German tanker Spessart

The German tanker Spessart (A1442) is a of the German Navy. She was commissioned at Kiel on 5 September 1977.

History
Spessart was originally built for civilian service by Kröger of Rendsburg in 1974. On 5 September 1977 she was commissioned into the Deutsche Marine, based at Kiel.

On 29 March 2009, as she was taking part in Operation Atalanta, Spessart was attacked by a 7-man pirate boat. In addition to the regular 40-man civilian crew, Spessart carried a 12-man security detail which exchanged small arm fire with the pirates, and repelled the assault. The ships HNLMS De Zeven Provinciën, GREEK FRIGATE Psara, SPANISH FRIGATE Victoria, USS Boxer (LHD-4) and Rheinland-Pfalz intervened and captured the pirates after a few hours of chase.