no news coming through and I was stuck in the cabin.’
The ship’s captain ordered security guards to fire two warning shots to scare off the attackers, but many of the passengers did not know the full extent of the attack until 36 hours later.
Related posts:
- Somali pirates target foreign cruise ship
- Somali Pirates attempt to hijack American Cruise ship
- Somali pirates starving Russian hostages
- U.S. Navy Sends Warship to Protect Ukrainian Vessel From Somali Pirates
- Video: Somali pirates fire on US Navy helicopter
- Yemeni ship hijacked by Somali pirates
- Somali pirates “smuggling” Al Qaeda terrorists into Somalia
- Upping the Ante: Somali Pirates Now Hijack U.S. Tugboat
- Somali pirates (jihadis, really) promise to kill future French, American hostages
- Somalia: Pirates release Saudi super tanker