Pirate hijackings

[bicker]

Freighters are not allowed to be armed, according to international maritime law. That law exists to preclude an invasion force being launched under the guise of cargo. Therefore, one solution would be to have a military force of escort vessels, but that will significantly inflate the costs associated with shipping, and consumers of the goods being shipped are not inclined to choose goods shipped with military escort over that shipped without military escort, even though it would better protect the lives of the people who worked to bring the consumers what they consume.

 

[PatsGirl]

I think we should turn this into a fun little drill with our subs...see a pirate ship and sink it. Eventually the cost of raiding the ships will be too high and it will stop.

 

[GeorgeG]

There seems to be little or no interference regarding the pirates going about armed. It's just the good guys who are prohibited from being armed (sound familiar?).

I have a friend who is the Chief Engineer on a tanker and he told me the Captain used to have a gun, but does not anymore. I'll have to ask him more about that when he gets home.

I can understand certainn restrictions within a country's territorial waters and ports, but on the open sea there has to be some provision to defend a ship. We can't assign a Navy ship to every ship. The logical solution seems to be every ship should be allowed a private, trained, armed security unit on board.

 

[legalsea]

It is true that to arm freighters would be very difficult to do, since so many countries, including the USA, does not allow armed-freighters into port. There was an article about the difficulties in Newsweek last week.

I think the US navy (or British or someone) should set up 'decoy' freighters to blast these pirates out of the sea. The navy would hire a freight from a company; hide cannons, etc. on it, and then sail through the Indian ocean waiting to attrack attention.

I recall when my parents went on an around-the-world cruise back in 1994 or so; even then there was talk about the pirates in the Indian Ocean. As one other poster said, it used to be that the priates would board the ship and steal stuff. Then they discovered that they could make more money demanding a ransom for the ship. Then they discovered they could make even more money by both ransoming the ship and the personnel on board. Then they found out that they could 'justify' their actions by claiming to be defending their homeland of Somalia.

 

[GeorgeG]

It is true that to arm freighters would be very difficult to do, since so many countries, including the USA, does not allow armed-freighters into port. There was an article about the difficulties in Newsweek last week.
I think the US navy (or British or someone) should set up 'decoy' freighters to blast these pirates out of the sea. The navy would hire a freight from a company; hide cannons, etc. on it, and then sail through the Indian ocean waiting to attrack attention.

I recall when my parents went on an around-the-world cruise back in 1994 or so; even then there was talk about the pirates in the Indian Ocean. As one other poster said, it used to be that the priates would board the ship and steal stuff. Then they discovered that they could make more money demanding a ransom for the ship. Then they discovered they could make even more money by both ransoming the ship and the personnel on board. Then they found out that they could 'justify' their actions by claiming to be defending their homeland of Somalia.

I was thinking more along the lines of a half dozen well trained security personnel with small arms. The pirates are using small boats in their attacks and are armed with small arms and RPGs. A handful of marksmen with high-powered rifles and shotguns should be able to repel such attacks. It took only three Seals and three shots to end the recent event.

 

[legalsea]

I was thinking more along the lines of a half dozen well trained security personnel with small arms. The pirates are using small boats in their attacks and are armed with small arms and RPGs. A handful of marksmen with high-powered rifles and shotguns should be able to repel such attacks. It took only three Seals and three shots to end the recent event.

Well, the article made it very clear that most countries, including the USA, do not allow freighters into port if there are weapons on board said freighter )and a freighter may visit a dozen ports of call on its sailing).

Furthermore, freighters would not be able to obtain insurance if they had guns on board (fear of a stray bullet setting off a cargo fire or such). I mean, if I were standing on the deck of one of those huge oil freighters, I would be hesitant to start firing off a pistol.

Of course, my idea of a decoy would only work once or twice, before the pirates figure out which ship is the decoy.

 

[MarkBarbieri]

I like the idea of using convoys and honeypots. Have most shipping travel in escorted convoys to make them much harder to attack. Have additional fake merchant ships travel through the area as honeypots. When they are attacked, they can capture the pirates.

The combination will significantly decrease the pirates revenues and increase their costs. Hopefully it will be enough to put them out of business.

The bigger problem, of course, is converting Somalia from a land of violent anarchy to a peaceful and prosperous nation. The world doesn't have much success in modern nation building. If this problem isn't solved, Somalia will be the new Afghanistan (as in a haven for terrorist organizations) and will fester until we are finally forced to do something about it. In the mean time, lots of Somalis will live terrible lives.

 

[Nancyg56]

We know that's their motivation because they tell us so? How then does that explain the over 260 hostages and at least 14 ships that they are holding now, and for money no less? Piracy is piracy and there is no justification for it.

It seems these pirates have a reputation of not harming the crews if the ransoms are paid so many companies paid up. It has been going on for a long while and there have been several stories on TV about it. My DH has said it would be a matter of time before an American vessel was taken, and he felt that the end would not be the same as happened previously. I agree with you, no justification for piracy.

 

[GeorgeG]

Well, the article made it very clear that most countries, including the USA, do not allow freighters into port if there are weapons on board said freighter )and a freighter may visit a dozen ports of call on its sailing).

Furthermore, freighters would not be able to obtain insurance if they had guns on board (fear of a stray bullet setting off a cargo fire or such). I mean, if I were standing on the deck of one of those huge oil freighters, I would be hesitant to start firing off a pistol.

Of course, my idea of a decoy would only work once or twice, before the pirates figure out which ship is the decoy.

I guess the pirates have friends in various governments (including ours) and insurance companies. I have to wonder if the insurance companies ever consider the bullets from the priates as a hazard. Perhaps we should simply askk the pirates where they would like the cargos delivered... yo ho, yo ho...

 

[Christopher Robin]

Always remember this as the day you almost caught Capt...BANG!

 

[CPT Tripss]

I was thinking more along the lines of a half dozen well trained security personnel with small arms. The pirates are using small boats in their attacks and are armed with small arms and RPGs. A handful of marksmen with high-powered rifles and shotguns should be able to repel such attacks. It took only three Seals and three shots to end the recent event.

I don't think it's quite that simple. Wasn't it a tad more involved . . . a destroyer and an amphibious assault ship? Putting several marksman each merchant vessel in that area would require lots of shooters doing nothing for days on end.

The solution is identifying and eliminating the "mother ships." Of course, they need to be positively IDed so that no additional fishing trawlers get sunk. http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/africa/11/25/thai.trawler.india.navy/index.html