EU Navfor military personnel have blown up a Somali pirate vessel used in an attack on a Golden Ocean bulker earlier this month.
The anti-piracy operation said the whaler was captured on Sunday and destroyed.
"This followed a sustained period of surveillance after a piracy attack was conducted against the Hong Kong-flagged bulk carrier KSL Sydney," it said.
The whaler was tracked down by the crew of ESPS Castilla to a small bay just off the Somali coast.
The force commander then ordered it to be seized and towed out to sea where it was safely scuttled.
The 181,000-dwt KSL Sydney (built 2014) was targeted 240 nautical miles offshore on 16 October. A security team on board thwarted the attack.
EU Navfor revealed that a single skiff had approached KSL Sydney in a fast and aggressive manner from the stern and opened fire at the ship’s bridge.
The skiff approached to within five metres of the vessel’s port rear. The suspected pirates had ropes and hooks ready for boarding.
KSL Sydney’s armed security team were activated and engaged the suspected pirates in an exchange of small arms fire; this lasted for approximately two minutes.
After the exchange of fire, the skiff disengaged and fled from the scene.
The following morning, a suspicious whaler and a single skiff were sighted by EU Navfor surveillance aircraft around 167 nautical miles off the coastline of Somalia.
In a bid to deter surveillance, the suspected pirates used mirrors to flash EU Navfor aircraft. Subsequently, they separated and made off at speed in different directions to avoid being tracked.
The search identified the suspect whaler in an area known to have been associated with pirate activity.
The vessel was seized and, after a thorough search, the whaler was confirmed as being the one EU Navfor had tracked.
