[Marmot]

Originally Posted by NYCAP123

Would you like to give up now so you'll be on time for lunch in the brig?

There must be no "give up" they must know that piracy carries fatal consequences. No quarter given, no surrender accepted. They should be destroyed on sight. If they take a ship, pay the ransom, make any promise it takes to get the crew back then vaporize the port and anyone within a mile of the place the pirates landed.

When the local residents see a captured vessel arriving in their port that will be fair warning that before it can dock the port will be destroyed. Any vessel at sea that is found to be carrying offensive weapons will be sunk and the crew can choose to go down with it or swim. It really is a simple matter to deal with. They have the choice to be found unarmed and harmless or they can choose to hang onto a raft. If nothing else the next generation will learn to stay within paddling distance of land.

[Opcn]

Originally Posted by NYCAP123

If you supply them with no food or water I suspect that the captain will be the last one standing.

Life boats tend to have emergency rations of a few days worth of food and a bit of water, I'll bet they took care of themselves first, so the captain is probably not set up to out last them. I would imagine that resupplying them with food with a bit of something to make them groggy would do the trick.

[OutMyWindow]

There may be a silver lining to the attempted capture of an American flagged vessel, as this may trigger a decisive and permanent response in dealing with the problem which has been tolerated through Piracy insurance thus far.
I foresee some drone action soon, say goodbye to those flat-screen TV’s and new pick up trucks.

[Arniev]

Originally Posted by NYCAP123

If you supply them with no food or water I suspect that the captain will be the last one standing. Why negotiate?

Maybe we can send those guys a couple of gallons of Prune Juice.
They're guaranteed to surrender within a few minutes, just so they can use ANY RESTROOM! Even if it is in the BRIG on a U.S. warship.

[PropBet]

It will be interesting to see where and how this issue progresses in the future.
The point in which it is now is gross. Pirates take over a ship, get their ransom, and move on to the next boat.

While a monumental overtaking to get all parties on the same page, I believe that brute force is the step in which people start to understand this is totally and completely unacceptable.

Does the issue need to get to the point in which ships arm their bows with sniper rifles and shoot to kill upon any threat of ill will?

I don't know the answer, but something certainly needs to be done, political agendas need to be put aside, and the industry needs to examine a different approach than the current, "passive / pay them off", which obviously doesn't work.

[rocdiver]

I see where the non-lethal methods (acoustical devices, fire hoses, bright lights, waving fists, etc.) have been tried as methods of repelling these maggots but haven't proven to effective thus far.

This may be totally un-doable but what about some kind of electric charge applied to a grid on the side of the ship. Obviously somehow insulated from the hull and only charged on demand.

I grew up on a dairy farm and we had electric fences everywhere. I can see a low voltage charge on the guys climbing up the side scaring the bejeesus out of them and causing them to fall.

(I also envision a high enough voltage where it would just fry the *******s right there, but that wouldn't be humane i guess.)

On another note, I'm guessing these freighters all have foam capabilities on their fire hoses/water cannons. Instead of the foam solution being drawn into the water supply, why not inject some kind of caustic substance which would cause great discomfort (or worse) to the attackers skin?

I'm sure the Engineer types here can come up with some ingeniously clever means of keeping these attackers at bay. (I personally vote for training and arming a small contingent of the crew and just shooting back when they start attacking, but what do I know?)

ROCK

[Opcn]

Originally Posted by PropBet

It will be interesting to see where and how this issue progresses in the future.
The point in which it is now is gross. Pirates take over a ship, get their ransom, and move on to the next boat.

While a monumental overtaking to get all parties on the same page, I believe that brute force is the step in which people start to understand this is totally and completely unacceptable.

Does the issue need to get to the point in which ships arm their bows with sniper rifles and shoot to kill upon any threat of ill will?

I don't know the answer, but something certainly needs to be done, political agendas need to be put aside, and the industry needs to examine a different approach than the current, "passive / pay them off", which obviously doesn't work.

What you mean that appeasement isn't working? But it worked so well when we wanted to avoid war with Hit ... well Nazi's are different, these are pirates, world renown for there respect for the private property of others.

What really gets me is that they demanded repayment for their boat.

