NAIROBI, Kenya — Somali pirates captured a Dutch ship in the Gulf of Aden on Thursday and a U.S. military supply ship evaded an armed attack by pirates in the same region, one of the world’s busiest and most dangerous waterways.

The Netherlands Antilles-flagged MV Marathon was seized 115 miles (185 kilometers) southeast of the Yemeni port of Mukalla, according to Lt. Cmdr. Virginia Newman, spokeswoman for the Bahrain-based Combined Maritime Forces, which is made of 23 countries trying to fight high-seas piracy.

“The cargo was coke, a type of fuel-like coal,” Newman said.

She said the ship listed 19 crew members but it was not clear how many were actually onboard when it was seized or what their nationalities were.

Meanwhile, an American supply ship that recently served as a prison for captured pirates evaded an attack in the Gulf of Aden off the Somali coast by two boats that pursued it for over an hour and fired light weapons.

Lt. Nathan Christensen, a spokesman for the Navy’s 5th Fleet, says the pirates closed within a mile of the USNS Lewis and Clark on Wednesday before it increased speed and used evasive maneuvers to escape.

In Romania on Thursday, the wife and mother of two Romanian sailors on another ship hijacked in the Gulf of Aden this week made an emotional plea for their safety.

Elena Sarchizian told Associated Press Television News that she would give “my heart and soul” to have her husband and daughter safely returned and added she has been praying ever since she heard about the kidnapping.

The MV Victoria, a German cargo ship with 11 Romanian crew, was captured by Somali pirates on Tuesday. Sarchizian’s husband Hartin is the ship’s chief mechanic and her 30-year-old daughter Ruxandra is a naval officer on the ship.

The Kru Martime recruiting company said eight of the 11 sailors are from Romania’s Black Sea port of Constanta, including the Sarchizians.

The Gulf of Aden is one of the world’s most important shipping lanes, connecting Europe and Asia via the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean. It is used by 20,000 ships a year and has become the world’s hot spot for pirate attacks.

At least 19 ships and over 250 sailors now being held hostage by Somali pirates. Last year, 42 ships were seized and pirates earned an estimated $1 million or more in ransom each time they freed a ship.

The pirates operate freely because Somalia has had no effective central government in nearly 20 years. Nearly every public institution has crumbled and the U.N.-backed government controls only limited territory and is fighting an Islamic insurgency.

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