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Seven Stoneways and a hijacked oil tanker, the strange case of the Narve and Romader by Samira Shackel.

Shortly after 9am on the 25th of October 2020, the captain of the Narve and Romader sent out a distress call.

The crude oil tanker was situated six miles off the coast of the Isle of White, close enough to be visible from the pebble beaches that edged the island.

In Greek-accented English, the captain and Tones Peros said that seven Stoneways who had boarded the ship in Nigeria had escaped from the cabin where they were locked.

I tried to keep them calm, but I need immediately, immediately agency assistance.

For their safety, he said, most of the 22 members of the crew were now locked into a secure area of the ship known as the Citadel.

The local police force in the mainland, Hampshire Constabulary, began coordinating a response.

Policing the seas is complex, and they were in communication with the Maritime and Coast Guard Agency and the UK Border Force. A three-mile exclusion zone was established around the ship.

At about lunchtime, the story broke in the media. Ile of White Radio reported an attempted hijacking, and soon afterwards, Hampshire police confirmed that there was an ongoing incident.

By 3.45pm, Coast Guard helicopters were circling the Narve and Dromeda. The vessel was moving aimlessly, raising fears and shore that the captain had lost control.

Hampshire police told journalists that the Stoneways had made verbal threats to the crew. Apart from that, not much was known. Within government, there was anxiety.

There's all sorts of directions this could have gone in. The ship's crew assassinated, the ship damaged in some way and hitting the coastline, or itself being used as some form of weapon to drive in and hit a port.

Tobias L. Wood, Conservative MP and Chair of the Commons Defence Select Committee, told me 18 months after the incident. We're talking about minute-by-minute decision-making.

The police requested military assistance, and later that afternoon, home secretary, pre-T Patel, and Defence Minister Ben Wallace gave the go-ahead for an operation by the Navy's Special Boat Service, or SPS.

At around 7.30pm, the operation began. 16 elite troops from the SPS stormed the tanker by sea and air, backed by airborne snipers.

Commando's fast-roped onto the deck from Wildcat helicopters, and scaled the ship's hull from high-powered inflatable boats.

The operation, which took more than 10 hours to coordinate, was over within 9 minutes. Before 8pm, the ship was secured, the Stoweways handcuffed and awaiting rest.

Soon afterwards, the Narve and Dromeda was brought into dock at Southampton.

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