On November 26, 2023, five armed Somali pirates boarded the chemical tanker MV Central Park in the Gulf of Aden. Following emergency protocols, the 22 crew members locked themselves inside the ship's fortified citadel and sent a distress beacon. Responding to the call, the U.S. Navy destroyer USS Mason pursued the fleeing pirates, ultimately forcing their surrender. Shortly after, Houthi forces in Yemen launched two ballistic missiles toward the area, highlighting escalating regional maritime threats.
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00:00November 26th, 2023. A group of five heavily armed Somali pirates has just boarded the MV
00:07Central Park, a chemical tanker making its way through the Gulf of Aden. The pirates feel
00:13confident and in control. They believe they're about to bag themselves a massive payday.
00:20They're wrong, and in the minutes that follow, they're about to realise what a major mistake
00:24they just made. As news of the Central Park hijacking began to break, the reaction from
00:30much of the world was one of shock and confusion. Because the era of Somali piracy was supposed to
00:36be over. It had ended more than a decade ago, in fact. Between 2008 and 2012, piracy off the
00:43Horn of Africa reached its peak. The images of the time are unforgettable. News reports were
00:49regularly filled with stories of tankers, trawlers and chemical carriers being taken over by young
00:54Somali men, typically armed with AK-47s and RPGs. Using small speedboats to quickly catch up with
01:01their targets, pirates would climb aboard with grappling hooks, ropes and ladders, before taking
01:06crews hostage and issuing bold ransom demands. As the years passed, their operations expanded,
01:13both in scope and scale. The number of incidents reached heights of almost 300 hijackings by 2011,
01:20and the waters of the Gulf of Aden, Arabian Sea and even parts of the Indian Ocean became increasingly
01:26perilous as the pirate crews grew bolder and greedier. Shipping companies resorted to increasingly
01:32desperate measures to protect their vessels, like ordering captains to increase speeds when travelling
01:37close to Somalia, hiring private armed guards to man the decks, and even lining the sides of the
01:43ships with barbed wire to make boarding more difficult. It worked, but only to a certain
01:48extent. The attacks kept coming, with pirates bringing in millions of dollars for themselves,
01:54the clans they were part of, and their shady backers. In April 2011, they set a world record
01:59for the highest ever ransom payout after the staggering sum of $13.5 million was paid out for
02:07the release of a Greek-flagged Very Large Crude Carrier, or VLCC, and her 25-member crew, who had
02:14been held hostage for 58 days. The vessel was carrying 2 million barrels of oil worth around
02:20$200 million, which goes some way to explaining why such a hefty ransom was eventually paid.
02:27But it was clear to see that these kinds of incidents could not be allowed to keep happening
02:31over and over again. The world could not sit idly by and allow the pirates to prosper forever,
02:36so it decided to send in the big guns. In an almost unprecedented display of international
02:42collaboration, multiple nations, including the United States, China, India, Japan, Russia,
02:49and various members of the European Union, established naval patrols throughout the region.
02:54They sent in warships, destroyers, and patrol boats, transforming the Gulf of Aden from a pirate's
02:59playground to one of the most heavily guarded waterways on Earth. It worked. The pirates' golden
03:05age came to an end, and as the years passed, the number of attacks, or even attempted attacks,
03:11dropped all the way to zero. And it stayed that way for several years. It looked like the problem
03:17had been solved, but in reality, it had only been put on ice. The pirates hadn't been eliminated,
03:23they were merely biding their time, waiting for the right confluence of events so they could make
03:27their return. And in the early 2020s, the stars aligned. Chaos began to break out across the
03:33Middle East, coming to a head in late 2023 with the October 7th Hamas attack and the beginning of
03:39the Gaza War. As the situation spiralled, the world's major powers became more focused on the
03:44unfolding crisis, with concerns about potential pirate attacks being placed on the back burner.
03:49Maritime patrols began to ease as warships and other vessels were relocated or given new orders,
03:55and the Somali pirates started to emerge from their hideouts. Sensing that there was a situation
04:01to be exploited, they took to the seas once again, and in 2023, fears began to bubble up that a
04:07whole
04:07new era of Somali piracy was about to begin. In November of 2023, those fears would come to fruition,
04:14and the world would realise that the days of the Somali pirates weren't over after all.
