Following their recent port visit to the Seychelles, EU Naval Force Warship FS Floréal assisted four Seychelles fishermen who were stopped in the water having suffered an engine failure on their way back to the Seychelles.
FS Floreal was just a few hours from the Seychelles when she saw the small vessel signalling for assistance with a large cloth.
The frigate immediately dispatched its sea boat with an engineering team and the ship’s doctor embarked. The boat crew also took food and water supplies with them, which were urgently required as the boat had been adrift for over 48 hours.
All four fishermen were unhurt, but very grateful for the assistance and after two hours of repair work by the engineers from the Floréal, the crew were able to sail towards their home port on Praslin Island in the Seychelles.
The French warship has recently conducted a four day port visit to the Seychelles, during which the ship carried out Local Maritime Capacity Building with the Seychelles Coastguard.
FS Floréal is a Floréal class frigate and joined EU Naval Force, the European Union’s Counter Piracy Mission off the Coast of Somalia, on 18 April 2014.
[mappress] Press Release, April 29, 2014; Image: EU Navfor