Piracy off East Africa

[LarksTonguesInAspic 28]

Story here

The crew of the hijacked Maersk Alabama retook their ship, but the Somali pirates fled with the captain and are holding him for ransom. US Navy ships are on the way.

[Easy Bakes 253]

Looks  like the crews fight back now.

[lgbrave4life 1]

This has been an ongoing problem for years now. I remember last year the Somali pirates overthrew some Japanese, Ukrainian, Yemenese, Russian, Saudi and dozens of other ships from around the globe - you get the point. This is actually the first time of me hearing about them overthrowing a American ship of any kind but i'm sure it has happened before. What I think is happening is this is the Somali's way of testing our new president because I don't think they would of tried to attempt doing this knowing it was an American vessel while Bush was in office.

It's happening all over the globe. Countries are just seeing what Obama and his administration will actually do or not do. Just yesterday, The Chinese and the Russians hacked into our electrical grid sucessfully.

[your_adress_here 11]

How did the crew fight back? Are either the crew or the pirates armed? (I'm guessing the later are, and the crew probably have some weapons in case such a thing happens).

Hopefully the US Navy can get the captain (and the rest of the crew) to safety.

[Easy Bakes 253]

Originally posted by: your_adress_here

How did the crew fight back? Are either the crew or the pirates armed? (I'm guessing the later are, and the crew probably have some weapons in case such a thing happens).

Hopefully the US Navy can get the captain (and the rest of the crew) to safety.quote>

If the shiping companies would stop paying the ramsoms, you would think it would be cheaper to pay for some security guards.

[hym 358]

A more effective method would be to start firing on them with the intent of killing the pirates before they can hijack the ship.

[MayorTim 16]

I'm also sort of wondering why a Blackwater-ish security outfit hasn't cropped up to fix the problem yet.

[Jumpthefence 74]

The Fox News network (which I watch) said the captain had been through these waters off the Somalian coast many times. They quoted the captain saying 'I knew I was in dangerous waters, and it may only be a matter of time.' If he travels in the area much, he probably practiced a hijacking routine at least once. How the crew took a pirate captive I will never know(unless they say on the morning news), they may have had weapons, they may not.

Well, the guy's from Massachusetts, and we're always the protagonist!

Also, thanks to Bahrain for helping us out!

[Jezus53 18]

They should make it harder to board the ships or provide armed guards on the vessels. I'm sure arming you're ship with ex-army personnel is a lot cheaper than 80 million dollars a year. Also, this is just going to hurt Somalia even more. If they keep this up, no one is going to want to help them or do trade with them for fear that they might just be attacked and held hostage. It's ruining their own economy. Sure they get big ransoms, but the place is a hell hole.

[LarksTonguesInAspic 28]

Somalia has no gov't to trade with. The natural consequence of chaos on land is chaos in adjacent waters. I also believe that there are maritime laws against freighters having an armed crew.

This is the first pirate boarding of a US ship since Colonial days, and the Barbary Coast pirates over 200 years ago. Those incidents initiated the founding of both the US Navy, and the Marines.

[A-Traxx 0]

I live in Belgium and just saw in on television.

So are those pirates heavy armed?

[hym 358]

They're brandishing automatic assault weapons.

[Merlin of Flyote 8]

Why are the Western Navies not more prominent in the area, and why do the ships not have marines on board.

[Yoman3 5]

Originally posted by: Merlin of Flyote

Why are the Western Navies not more prominent in the area, and why do the ships not have marines on board.quote>

They all do, but 20 or so ships is not enough to cover thousands if not millions of square kilometers of ocean and one of the busiest shipping routes in the world (Suez Canal / Red Sea).

[Easy Bakes 253]

Originally posted by: Yoman3

Originally posted by: Merlin of Flyote

Why are the Western Navies not more prominent in the area, and why do the ships not have marines on board.quote>

They all do, but 20 or so ships is not enough to cover thousands if not millions of square kilometers of ocean and one of the busiest shipping routes in the world (Suez Canal / Red Sea).

quote>

there are dozens of military ship in that gulf, but as merlin said its 1000's of square miles of nothing but ocean.

As big as those ships are still  the littlest of blips on the ocean. even if the fighting ships got notice of a boarding

it would hours before anyone could get there.And thats assuming the several different militarys talk to each other.

Im not sure if they have an aircraft carier in the area,fighters could get there sooner, but what can a fighter plane do against speed boats hovering around a cargo ship? you would have to send a troop filled helicopter with thier own boats to chase them down.

[ShortStraw 1]

As a former US merchant marine Deckhand/Mate I'm surprised this kind of thing doesn't happen more often.

Concerning arms and Armament, it is illegal or at least against company policy for merchant marines to bring firearms aboard ship. Freighters are very much an industrial environment, you can't go around armed anymore than if you were working at a factory or warehouse. I think they could go a long way toward fixing this problem just by establishing a limited armory aboard vessels that have to pass through pirate infested water so that crews could arm themselves when there is a threat of pirate attack. It wouldn't take much. 2 sailors at elevated lookouts with high powered rifles could effectively keep the ridiculously amateur pirates away from their vessel.

As far as having separate security personnel aboard ship, that would largely be a waste of money as their presence would only be useful when passing through dangerous waters. The only way I could see that being a viable option would be if it was a "Blackwater"-esque security outfit that placed personell aboard ships as they entered dangerous waters and then disembarked when the vessels left the threatened zone. That sort of thing would make a lot of sense. Something else that might be a viable option would be to organize an anti-piracy outfit made up of Somali nationals to patrol their own coastline though I don't know how viable that idea might be.

