Knowledge here on CD about maritime affairs.
So far in this thread I've seen nothing but the MOST uneducated opinions and regurgitated tongue in cheek media trite reporting.
There is NOTHING cute or fashionable about piracy. There is no connection between the pirates seen in movies and on T.V. and the pirates roaming the worlds oceans.
I've had first hand experience dealing with modern pirates and it is most definitely not a good thing.
Firstly, the threat of modern piracy is real, very real and it has been going on for quite some time now, this is nothing new. The recent reporting on the piracy in the Horn of Africa region has (though the media organs do a lousy job of it) at least brought the crisis to public attention.
Modern pirates have been preying on ships for decades, only now they are armed with automatic weapons, rockets, modern radios, radars, GPS navigation systems and lastly but most importantly of all .... they have AIS. AIS is the Automatic Identification System. This is a system that lets any one ship, see the location, range and bearing, name, IMO number, last port, destination port, cargo, number of crew/passengers/souls on board, speed and a host of other information about ANY OTHER SHIP in the area that is carrying an AIS transponder, which is just about all
legitimate ships.
This lets the pirate(sea-terrorist) locate any ship, know where it is going, (ie what course to pick to intercept) etc and this is how they pick their targets. Also there are all sorts of pirate/terrorist cells in every port city in the world. They keep careful track of ships entering and leaving ports. This is VERY easy to do, particularly in the oh sooo free west because all sorts of information is made public. The are all sorts of shipping publications giving the physical details of the ship, and all sorts of schedules published to give the ships timetables.
Second. Pirates/Terrorists are not "kewl" people to be given any sort of accolade or pat on the back for pulling off some sort of "daring" at sea "hijack". What pirates do is not some daring feat. Stopping a slow moving unarmed....that is UN-ARMED ship is so incredibly easy that even total third-grade educated mud-hut mutants can pull it off, which is precisely what we are seeing. It takes NO great skill to speed out to a tanker making perhaps 12 knots at best, fire some small arms at them or an RPG and make them stop. Merchant ships by international LAW are FORBIDDEN to carry ANY sort of offensive weapon...and in the parlance of the oh sooo wise United Nations...this means ANY sort of weapon. All merchant ships that have a top speed of under 20 knots are sitting ducks to pirates.
Third. Pirates are murders, thieves and terrorists of the worst possible sort.
They have killed people, and caused huge environmental disasters when they dump no longer needed ships in remote backwaters, often burning them, putting God only knows how many tons of toxic smoke into the atmosphere, and unknown tons of toxic waste into the water. I personally know one Professional Mariner, (a woman) who's ship was boarded by pirates off the coast of Venezuela where they broke into the wheel house and smashed her across the face and chest with iron bars. She was lucky enough to live, and lucky enough not to have been raped, but she is physically and emotionally scarred for life.
My ship (a slow moving loaded tanker) was boarded in the Malaka Straits. We had to lock every door, lock all the life rafts down, (making them USLESS in an emergency) lock everything. We tried to avoid the pirates but they are in speed boats, and the Malaka Straits are narrow, little room for a big ship to maneuver in there, and we still have to keep the ship from running aground, can't spill ANY oil...
They boarded us and took all the mooring lines that we had tied up and chained on deck. They cut the chains and thew the lines into the water and towed them away. (mooring lines are VERY expensive and sell well on the black market) Thank GOD they did not want more, because there would have been NOTHING we could have done to stop them. The procedures that we are told to use to "resist" pirates are the most pathetic garbage the UN could have ever pumped out. We are told to use 'maneuver' to avoid or 'scare off' the attackers. We are told to use 'lights' and the 'ships whistle' to frighten them off....we are told to 'barricade' ourselves in the house of the ship, and make May-Day radio calls....what a sick JOKE!
(the ONLY thing that will ward off pirates is a few
dead pirates)
Fourth. The maritime nations are TOTALLY hog-tied and bound up by politics when it comes to dealing with pirates. Many counties allow or tolerate piracy because it provides impoverished "communities" with income. (and we have seen just how substantial this income can be here in recent weeks...)
Many nations allow piracy so long as they don't attack their own ships... China (that is Communist China) is notorious for this... Muslim terrorists in lawless regions in Africa, and South East Asia have free reign because the local and central governments are too weak (or unwilling) to do anything about it.
Lastly. The vast majority of the worlds, WORLDS goods travel at some point, either in whole or partly by SEA. Anything that raises the cost of shipment will raise the cost of the goods, and that cost is ALWAYS passed on to the consumer. Piracy is a direct threat to the GLOBAL ECONOMY and a bunch of crazed, high, idiotic mutants enriching themselves at the expense of the rest of the world is a bad thing indeed.
BONUS!
Kudos to the INDIAN NAVY for doing to pirates what should be done to ALL pirates! SEND THEM TO THE BOTTOM! The Indian Navy at least has the nerve to do what others won't. Here's to the Indian Navy!!!
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Unarmed at sea
