Couple on Cruise Ship Attacked by Somali Pirates

Although she now calls it nothing more than a good card game interrupted, Evelyn Nelson says an attack by Somali pirates on a cruise ship that she and a traveling companion were aboard has helped her decide to forgo a return visit, the North County Times reported.

Nelson, an Escondido resident, and her friend Jack Hartle of Oceanside told the paper Friday they were among 600 passengers aboard the Nautica, a ship registered in the Marshall Islands, when it came under small-arms fire Nov. 30 while sailing past northern Somalia, through the Gulf of Aden.

The couple were among several people playing an after-breakfast round of contract rummy when two small boats, each with four pirates aboard, approached and began directing rifle fire at the ship's bridge.

During the attack, Hartle said, the captain directed passengers and crew members via shipboard loudspeakers to "hit the deck and stay down" while the cruise liner sped away from the attackers.

Although nobody aboard was hurt during the incident, Hartle said Nelson, 83, suffered a mild stroke just one day after the attack.

Hartle said travelers need to be more aware of the trouble with pirates.