CNN's Richard Allen Greene, Chris Lawrence, Claudia Rebaza, Gisella Deputato, Laura Perez Maestro and David McKenzie contributed to this report
The crew of an Italian ship seized by pirates on Monday was freed Tuesday thanks to an operation by U.S. and British troops working with the Italian military, the Italian Foreign Ministry said Tuesday.
Eleven pirates who hijacked the Montecristo surrendered to the troops operating under NATO's Operation Ocean Shield, the ministry said in a statement.
All crew members are safe, the ministry said.
They barricaded themselves in the engine room after throwing a message overboard in a bottle and putting up a cardboard sign to let rescuers know where they were.
They were able to retain control of the ship's steering, even though the pirates destroyed the ship's communications equipment, a NATO officer said.
The USS De Wert was the first ship to arrive on the scene, and monitored the hijacked vessel until the British ship HMS Fort Victoria arrived with a boarding team, Lt. Gwenn Laine of NATO told CNN.
The pirates threw their weapons into the sea as the boarding team closed in, and stood on deck to surrender once they boarded, Laine said.
He praised the crew for following "best maritime practices," saying that by barricading themselves in a safe place they probably avoided violence.
The pirates are in NATO custody, said Laine, who works with the alliance's Operation Ocean Shield.
The captain sent a message Monday indicating that the vessel had been attacked by a ship with five armed people on board, the D'Alesio Group said in a statement.
The captain immediately activated security procedures, the statement said.
The ship was about 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) east of the Somali coast at the time.
The crew includes 23 people from Italy, Ukraine, and India, the D'Alesio Group said.
Their rescue came shortly after Italy said it would start putting military guards on ships traversing the pirate-infested waters off the coast of Somalia
Defense Minister Ignazio La Russa is signing an agreement Tuesday with the confederation of Italian shipowners to put military guards on board vessels in the area of the Indian Ocean at risk from Somali pirates, his ministry told CNN.
Both NATO and the European Union have naval missions dedicated to protecting ships in the region, but hijackings remain common.
As of late September there were some 400 hostages held by Somali pirates, according to the International Maritime Bureau.
There have been 24 successful hijackings this year to date and 194 incidents. The number of incidents is up from last year, but the number of successful hijackings down, according to the IMB.
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Over 400 hostages? I thought they became pirates because they were poor and living in 3rd world countries. How are they managing to feed and house that many "guests". Maybe they should open a brothel instead and leave pirating to the real pirates.
The ship was 620 miles from the Somali coast. Why do ships still even go anywhere near Somalia?
620 miles is "near"?
Once the ship was reclaimed, they should have tossed the pirates in the drink to go after their weapons. Maybe they could meet up with Osama Bin Laden down there.
.
I'm inviting all those pirates over to my place tonight. Traintime !
A lot of artifacts from the sea have been posted to wickedimproper . com, including an original Christopher Columbus journal that is quite topical considering the holiday yesterday.
A Message in a Bottle,works better than a "Informant".
A letter in a plastic water bottle??? What happened to EPIRBs???
And for those of you who are about to chime in saying that I'm a racist just stop now! I'm in no way a racist. These worthless pirates just happen to be black. If they were white I would probably have used "white meat" in my response!
Why didn't they just shoot them off the freaking deck when the pirates came on deck to throw thier guns over the side? That would be the end of the story. Now we have to waste time and money jailing them, lawyering them, caring for them, rehabilitating them, paying for their new life as good citizen now that they have given up pirating. What a wasted chance. Shoot dammit shoot when you see weapons !!!
Probably for the same reason we have rule of law everywhere else.
Shooting unarmed opponents? Where have we heard THAT in history? Oh, yeah... Bad guys.
I heard sharks love dark meat!
This story doesn't make any sense... the headline implies that the hijacking was only noticed because of the message in the bottle, but nowhere in the article does it explain the sequence of events that lead to their rescue, other than saying that the captain threw a message in a bottle overboard. Who found it? How did they find it? How long did it take after finding the bottle? Such a shoddy article!
Yeah, I think what saved them is that the pirates couldn't steer the ship.
Exactly Dustin. Journalism is so bad these days. People get paid to write this crap. And we are all the more stupid for having read it.
Agreed – poorly written/titled
It makes no sense that the pirates weren't steering the boat. The owners could have gradually veered anwhere, even if they were being watched.
And it took 6 people to "contribute" to it hahahaha
Clearly a heartless band of pirates has mercilessly hijacked the facts of this story. We'll be forced to pay a ransom if we want them back.
Yah, the reporting on CNN.com is the worst I've seen. Their reporters seem like amateurs or students who don't know how to write (e.g. bad sentence structure and story construction, contradictory statements, glaring factual, grammar, and spelling errors, etc). I think they merely summarize news they've read elsewhere on the Internet which even understanding it. Its a real shame.
The BBC, however, is world-class, top-notch news agency (unlike CNN which reminds me of Kermit the Frog reporting on Sesame Street News). To get the complete story on this pirate hijacking, go to BBC.com (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-15261734).
Time to go huntin'
I know, lets give them to the Dumbs I mean Dems. Then they can start some legislative junk to give them foodstamps, counceling, and start a moritorium on how its our fault that they criminals.
Maybe you should get some "counseling". Or just learn how to spell before you call people dumb.
As opposed to the Republitards that will claim it's only because they are black?
Get a clue...
Let's give them to the RepublicaNazi's. They can use them as Gardeners and Servants, pay them $1.00 a day, and then keep it claiming that it all held for the tax cuts for the rich.
There you go, mocking those wonderful "Job Creators"! How dare you.
Stick to your job at Walmart Troll.
You don't know what any of the words you use actually mean. That's hilarious.
And there's the idiot who throw in politics.
'MorAtorium' ('moritorium' is not a word).
NB: 'Its our fault' should be 'it's our fault'. 'it's' (with the apostrophe) means 'it is'. The possessive of 'it' has no apostrophe (unlike other possessives which often do).
Finish off the pirates and you stop the repeat offenders. Eventually the "bosses" run out of hired help.
I think 620 miles is a long ways to swim. Pirate problem would not take very long to solve when the word got out that when you get caught you swim back.
Did all you teabagging chumps actually think I was going to run for president? I just wanted your money. Fools.
OH Troll-E-meau!!!!!!
***poot***
awwww, I think someone has a crush
You betcha!!!
An short length of rope, a 15 lb anchor should do the trick
If you want to stop the pircay go after their leaders. Killing the peons only creates more job openings.
Ken I can't agree with your idea. I think they should have holes shot into their boat and then allow nature to take it's course. Sharks gotta eat too.
looks to me they wanted to be caught. I guess life in a foreign jail, then eventual release in a new land is better than home. I say shoot em, and throw them overboard anything else is just encouragement.