04:18History has shown that Somali pirates don't board vessels at random or hijack the first ship that
04:23crosses their path. They are opportunistic to an extent, but also calculated in their methods.
04:28They pick and choose their targets with care, often aiming for the ones that are slow,
04:33defenceless and high value, making it as straightforward as possible for them to get on board,
04:37subjugate the crew and request a huge ransom. And on November 26th, 2023, a seemingly perfect target
04:44sailed into view, the MV Central Park. Measuring 475 feet in length and 78 feet in breadth,
04:51with a gross tonnage of 12,145 tons, this vast vessel was built in Japan in 2015 and flew under
04:59the flag of Liberia, but was actually owned by the London-based business Zodiac Maritime,
05:05a huge shipping firm chaired by the Israeli billionaire Ayal Ofer, who boasts an estimated
05:10net worth in excess of $33 billion. Vessels like this typically have top speeds of around 16 knots,
05:17or about 18 miles per hour. On board the Central Park that day were 22 sailors from various nations,
05:24including Bulgaria, Georgia, India, Russia, Turkey, Vietnam and the Philippines. The vessel was
05:30transporting a vast quantity of phosphoric acid, a highly corrosive but also extremely useful
05:35multipurpose chemical that can be used in fertiliser, as a food additive and has numerous
05:41applications in the pharmaceutical industry too. For the pirates, the Central Park checked all of
05:46their boxes. It was slow, making it easy for them to catch up in their high-speed skiffs.
05:50It had a relatively small, civilian crew with no armed guards on board. It was carrying cargo that
05:57was valuable enough to justify a multi-million dollar ransom payout. What's more, the cargo was
06:02highly hazardous and had to be treated with care, which meant that the crew was less likely to attempt
06:07any sort of erratic manoeuvres or do anything that could result in some sort of leak or spillage.
06:12And it was right there, only a few dozen miles off the Somali coast, travelling through the
06:17international recommended transit corridor, just waiting to be taken, with no Western warships or
06:22NATO frigates seemingly in the area to defend it. This was an opportunity they couldn't afford to pass
06:28up. They weren't interested in the phosphoric acid or any other cargo that happened to be on board
06:32the vessel. It wasn't as though they could siphon it away and resell it on a black market. For them,
06:37the focus of the hijacking was the crew. All they had to do, as they had so many times before,
06:43was take the crew hostage and turn the ship into a floating prison. From there, every day that goes
06:49by would put more and more pressure on those responsible for the vessel and the people on board.
06:53Shipping companies, insurers, governments. Hostages' families would speak to the media,
06:59begging for the safe return of their loved ones, and if all went to plan,
07:01the powers that be would eventually give in to the pirates' demands. So for the pirates,
07:06the success or failure of the attack depended on them finding and subjugating the crew as quickly
07:11as possible. But this was 2023, not 2008. And after hundreds of pirate attacks in the past,
07:18modern day crews are trained to respond to these sorts of situations in a very specific way. Not by
07:24fighting back or trying to be heroes, these aren't soldiers after all, but civilians, sailors,
07:29engineers, and navigators. Instead, they were given one simple set of instructions,
07:34run and hide. At the very first sign of danger, today's tanker crews are supposed to head to
07:40onboard safe rooms known as citadels, from which they can issue distress calls and hold out until
07:46help arrives. It's a simple strategy, but a smart one. Because even if pirates get on board and take
07:51control of the deck, they won't be able to enjoy a true position of power if they're not able to
07:56access the crew. And on November 26th, that strategy was about to be put to the ultimate test.
08:01It's nearly 6am. Dawn has broken and the sun is creeping up above the horizon as the pirates
08:07speed towards their target. Their skiffs are easily able to reach speeds of around 25 knots,
08:12or nearly 29 miles per hour. So catching up to the comparatively slow-moving Central Park tanker
08:18is no challenge whatsoever. Upon arrival beside the vast vessel, the armed pirates use grappling hooks and
08:24rope ladders to hoist their way up onto the deck. Gripping their AK-47s in their hands,
08:29they proceed towards the bridge. They know that the following minutes are vital.
