The Belgian Navy ship Godetia glides up the narrow channel of the Wauri River on the approach to the port of Douala, Cameroon. Small fishing canoes paddle past, their occupants tending nets, oblivious to the gray ship. Godetia's white ensign, crossed with the black-gold-red of Belgium, streams proudly from the mast.

The silence on the bridge is broken by the conning officer.

"Gouvernez 042 (steer course 042)," she says in French, bringing the ship to starboard to leave more room for an oncoming vehicle carrier; a giant that towers over Godetia as the two ships pass just a cable length apart.

The conning officer gives another soft command that brings the ship back toward the center of the channel, away from the shallow banks beyond its edge. One would never guess that it is Ensign Midiha Mora's first time conning this ship in narrow waters, or that she graduated from the Belgian Military Academy just this past July.

But Ensign Mora is not Belgian. She is a naval officer in the Marine Nationale (Navy) of Benin, the second officer of the Beninese patrol ship Zou. She was a top graduate from a Beninese military high school and was selected to attend Belgium's six-year long officer training program, one of a small number of Africans and just the second woman from Benin to do so.

And now, six months after returning to her home country, she, along with nine of her countrymen and five personnel from neighboring Togo, have been embarked for the past week aboard Godetia, while the ship participated in the French Exercise for Maritime Operations (NEMO). In an hour's time, the ship will moor in Douala port and she and her compatriots will return home.

These 15 "shipriders" came on board to participate in the Belgian Navy's Maritime Capacity Building 2016 mission to the Gulf of Guinea, within the framework of Africa Partnership Station (APS).

Godetia has been deployed to African waters since mid-October, conducting a variety of cooperative activities with U.S., European and African partners designed to enhance maritime security in Africa.

As part of that mission, Godetia is embarking shipriders from several countries who will participate in the daily routine on board and practice shipboard firefighting, navigation, and maritime operations.

When the Beninese and Togolese shipriders debark in Douala, their place will be taken by 15 Congolese and Gabonese shipriders who will sail 2,000 nautical miles with the ship to Dakar, Senegal.

Their participation is made possible through the APS program. One of the four pillars of APS for enhancing maritime security capacity is the development of maritime professionals. Shiprider programs like this one allow maritime professionals from African navies the opportunity to see how other navies operate in the areas of shipboard organization, navigation, provision of services to the crew and damage control.

Godetia's participation in NEMO was an added bonus for this group of shipriders. The exercise brought together warships from several nations, including Belgium, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, France, Gabon, Nigeria, Spain, and Togo, for six days of naval operations.

"The chance to experience multi-ship exercises is extremely valuable since most African navies are made of up patrol forces that operate singly," says Cmdr. Chuck Ridgway, the Naval Forces Africa (NAVAF)/APS liaison officer aboard Godetia. "The presence of other ships maneuvering, communicating by flag hoist and flashing light, and interacting within the exercise scenario added a level of complexity and interest to the on board training program. Even for the European ships this was a rare opportunity to practice task group operations and there's no doubt the shipriders benefited from and enjoyed this aspect of their time aboard."

In addition to a standard program of task group exercises, NEMO included a scenario where Godetia had been pirated by the French frigate Ventose. Regional and national maritime operations centers (MOCs) along the Gulf of Guinea tracked the two vessels and vectored their own patrol forces to intercept.

"Regional MOCs used the opportunity provided by NEMO to exercise the information sharing architecture created in the Gulf of Guinea, as a result of the Yaounde Code of Conduct." says Belgian Navy Lt. Florian van Pimperzele, who was located at the Benin Navy MOC in Cotonou. "It's just as important for navies to be able to communicate at operational level like this as it is for ships at sea."

Once on scene, boarding teams were dispatched to retake the pirate vessel and its prey. Godetia was boarded four times over three days, offering training value not just for the visiting boarding teams, but also for the shipriders.

"I'm a fusilier (naval infantry) and qualified boarding team leader", explains Togo Navy Ensign Mouzou Banadjuba. "During the boardings I played the role of the pirate captain. I learned an incredible amount, observing and interacting as the bad guy with the other boarding teams, seeing their mistakes and strong points. And I think it was especially helpful to them to be debriefed afterwards by a fellow African."

There were many other highlights for the shipriders. Four of them were invited to Ventose for lunch and returned by helicopter. Other highlights included crossing the equator, when "Neptune, God of The Sea" welcomed 15 new "shellbacks" to his "southern realm", an abandon ship drill and a swim call in the open ocean.

But by far the biggest highlight was also the biggest challenge.

Ventose was required to exercise rendering assistance to another vessel at sea. Godetia's shipriders simulated the crew of a merchant ship that suffered both flooding and fire simultaneously, while several crewmembers simulated injuries.

Although able to contain the damage and provide some first aid, they sent out a distress call and Ventose came to the rescue. The exercises tested their damage control and team coordination skills requiring them to cooperate with Ventose's rescue personnel when they arrived by helicopter.

As Benin Navy Petty Officer Pascal Ahouanse said, "I was really stoked. This was a tough exercise, but we nailed it. Most of all, I was proud that Godetia trusted us enough to try it!"

Trust is what programs like APS are all about. After all, not every ship's captain would entrust his vessel to an officer from a different country. Now, with the ship moored in Douala, Ensign Mora heads down from the bridge and gets ready to leave the ship.

She and the rest of the shipriders will step ashore with mixed emotions, pleased with what they accomplished, confident in the trust they earned, but sad that their time on the Godetia has come to an end. And the feelings are mutual, Godetia's crew will be sorry to see their new friends go.

Cmdr. Ridgway summed up the sentiment.

"Developing maritime professionals isn't just about exercises and training. It's about relationships, professional and personal; about building trust and friendship. I'm not alone in saying that I found some new colleagues this last week, and that I made some new friends."

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For more news from Commander, U.S. Naval Forces Europe and Africa/U.S. 6th Fleet, visit http://www.navy.mil/.