THE yacht from which a British couple were kidnapped by Somali pirates has arrived in Portland.

Paul and Rachel Chandler are currently being held by the bandits who are demanding a £4.2million ransom for their release.

The yacht, Lynn Rival, was picked up by the Royal Fleet Auxiliary ship Wave Knight.

The Wave Knight returned to British waters yesterday and docked at Portland Port to unload the yacht.

The crew had been forced to watch as the couple were kidnapped by the pirates.

However, military officials insisted the crew members could not have acted without endangering the lives of Paul Chandler, 59, and his wife, Rachel, 55.

There were 75 merchant seamen and 25 sailors aboard the Royal Fleet Auxiliary replenishment tanker Wave Knight at the time.

The Chandlers this week made a direct plea in a video, warning UK authorities they fear the pirates may kill them.

The Chandlers, from Tunbridge Wells, Kent, were seized in the early hours of October 23 when armed Somali pirates boarded their yacht,.

They were heading from the Seychelles towards Tanzania.

The couple were forced to change course to Somalia before being put on a container ship, the Kota Wajar, which had also been taken by the pirates.

They are since thought to have been brought ashore.

Mr Chandler, a quantity surveyor, and his economist wife have spent several six-month spells at sea.

It later emerged the Wave Knight, carrying a helicopter, was near to the drama.

A Ministry of Defence spokesman said: “Every effort was made by the Royal Navy and the international maritime fleet to locate the Lynn Rival.

“We did everything we could possibly do without further endangering the lives of Paul and Rachel Chandler.”

A spokesman for Portland Port refused to comment on the operation to return the yacht.

A Royal Navy spokesman said it was not something they would comment on.