Somalian pirates attack cruise ship
- Thread starter Harriet
- Start date
- Status
iheartscience
Super_Ideal_Rock
- Joined
- Jan 1, 2007
- Messages
- 12,111
Hudson_Hawk
Super_Ideal_Rock
- Joined
- Nov 2, 2006
- Messages
- 10,541
joflier
Ideal_Rock
- Joined
- Oct 2, 2007
- Messages
- 3,504
- Joined
- Sep 19, 2004
- Messages
- 2,547
No it was not. Piracy has been arround for years - and have successfully attacked cruise ships before. About a decade or so ago there was a major story about piracy of a cruise ship in the Meditranian.
There are far to few military ships to escort even a fraction of the commercial vessels. This is a historical truth. Only in very restricted areas (straights and canals) can military escort provide any real hope of protection as all the ships can be protected (if possible) by a small number of military ships.
This really isn''t a matter of spead. It is a matter of awarness and distance. Virtually any speedboat can get alongside of any large ship. But you then have to toss grappling hooks and climb ropes to get onboard.
If the ship sees the pirates they can do several things. First, some ships have "sonic" cannon that emit so much noise - on speific frequencies that it disrups the pirates from even approaching the ship. Second. All ships crews can use fire hoses to knock down people trying to toss grappling hooks and climb aboard. This is quite successfull.
My guess is that the cruise ship used a sonic cannon and was able to evade getting boarded until either the pirates just gave up or the pirates reached a fuel limit (speed boats have limited ranges compared to ships). The only reason the ship got away was that the pirates gave up. It is not a matter of speed.
---------
The whole issue of piracy and its control is a difficult situation in our current times.
Piracy has always existed and has never gone away. Southeast Asia is well know for it. Occassionaly it occurs elsewhere too. The international laws regarding piracy have remained unchanged for many hundreds of years - and the basics go back at least 1000 years.
Currently, piracy has reached the levels of yore... when sailing ships were common targets hundreds of years ago. The situation off of Africa has become a major concern.
However, the legal options are limited.
The military is quite restricted and can only be used against pirates in two cases:
1) When within the internationally recognized territorial waters of a nation (usually limited to 3 or 10 miles from shore).
2) To help a commercial ship that is registered (flagged) in their country. For example. A US Navy Vessel can legally act with deadly force to stop the piracy of a US flagged commercial ship anywhere in the world. They cannot intervien with deadly force to help any other nations flagged vessels.
Due to cost of crew requirments - most ships are registered (flagged) in countries that do not even have a deep water navy - thus; no military can just blow the pirates out of the water.
Under more recent international law: A military vessel can - in international waters - intercept and "arrest" people who are acting as pirates, which may stop the piracy of a commercial ship. However, then the military vessel must turn the pirates over for trial.
Due to other international laws - most of the people arrested for piracy could claim "refugee" status in the country of the navy that arrested them - which would prevent the pirates from being put on trial for piracy; and burden the country arresting them with their care.
The old solution that kept piracy in check is that the crew and captain of the vessel being attacked by the pirates has the legal right to use both deadly force and conduct an at sea trial and impose punishment at sea - including death of the pirates (hanging, walking the plank, etc). In the days of yore an attack by pirates was almost always a fight to the death by both sets of crews. It is becasue the merchant vessels armed themselves and successfully faught off - or executed the pirates - that piracy declined to a "reasonable" level.
However, moder ship crews are working for $ and did not sign up to fight to the death if pirates attack. Remember, if you do engage in that kind of fight - then you are more succeptable to being killed if the pirates take over the ship.
I believe that the only real solution here is for the shipowners to start staffing ships with mercenary crews who do sign up to fight to the death - and staff the ships well enough that they almost always win. When most pirate attacks end by the pirates being hung at sea.... the pirates will stop trying to seize the ships.
Another thing the ship owners can do is to flag their vessels in countries that have a sizable deep water navy that can patrol the area in question. This has two downsides. The US has the largest Navy - and US flagging requires use of a US crew. This can cost a ship owner an extra million or so a year. Second. the US navy (and Coast Guard) is no longer that big. The current US Navy is about 300 ships. In the 80''s it was over 500 ships (and almost reached 600 ships at its peak). Considering that those ships spend about 6 months a year inport - and they are spread in global coverage - there just are not that many ships to cover a lot of international shipping (and the area off of the cost of Africa is fairly large). Thus, flagging with a US flag may not buy that much protection. I do note that this stratagy has been successfully used in the last couple decades for ships that ply the Straits of Hormuz, as that was small enough for the US Navy to adequately protect the ships there (that was to prevent attack from Iran based groups).
Perry
However, the problems are much worse
- Status
Did You Miss the Jewels of the Weeks for September 2024?
Did You Miss the Jewels of the Weeks for September 2024? - 09/27
Did You Miss the Throwback Thursdays for September 2024?
Did You Miss the Throwback Thursdays for September 2024? - 09/26
300x240.png)