Note to all of you aspiring pirates out there: Attacking a warship of the United States Navy is never a good idea. And when I say “never” I mean never. But it’s especially a bad idea when said warship is specifically charged with fighting piracy.

That’s a lesson five Somali pirates will learn the hard way.

Five Suspected Somali pirates were taken into custody Thursday after firing on a U.S. Navy battleship deep in the Indian Ocean, hundreds of miles off the East African coast.

In what appeared to be an ill conceived attack for ransom, pirates shot small arms rounds at the guided missile frigate USS Nicholas before the Nicholas responded, sinking the small pirate skiff and taking it’s two passengers into custody at around 3 a.m. The Nicholas crew, home-ported in Norfolk, Va., was also able to capture two suspected pirates onboard the nearby mothership.

A third pirate skiff fled the scene. Navy spokesman Lt. Patrick Foughty would not say if the Navy is pursuing that vessel.

Helpful tip: If you only have small arms and a motor boat, don’t shoot at the big gray floating thing that looks disturbingly like a warship of the world’s most powerful navy. You’re probably not going to board the ship and demand ransom. Really, it’s best to just avoid such plans in the first place.

In case it’s not clear from the above quote, the US Navy took control of the pirate mothership and sunk the small vessel. So we were able to make a dent in the resource base.