The above photo shows the retaking of the M/V Taipan by Dutch marines on April 5th after the vessel was hijacked by pirates 500 miles off the Somali coast. Information Dissemination has the details:

Yesterday [April 5th] at around 13.30 CET the Dutch frigate HNLMS Tromp has rescued the crew of a German freighter from a pirate attack. At 9.45 CET the Tromp received a distress call from MV Taipan. The onboard Lynx was sent to asses the situation and saw the freighter dragging along two of the pirates skiffs. Meanwhile the crew of the frighter had retreated into a safe room on the ship, after disabling the propulsion of the ship -in line with the MSCHOA ‘best practises’. After consultation with the Dutch authorities in the Hague -effectively bypassing EU command- it was decided to free the freighter. While approaching, the frigate’s crew detected a mothership on its way to the MV Taipan. When communication with this ship led to no result, the Tromp fired warning shots with its 127mm canon, sending the mothership running. After the Tromp failed to establish communication with the pirates onboard the MV Taipan the CO of the Tromp, Captain Lodder, gave the order to retake the ship.

While this is a rather “old” incident, the Dutch MoD has just released some remarkable footage of the operation, made with a helmet camera during the boarding of the vessel.

We’d also like to point out the below video, posted on EagleSpeak.com, showing a new tactic being used by the Dutch to combat piracy. More on this new tactic can be read about HERE. While the video is hard to understand (that is unless you speak Dutch), you still get a good sense as to effectiveness of launching smaller landing craft to patrol the pirate infested waters.

Both videos have been submitted to gCaptain.com’s tip line with the following message: