The container feeder MSC Lucia was boarded by pirates in the Gulf of Guinea on October 25, while the Russian Navy has claimed credit for chasing off the assailants.
The ship called at the port of San Pedro in Cote D’Ivoire last week, before transiting to Lome, Togo on October 22.
From there it left on the 24th, heading southeast across the Gulf of Guinea. However, on the morning of the 25th, about 150 nm to the northwest of the island of Sao Tome, MSC Lucia slowed from 14 knots to a halt.
Providing a statement on the incident, the Russian Ministry of Defense informed that the destroyer Vice-Admiral Kulakov received a distress signal from the MSC Lucia. The merchant vessel reported that armed attackers had climbed aboard, with the crew having retreated to the engine room for safety.
Furthermore, a helicopter was deployed carrying a boarding party of Russian marines. Seeing the approaching aircraft, the pirates fled the vessel.
The helicopter then transferred a boarding party to the MSC Lucia to search the ship and free the crew.