[duack 14]

We may have to start attaching cannons onto the sides or merchant vessels.

[A-Traxx 0]

Or give them weapons so they can defend thereself.

[LarksTonguesInAspic 28]

Originally posted by: ShortStraw 2 sailors at elevated lookouts with high powered rifles could effectively keep the ridiculously amateur pirates away from their vessel.

quote>

Barrett M82 rifles, oh yeah! .50 cal (12.7mm x 99mm) rock'em sock'em firepower. Turn pirates to fish food at 1000m+.

[Easy Bakes 253]

Originally posted by: manticorefan

Originally posted by: ShortStraw 2 sailors at elevated lookouts with high powered rifles could effectively keep the ridiculously amateur pirates away from their vessel.

quote>

Barrett M82 rifles, oh yeah! .50 cal (12.7mm x 99mm) rock'em sock'em firepower. Turn pirates to fish food at 1000m+.quote>

And you dont even have to actualy shoot the pirates, just shoot holes in the boats.

[krbe 193]

There are some proposals out there for "arming" freighters, or rather make them better prepared. This includes new detection systems, so that the pirates lose the element of surprise, and non-lethal acoustic weapons (built on the same type as non-lethal crowd control weapons).

This isn't the first hijacking of a Maersk ship off the coast of Somalia (last time it happened was in February), and there is a policy in place that ships without adeqaute speed (less than 17 knots, I read somewhere) or freeboard are not permitted to sail through the Gulf of Aden, which lies between Yemen and Somalia / the Barbary Coast, except in a naval convoy. However, Maersk Alabama is one of four ships sailing between the Middle East and East Africa, and was taken some 500 km off the eastern coast off Somalia.

The foremost pirate city in Somalia is Eyl, Puntland.

 

More on Somali piracy

• How do you pay a pirate's ransom?
• Somali pirates living the high life
• Q&A: Somali piracy
• Could 19th-Century plan stop piracy?

When it comes to arming the crew however, one must remember that this is, for the most part, an ordinary job. While piracy is a danger, it should resolved by someone who has it as his job, be it security firms or the navies of the world. And when it comes to cathing pirate ships, there is the law of the sea, which sadly limits the effectiveness of any actions on the high seas.

Then I would be more in favour of striking in the pirates' nest, the city of Eyl, where most of the originates from, though this would be hard to get support for (remember Mogadishu?). Also Kenya needs to reform its legal systems to deal with this kind of criminals—or we can do as France and catch them ourselves, if our systems are any better fit for dealing with it.

[Jumpthefence 74]

I may be interrupting other people's related conversations, but I just heard the Maersk Alabama is in Kenya right now, and the pirates are still in the life raft. The military has the whole area surrounded but there're two problems. The pirates are well armed (Two AK47s, one each) and the raft is covered. The forces are trying to work out a negotiation with the pirates. I hate to be the bearer of any news in general, but I'm praying for him.

[Barbarossa 51]

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  Edited September 8, 2012 by Barbarossa  

[Easy Bakes 253]

Originally posted by: Barbarossa

I haven't been following this story, so my question may be inapplicable... If these pirates are in a lifeboat, what prevents us from sniping them? I'm sure there is a reason, I just haven't seen anything to indicate why that is not a feasible solution.

Now, if these pirates are taken alive, I say "AAAAAARRRRRRRRffff with their heads!"

Sorry, I love pirate jokes...

Barbarossaquote>

From some of the things iv read about martime law is against international laws for merchant vessels to be armed.

I dont know how or if that would extend to crew members. But that seems like a simple solution to knock out speed boats shoot a few holes in the boat and thier more worried about staying afloat then robing anyone.

But if we did that they would probably start just killing the crews and taking the boats away. which would open it up to being boarded by militray people to kill the pirates. it would  get out of hand quickly.

[krbe 193]

Originally posted by: Barbarossa

I haven't been following this story, so my question may be inapplicable... If these pirates are in a lifeboat, what prevents us from sniping them? I'm sure there is a reason, I just haven't seen anything to indicate why that is not a feasible solution.

Now, if these pirates are taken alive, I say "AAAAAARRRRRRRRffff with their heads!"

Sorry, I love pirate jokes...

Barbarossaquote>

They still have the captain as hostage (and threatening to kill him after he attempted to escape).

[LarksTonguesInAspic 28]

We need to make an example of a few of them, but unfortunately that would risk innocent lives in the short term. The old Chinese proverb goes, "To scare a hundred monkeys, kill one". Let a few dismembered parts wash up on shore, they'd get the message. A few skydiving pirates sans parachutes over the problem cities would get some notice.

In the past, it took invasions and naval bombardments to stop the piracy coming out of places like Algiers and Tunis. The French, Spanish, Dutch, and English all ended up having to shell Algiers to end assaults on their ships.

Our term 'boogeyman' is believed to come from the the particularly brutal pirates coming out of the northern Algerian port city of Bejaia, or Bougie in French.

[Barbarossa 51]

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  Edited September 8, 2012 by Barbarossa  

[DuskTrooper 316]

Carpet bomb em. Simple as that.

[Duke87 1,070]

Originally posted by: DuskTrooper

Carpet bomb em.quote>

?

[Merlin of Flyote 8]

Surely the West between us has enough naval vessels doing nothing right now to cover the area and sink the pirate boats.

As for illegal, the U-boat commanders didn't think so.

NEWS JUST IN

Capt. Richard Philips jumped overboard from the life boat, but pirates chased and caught him.