08:33This is where everything is won or lost. It's the turning point on which their entire operation
08:38depends. They have to find the crew before they have a chance to hide. As long as they can do
08:44that,
08:44every other piece of the puzzle should fall into place and negotiations will begin. It might take days,
08:50weeks or even months for the pirates to get what they want. But with a couple of dozen hostages to
08:55work with, plus a vast amount of valuable chemical cargo, they could walk away from this operation
08:59several million dollars richer. But as they breach the bridge, the pirates are met with a stark and
09:05unwanted outcome. It's empty. The crew is nowhere to be seen. Because what the pirates didn't know is
09:11that the Central Park saw them coming, and at the very first sign of danger, the vessel's Turkish captain
09:17initiated the protocol that he'd been trained to follow. At approximately 6am, while the pirates
09:22were racing towards the tanker, he hit the ship's automated distress beacon, beginning an urgent
09:27broadcast across military frequencies, informing any friendly ships in the area that the Central Park
09:33was under attack. In the minutes that followed, the captain and his crew rushed to the lower decks
09:37and sealed themselves inside the citadel. Many modern merchant vessels have these designated safe rooms in
09:43place. Often situated quite close to the engine room, at the ends of winding, labyrinth-like corridors
09:49that feel familiar to the crew but are incredibly confusing for unfamiliar boarders, the citadel is
09:54a place where sailors can hide out in dangerous situations like attempted hijackings. Lined with thick
09:59walls and reinforced doors, these panic rooms are often equipped with radios or satellite phones that
10:05allow the crew to call for help. They are also stocked up with enough food, water and medical supplies to
10:10survive for days on end, with emergency lights and ventilation systems for added comfort.
10:15Some citadels even contain controls for various parts of the ship, allowing the crew to cut the
10:20engines and prevent the pirates from simply steering the vessel to one of their home ports, and many
10:25also contain display screens connected to cameras across the ship, which allow the crew to track the
10:30positions of the pirates at any time. Citadels have proven to rank among the most effective anti-piracy
10:36measures, and on November 26th, the 22 crew members of the Central Park are banking on theirs to keep
10:42them safe. Locking themselves inside, they continue to send out distress calls, hoping that they'll be
10:47heard and helped by one of the many military forces that have been carrying out counter-pirate patrols for
10:51the past decade. Meanwhile, on the floors above, the pirates spread out and search for any signs of
10:57life. They're starting to panic as they realise a countdown timer has begun ticking. With every minute that
11:03passes, their chances of success are slipping away. And their situation is about to take an even more
11:09dramatic turn for the worse, because a nearby vessel just received the Central Park's distress call.
11:15And it's not just any vessel, it's one of the world's most powerful warships, the USS Mason, an Arleigh Burke
11:22class Aegis guided missile destroyer packing enough firepower to wipe out an entire pirate fleet in the
11:28blink of an eye, and it's headed straight for them. As soon as the Mason's crew hear the call, they
11:32initiate
11:33an immediate response. The enormous gas turbine engines of the destroyer roar to life, propelling
11:38the 509-foot-long vessel toward the hijacking site at speeds in excess of 30 knots or 35 miles per
11:45hour.
11:45Back on board the cargo ship, the crew members continue to hide out, hoping that they won't be
11:50found as the pirates roam the corridors, calling out for the sailors to show themselves. They're
11:55growing increasingly frustrated. Every room is empty. Every hall leads to another dead end.
12:01Frantic seconds turn into minutes, as the pirates can almost certainly feel their million-dollar
12:06bounty disappearing before their eyes. And then the inevitable occurs. The Mason, accompanied by a
12:12small group of allied ships and associated aircraft from the Coalition Counter-Piracy Task Force, arrives
12:17on the scene. This is a ship built for war. It boasts a 5-inch thick Mark 45 Mod 4
12:24artillery gun, a 20mm
12:26phalanx close-in weapon system, two 25mm Mark 38 machine gun systems, four 0.5-inch calibre guns,
12:3396 missile cells, and a full complement of surface-to-air, anti-ballistic and cruise missiles,
12:40plus a stock of torpedoes. Unfortunately, none of those weapons mean much in situations like this.
