Navy ships head off on pirate patrol again

HTMS Similan sets off from the Sattahip naval base

The navy officer would have been with his wife who is six months pregnant, but he is among 368 officers deployed to the Gulf of Aden to take part in the hunt for pirates off the coast of Somalia.

"It's the duty of a navy officer," Capt Suwit, of the Sea-Air-Land (Seal) unit, told the Bangkok Post minutes before he boarded his ship. "So I go."

HTMS Narathiwat and HTMS Similan, loaded with two Bell 212 helicopters, set off from the Sattahip naval base in Chon Buri yesterday.

Capt Suwit was on one of the ships which inched away from the dock as his relatives came to see him off. The farewell was similar to the scene last year when the Royal Thai Navy sent HTMS Pattani and HTMS Similan to join for the first time international efforts to police the pirate-plagued shipping lanes off the Somali coast.

With a budget of 340 million baht, the new mission will last 140 days until Nov 28 this year.

The navy has made improvements to its anti-piracy planning. This time, navy commander Kamthorn Phumhiran said Thai cargo ships and fishing vessels must inform navy officers in advance before they enter risk areas.

During the first mission, the two navy ships were involved in rescue operations for Thai crewmen. In one case, the officers helped 23 Thai and Cambodian crewmen and a Yemeni policeman from a Thai trawler that was sunk by pirates.This year, Capt Suwit said during the interview, the navy would focus on prevention rather than efforts to cope with vessels already hijacked.

Bangkok Post