Spessart (A1442)

Spessart entering New York harbour on 13 October 2004
History
Germany
Name: Spessart
Owner: Deutsche Marine
Builder: Kröger, Rendsburg
Launched: 1974
Commissioned: 5 September 1977
General characteristics
Class & type: Rhön-class tanker
Displacement: 14,169 tonnes
Speed: 16 knots (30 km/h)
Complement: 46

Spessart (A1442) is a Rhön-class tanker of the German Navy. She was commissioned at Kiel on 5 September 1977.

History

Spessart was originally built for civilian service by Kröger of Rendsburg in 1974. On 5 September 1977 she was commissioned into the Deutsche Marine, based at Kiel.[1]

On 29 March 2009, as she was taking part in Operation Atalanta, Spessart was attacked by a 7-man pirate boat.[2][3] In addition to the regular 40-man civilian crew, Spessart carried a 12-man security detail which exchanged small arm fire with the pirates, and repelled the assault.[4] The ships HNLMS De Zeven Provinciën, HS Psara, SPS Victoria, USS Boxer and FGS Rheinland-Pfalz intervened and captured the pirates after a few hours of chase.

Sources and references

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Spessart (A 1442).
  1. ↑ "FGS Spessart". NATO. Retrieved 25 March 2010.
  2. ↑ Gros-Verheyde, Nicolas (30 March 2009). "Erreur fatale: les pirates attaquent un navire... d'Atalanta!" (in French). Bruxelles 2. Retrieved 18 November 2014.
  3. ↑ Perry, Tony (30 March 2009). "GULF OF ADEN: Pirates fire on German ship, leading to five-hour chase". Babylon & Beyond. Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 18 November 2014.
  4. ↑ "Deutsche Marine setzt Angreifer vor Somalia fest" (in German). Franffurter Allgemeine. 31 March 2009. Retrieved 18 November 2014.
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Wednesday, September 23, 2015. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.