HMCS Charlottetown on patrol

Doing good works:

News Release

HMCS Charlottetown assists dhow in distress

CEFCOM/COMFEC NR 08.007 - January 25, 2008

During the evening of January 24, 2008, the patrol frigate Her Majesty’s Canadian Ship (HMCS) Charlottetown picked up a message on VHF channel 16, the distress frequency, and immediately responded. On reaching the position stated in the message, Charlottetown found the fishing dhow Al Rahman adrift with a Pakistani crew of 18 in the northern Arabian Sea off the coast of Pakistan.

HMCS Charlottetown is deployed for six months in the Persian Gulf-Arabian Sea region on Operation ALTAIR, Canada’s maritime contribution to the U.S.-led campaign against terrorism known as Operation ENDURING FREEDOM [under US Central Command]. The frigate was conducting a maritime security patrol when the distress message was received.

An approach party from Charlottetown went to the dhow in a rigid-hulled inflatable boat with an Arabic interpreter. The dhow’s captain told the interpreter that he had just run out of gas. He would have had enough fuel to return to his home port if he had not shared his supply with another dhow he found in distress a few days before.

In compliance with the Safety Of Life At Sea (SOLAS) Convention, Charlottetown topped up the dhow’s tanks to ensure it would make port safely. As members of the maritime community, Canada’s sailors are always ready to provide life-saving assistance to fellow mariners on the high seas.

-30-

Note for news and assignment editors:

For still imagery of the approach party from HMCS Charlottetown with the dhow Al Rahman, visit Canadian Forces Combat Camera at http://www.combatcamera.forces.gc.ca/.

Here's a great post by Babbling about the work of our previous ship in the area, HMCS Toronto.

Update: And seeing action of another sort:

Canadian sailors patrolling the Arabian Sea in the war on terrorism ended up this week helping Pakistani authorities fight alcohol smuggling.

On Wednesday, the crew of the Halifax-based frigate HMCS Charlottetown turned over a boatload of booze smugglers to Pakistani authorities. Convictions for selling alcohol in the Muslim country can result in imprisonment and caning.

"We came across a dhow that was smuggling alcohol illegally — quite a bit of alcohol," Lt.-Cmdr. Mike Davie, Charlottetown’s executive officer, said Friday in a telephone interview from the warship.

"So the boarding party and our helicopter had to intercept this vessel. And it was quite a morning, because once these guys saw that we were coming over the horizon, they all got into two smaller vessels called skiffs and they left the fishing dhow unmanned."

The ship’s Sea King helicopter flew in front of the two small boats to keep the smugglers from escaping, he said.

"They come down into a low hover and just the wind and the spray from the rotors is quite intimidating," Lt.-Cmdr. Davie said. "The guys in the helicopter point to the fishing dhow, as if to say, ‘You should be going back there.’ And they turned around and they went back. It can be quite hairy. These skiffs go very fast and they’re very hard to see."

Once Charlottetown’s boarding party did a quick inspection of the two skiffs, they caught up with the unmanned dhow, which was still motoring along. They jumped on board and took control of the 15-metre vessel...

"Once we determined that they were conducting illegal smuggling, we got a hold of the Pakistani Maritime Security Agency and they sent a ship out to take them back into Pakistan," said Lt.-Cmdr. Davie, noting Pakistani authorities also took the dhow full of booze.

Charlottetown was about 55 kilometres south of Pakistan on Friday morning.

"As part of the culture, there is not a lot of alcohol being consumed over there. And so it’s definitely an illegal activity," Lt.-Cmdr. Davie said. "This is part of the reason why we’re over here. It’s almost like a policing activity."

Charlottetown is doing maritime security operations with a multinational naval task force under the direction of a Pakistani commodore [but under overall command of the USN, I'm sure - MC]...

And now, the horror (and the communications pit):

Dan Dugas, director of communications for Defence Minister Peter MacKay, refused comment on the smuggling case.

"I would never comment on a hypothetical such as what if they’re found guilty and what if they face such and such," Mr. Dugas said in an e-mail. "They haven’t gone through due process so it would be wrong to comment on their case."

Canadian sailors handing people over to a country where they could be caned raises serious questions, said Peter Stoffer, the New Democrat MP for Sackville-Eastern Shore.

"Alcohol is strictly forbidden in Islamic countries. They’re quite strict on that and people know what the rules are," Mr. Stoffer said. "But yet we arrested them, so they’re technically our prisoners and we wouldn’t do that to people in our own country. So I would say that Canada, before turning them over, should get the assurances that they won’t be physically beaten or caned or anything of that nature."

It’s "too late now" to extract that kind of promise from Pakistani authorities for the smugglers who were handed over Wednesday, he said.

"But I would say, in future, if that happens, that the guys should say very clearly that, ‘Look, we caught these guys doing it. We’re going to hand them over to you. Just don’t beat them up,’ " Mr. Stoffer said.