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The Montecristo Italian cargo ship AP/Press Association Images

Hijacked crew rescued... after sending SOS message in a bottle

When pirates cut all lines of communication on a hijacked vessel, the ship’s crew turned to more traditional methods to get their message out.

THE CREW OF a ship hijacked by pirates on the Indian Ocean were rescued by Nato yesterday – after raising the alarm sending a message in a bottle.

The 23-man crew of the Montecristo, an Italian carrier, was stormed by pirates on Monday off the Somali coast. The crew managed to escape to an armoured area of the ship and continue to navigate the vessel, however the pirates succeeded in cutting all lines of communication – meaning there was no way of raising the alarm, the Guardian reports.

Fortunately, a Nato warship was nearby – having responded to a recent distress call from an Italian merchantman. The crew of the Montecristo tossed a message in a bottle out of a porthole, informing whoever it reached that they were out of harm’s way and it was safe to board.

Nato troops intercepted the message and boarded the ship, forcing the 11 pirates on board to immediately surrender, according to the  UK Ministry of Defence.

The BBC reports that the pirates will be handed over to the Italian authorities.

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    Mute Zoë Georgina
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    Dec 13th 2013, 2:19 PM

    Totally read the headline as “BOI visits…” And got very shocked at the scope of Bank of Ireland’s online banking!

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    Mute James Delaney
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    Dec 13th 2013, 5:30 PM

    Excuse my Ignorance. Whats a BOT. How is it set up?

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    Mute Fergal McDonagh
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    Dec 13th 2013, 1:00 PM

    Fake twitter account too.

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    Mute James Delaney
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    Dec 13th 2013, 5:23 PM

    Excuse my ignorance. Whats a BOT. How do u set up a bot?

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    Mute Morm Jordil
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    Dec 13th 2013, 1:17 PM

    i wonder were world of warcraft is on this list. the sum total of a misspent old age

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    Mute Nydon
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    Dec 13th 2013, 2:11 PM

    roughly equates to the % of all comments on here that are bot comments.

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    Mute Jack Bowden
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    Dec 13th 2013, 3:02 PM

    You just got bot red thumbs :-)

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    Mute James Delaney
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    Dec 13th 2013, 6:47 PM

    BUTT What does BOT stand 4. Also what does RED THUMBS mean ? INNOCENT 50PLUS YR OLD.

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    Mute James Delaney
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    Dec 13th 2013, 7:04 PM

    Ok whats RED THUMBS

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    Mute Ken Maycock
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    Dec 14th 2013, 10:18 AM

    Hey James, BOT is short for ROBOT… essentially automated interaction rather than human. Red thumbs, largely used to indicate disagree. Green thumbs largely used for agree. An easy way to portray positive/negative sentiment. Hope this helps

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    Mute Cpm
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    Dec 13th 2013, 7:27 PM

    That’s a lot of wasted bandwidth for site owners. Googlebot is on one off my sites pretty much 24/7.

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    Mute Jeannie Tom
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    Mar 12th 2015, 2:17 PM

    Great post. Valuable information. Thanks
    Jeannie Tom
    http://mscca.net/

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    Mute thomas the tank
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    Dec 13th 2013, 4:15 PM

    Bun dang likes it in his bot tom

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    Mute James Delaney
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    Dec 13th 2013, 7:05 PM

    Do u mean in his Thomas, Thomas

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