S&S - Navy ship evades pirate attack

Stars and Stripes

Navy ship evades pirate attack

By Sandra Jontz, Stars and Stripes

Mideast edition, Friday, May 8, 2009

Katrina Parker/Courtesy of U.S. Navy

An SA-330 Puma helicopter picks up pallets from the Military Sealift Command dry cargo/ammunition ship USNS Lewis and Clark in January during a vertical replenishment with the amphibious dock landing ship USS Carter Hall.

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Snippet(s):

"A U.S. Navy ship that once was used as a temporarily jail for suspected Somali pirates successfully evaded a pirate attack Wednesday off the Somali coast, a U.S. Navy official said Thursday.

The USNS Lewis and Clark, a Military Sealift Command ship normally used to transport cargo and ammunition, used to be configured to hold about a dozen pirates — and at one point held as many as 16 suspects.

On Wednesday, the ship "performed evasive maneuvers" and avoided being boarded by pirates on two skiffs that had pursued the ship for more than an hour, said Lt. Nathan Christensen, a spokesman with U.S. Naval Forces Central Command/5th Fleet."