It was a dry cargo and ammunition ship, not a combat vessel.
It may not have been a combat vessel but it wasn’t unarmed either.
“In February 2009 the ship was deployed off the coast of Somalia as part of Operation Enduring Freedom - Horn of Africa. The vessel was fitted out to be used as a prison ship for captured pirates until they could be extradited to Kenya for trials. 16 pirates have so far been sent to Lewis and Clark after being captured in two different actions by the USS Vella Gulf.[1]”
Don’t tell me they don’t have small arms.
I’m wishing that’s all.
I want Reagan back.
“It was a dry cargo and ammunition ship, not a combat vessel.”
That’s correct, and I would believe the keyword here is “ammunition”.
Seems to me the best thing for an unarmed, under contract to the Navy vessel full of ammunition to do is haul a...., er,...uh, Haul tail out of there.
I think they done good. (A little Joe Don Baker there)
While this is true, surely this ship has provisions to carry .50 caliber machine gun mounts -- and they should have some small arms aboard.
>>It was a dry cargo and ammunition ship, not a combat vessel.<<
So such a ship is either 1) unarmed or 2) unescorted?
That doesn’t make sense.
You got ammunition? Use it!
All Navy ships patrolling those waters should be armed.
If the ship was not capable of facing pirates and being able to deal with them effectively- it should not have been traveling without other ships with that capability. Either way this is not good.