12:45While external observers might imagine that the US Navy could simply send in a heavily armed destroyer to
12:51blow the pirates away by force, those kinds of blockbuster movie-style scenarios simply don't
12:56exist in the real world. The MV Central Park was not an enemy warship. It was a civilian vessel,
13:02carrying vast stocks of hazardous chemicals. Any missile, shell, or round-fire at the vessel,
13:08even with care and precision, carried a risk of causing civilian casualties or a serious ecological
13:13crisis if any of the chemical containers were damaged. So when it arrived in the same waters as the
13:19hijacked vessel, the Mason's objective wasn't to destroy it, but to save it. To do that, the US
13:25military had to rely on a particular tactic known as Visit, Board, Search and Seizure, or VBSS for short.
13:33VBSS is one of the most demanding mission types any military member can be asked to carry out.
13:38Just as the acronym states, it involves teams visiting hijacked vessels, boarding them,
13:43searching for enemy combatants, and seizing control from them. If it sounds simple, it's not. There are
13:48countless variables involved, and an incalculable range of ways in which these missions can go
13:53badly. Even getting on board moving vessels that are under an enemy's control can be immensely
13:58dangerous, with boarding teams often arriving either by helicopter or with the aid of their
14:03own speedboats. Once on the deck, they must proceed through the huge ship, scouring every floor,
14:08every room, every corridor. They know that armed combatants could be lurking around every corner,
14:14but they also know that there are innocent people on board who need to be saved.
14:18They have to be able to tell the two apart, which means they can't go in guns blazing.
14:23Instead, they must take the time to analyse every sign of life, discerning between friend and foe,
14:28before making the relevant call to open fire or provide assistance. And they have to do all of this
14:34in the often claustrophobic confines of cargo ships' lower decks, with countless places for enemies to
14:39hide. In these scenarios, the hijackers have the advantage. Even though they are often armed with
14:44much more primitive weapons and equipment, and they don't have anywhere near the same kind of military
14:48training and experience as the soldiers hunting them down, they still have the all-important
14:53advantages of being able to take up hidden positions, prepare traps and ambushes, and fire
14:58first on their opponents. If the Mason's VBSS team was going to take control of the Central Park,
15:03they knew that it could be extremely risky and come at significant cost. As the American warship
15:09closes in on the Central Park, the US Navy issues a message to the pirates, they are to relinquish
15:14control of the vessel immediately or suffer the consequences. The Navy hopes that this might be
15:20enough to frighten the Somalis away, negating the need for a challenging VBSS operation. By this point,
15:26the pirates still haven't managed to lay their hands on a single crew member who are all safe inside
15:31the Citadel. Their window of opportunity has slammed shut. In order for this to be a successful hijacking,
15:37they had to not only secure the vessel, but also capture the crew. Only then would they have the power
15:42they needed for their ransom demands. Now looking out across the waters at a billion dollar American
15:48warship, they realise their mission has rapidly changed. Any plans of a prolonged hostage crisis
15:54have collapsed. This is no longer a kidnapping. It's an escape mission, and they have to flee the scene
15:59as quickly as they possibly can. Leaving the lower decks and rushing back to the open air,
16:04the five armed pirates abandon their operation and scramble back over the guardrails of the chemical
16:09carrier into their speedboat. They push the throttle to the max, hoping their agile skiff might be enough
16:15to allow them to make a speedy getaway. But this isn't a Hollywood movie. It's real life. And while the
16:20speed of the skiff might have been too much for the tanker to cope with, it's not nearly enough to
16:25escape a
16:25US missile destroyer, especially one supported by a small fleet of military surveillance aircraft
16:30and other assets. Spotting the pirates attempting to make their escape, the USS Mason's crew immediately
16:36transition from plotting a rescue mission to preparing for a capture. Its high-powered engines
16:41roar to life once more as it begins a high-speed naval pursuit of the small pirate vessel.
16:46The new objective is set. Stop the Somalis before they can make it back to shore.
16:51If the pirates had fled under the cover of darkness, it may have helped their odds.
