It’s pirate season again.

The monsoon winds have dropped off and the Indian Ocean is smooth and glassy, perfect conditions for the small fiberglass hulled skiffs powered by outboard motors that are the Somali pirates’ attack vessel of choice.

But in a rare show of force American and British navies actually did something on Tuesday, stopping a hijacking, arresting 11 pirates and rescuing 23 crew members.

The Italian-owned MV Montechristo, a cargo vessel carrying scrap metal, was boarded by pirates who announced their approach by launching a rocket-propelled grenade across the ship’s bows.

The crew quickly, and in keeping with what has become best practice in the Indian Ocean, locked themselves into an armored safe room from where they kept control of the ship.

In a bizarre and strangely effective move the crew reportedly put an SOS message in a bottle and flung it into the sea where it was fished out by the warships. They also sent out radio distress signals

USS De Wert and RFA Fort Victoria, both part of the NATO counter-piracy force Operation Ocean Shield which is currently commanded by an Italian admiral, came alongside the Montecristo and kept pace before launching a boarding party of British marines.

According to a NATO statement no shots were fired and the pirates surrendered “without showing any resistance”.

There are dozens of hijackings off the coast of Somalia each year, most ending after months of negotiations and the payment of multimillion dollar ransoms. Despite the presence of international warships there are remarkably few military interventions.

In April 2009 US Navy SEALs shot and killed three Somali pirates in order to rescue Captain Richard Phillips after a days-long stand-off at sea.

Five months later US marines boarded a cargo ship 11 crew and arresting nine pirates.

France has also sent its commandoes into action against pirates though with mixed results: in 2009 a French hostage was shot dead during a rescue attempt.

South Korea, Russia and the Dutch navy have all launched rescue raids in recent years. The Dutch even released a video shot from the helmet-camera of one of its commandoes during the operation last year.