Great, now P.C. will never leave North America.
*tear*
[a href="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28011013/"]http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28011013/[/a]
NAIROBI, Kenya - Pirates chased and shot at a U.S. cruise ship with more than 1,000 people on board but failed to hijack the vessel as it sailed along a corridor patrolled by international warships, officials said Tuesday. [p class="textBodyBlack"][span id="byLine"][/span]The captain of the M/S Nautica ordered passengers inside and gunned the engine, allowing the ship to outrun the pirates' speedboats in the Gulf of Aden on Sunday, a company spokesman said. [/p][p class="textBodyBlack"][span id="byLine"][/span]"It is very fortunate that the liner managed to escape," said Noel Choong, who heads the International Maritime Bureau's piracy reporting center in Malaysia. He urged ships to remain vigilant in the area.
[/p]In a statement on its Web site, Oceania Cruises, Inc. said pirates fired eight rifle shots at the liner, but that the ship's captain increased speed and managed to outrun the skiffs. [p class="textBodyBlack"][span id="byLine"][/span]"When the pirates were sighted, the captain went on the public address system and asked passengers to remain in the interior spaces of the ship and wait until he gave further instructions," said Tim Rubacky, spokesman for Oceania. "Within five minutes, it was over," he said. [/p][p class="textBodyBlack"][span id="byLine"][/span]All passengers and crew are safe and there was no damage to the vessel, the company statement said. Rubacky said the ship planned to return through the Gulf of Aden. [/p][p class="textBodyBlack"][span id="byLine"][/span]Choong said the ship was carrying 656 international passengers and 399 crew members. [/p]