16:55A vessel like theirs, which is so small it barely even registers on radar screens,
17:00may have been able to speed out of sight of their pursuers and effectively disappear into the night.
17:05Unfortunately for them though, this escape attempt is unfolding in broad daylight,
17:09and the pirates have only the slimmest of head starts. Using a combination of lookouts,
17:14aerial assistance and state-of-the-art radar systems, the Mason follows the skiff,
17:17never losing sight of it and getting closer with every passing minute.
17:21The Somalis show no sign of slowing down or handing themselves in, so the Mason's captain takes things
17:27up a notch and gives the order for a series of warning shots to be fired. The destroyers' heavy
17:32weapons unload with careful precision, striking the water around the skiff, delivering a clear message
17:37to those on board, either stop and live to tell the tale, or risk being blown out of the water
17:43if you refuse.
17:44Recognising that they have no other choice, the pirates make the only logical move they can.
17:49They stop their speedboat and raise their arms in a sign of surrender, but as you'll see,
17:53the danger is far from over. Within minutes, a navy boarding team is making its way to the skiff to
17:59apprehend the Somalis. Their weapons are seized, their hands are bound, and they're taken away to face
18:04the consequences of their actions. Within a matter of hours, a hijacking that seemed like it was going to
18:10net these men millions of dollars has ended in their arrest. No one was hurt or killed,
18:14and the sailors of the Central Park emerged from their citadel unscathed.
18:18But a dramatic twist lies ahead. For the crew of the USS Mason, it seemed like a successful day.
18:25A ship had been saved, a crew of pirates had been captured, everything had gone according to plan.
18:31But within hours of the operation, a new and far deadlier threat emerged, not from Somalia to the south,
18:36but from Yemen to the north. There, Houthi forces had detected the presence of the American warship
18:42in the Gulf of Aden, and they had no intention of simply letting it pass through. They launched two
18:47high-speed ballistic missiles from an occupied location within Yemen towards both the USS Mason
18:53and the Central Park. The Mason's radar screens lit up and signals sounded out, signaling the incoming
18:58threats. Defenses were armed and ready to try and deal with the Houthi missiles, but luckily,
19:03it didn't need to fire them and find out. The Houthi missiles landed in the water,
19:08some 10 nautical miles away from the American warship. But the very fact that the Houthis had
19:12fired on a US vessel was a clear sign of how quickly the situation in the Middle East was deteriorating,
19:18and how dangerous that location was becoming. In the span of a single day, a US vessel intervened
19:24in an attempted hijacking and had enemy missiles land just a short distance away. Even though the Mason
19:30would have been able to deal with them, the same cannot be said for the merchant vessels and
19:34civilian ships passing through the area. And in that instant, a frightening new reality emerged for
19:39those vessels and their crews. Not only did they now need to actively fear pirates once more,
19:44but they also had to cope with the ever-present risk of supersonic missiles bursting out of the sky
19:49above with enough explosive power to send their entire ships and cargo up in flames in an instant.
19:55Only a year or two earlier, the whole region had seemed so much safer. The era of Somali piracy was
20:01believed to be over, and while tensions simmered beneath the surface, the Middle East hadn't yet
20:06slipped into such an outright state of chaos. By late 2023, however, everything had been flipped
20:12upside down, and destroyers like the USS Mason were no longer tasked with relatively peaceful maritime
20:17patrols. They now had to handle distress calls, rescue missions, missile tracking, commercial shipping
20:23escorts, and drone interceptions, all in one of the busiest shipping corridors in the world.
20:28It's a harsh reminder of the fragility of maritime security. Places that seem safe and stable can crack
20:35and break far faster than we can imagine, and not one but several crises can emerge almost out of nowhere.
20:42All it takes is the right set of circumstances to transform entire bodies of water into veritable
20:49death traps, and there will always be bad actors, from pirates to terrorists, eager to exploit those
20:54situations to their own advantage. But the Somali pirates weren't the only ones to feel the swift,
21:00decisive power of the US military. To see how the US captured the Venezuelan president in a lightning-fast
21:06two-and-a-half-hour raid, click the video on your screen right now, and I'll see you on the
21:11next battlefield.
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