Among the Ponant's 30 crew members were 22 French nationals.
They'd been held hostage for 8 days before French special forces intervened in April 2008.
The operation lasted 5 hours and was carried out in 2 phases.
First the hostages were freed after a 2 million euro ransom was paid by the owner of the yacht.
Then troops on board helicopters chased the six pirates.
They tracked them down in the desert.
In September Somali pirates captured another French yacht, the Carre d'As.
Just under two weeks later France dispatched elite commandos to free the couple on board.
But this time the operation led by French forces on the Tanit did not have a happy ending.
The boat's owner, Florent Lemaçon, was fatally wounded in the crossfire.