[NYCAP123]

They were just talking on the news about there being a whole industry that has sprung up to facilitate the payment of ransom to the pirates. Sounds a bit like the fact that I always seem to get a ton of solicitations for anti-virus software around when a new Y2K virus is announced. Like P.T Barnum used to say, "there's a sucker born every 11 seconds". Just kill them and anyone who happens to be near them! What the hell is Samolia going to do, stop trading with us?

[NYCAP123]

Evidently the Somali pirates, feeling the pressure of the anti-piracy efforts, have decided to try their hand at kidnapping on land. In October they kidnapped an American and a Dutch aid workers. As of last night they have been rescued and 9 of their captors are dead.
World News - American hostage in Somalia rescued by US Navy SEALs in overnight raid

['RoundTheHorn]

Navy sends robot helicopters to find pirates

[dennismc]

I thought the pirates still held close to 700 prisoners ?? if that's close to true, any attempt to "destroy" the Port may result in more deaths of the prisoners than the pirates..?? pretty hard to turn back the clock at this stage, the time for fast action is long past, thanks to those who believe that piracy is not really a crime or a real bother to anyone, to blazes with the innocent, protect the guilty...

[84far]

Warning shots

Private Security Guards Shoot Somali Pirates Video

Far

[brian eiland]

Originally Posted by 84far

Warning shots

Private Security Guards Shoot Somali Pirates Video
Far

Fantastic ! Now if any pirates should happen to get aboard and get detained, please don't hold them for arrest. Simply tell the to dive in and swim back to where they came from....and film it so you can broadcast that as the new procedures for dealing with pirates on vessels. I think this could get those new pirates ready to 'swim for it'

[EdLee]

Hello everybody, I am evidently new here as I was browsing around about new inspiring yacht designs (oh boy I'm pretty impressed even by the hobbyists' works) when I chanced upon this piracy thread - a topic close to my heart being a former coast guard involved with piracy patrol in Southeast Asia myself.

I think there are lots of inconvenient (painful) truths that the authorities are unwilling to face with regards to piracy. The overall picture said there is very little we can do to stabilize the country where the piracy originates from. I'm just going to leave it as that.

When it comes to combating piracy, I hope I don't sound overly extreme but realistically do we expect an unarmed ship (and crew) to defend against armed pirates well? We're not talking about small little .38 revolvers. We're talking AK47s and RPGs here. I find it laughable at times when I read about the authorities' responses to the issue of piracy, not limited to the ones in Somalia. The reality is (and these ministers jolly well wake up), you can't manage piracy like the way you manage political opponents or rival states. The sheer amount of ships hijacked and number of crew held hostage is a clear evidence of epic failure at its best.

If my coast guard commander does not expect us to engage a suspected pirate boat unarmed, I see no reason why we expect the merchant ships to do the exact opposite. The weapons are there for obvious reasons. Enabling the ships to respond with firepower is an obvious answer under those circumstances where 90% of the times coalition warships are nowhere near. If the authorities do not believe in armed response/defence, why even bother to send the warships? With 30mm anti-aircraft guns even? I don't know if anybody even sees this as a anti-thesis like I do.

If armed auxiliary police (supplement to the national police) is a long standing component when delivering bank notes in anti-hijack armored vehicles or safe-guarding the airports worldwide, why not make armed auxiliary police available to the seafarers as well? IMO needs to talk less and act more.

There are also brokers who help pirates to negotiate for ransoms. Some of them operate from countries that send warships to the piracy regions. I don't know if something's missing but trying to react directly to the pirates while the power brokers continue to earn a cut of commission from the ransom paid is a direct slap back in the face of my coalition nations. BBC highlighted this ransom brokerage some years back in a documentary I remembered. And strangely, not a single ransom broker has ever been hauled into the courtroom to stand trial.

Just my 2 cents worth.

[brian eiland]

Originally Posted by EdLee

....There are also brokers who help pirates to negotiate for ransoms. Some of them operate from countries that send warships to the piracy regions. I don't know if something's missing but trying to react directly to the pirates while the power brokers continue to earn a cut of commission from the ransom paid is a direct slap back in the face of my coalition nations. BBC highlighted this ransom brokerage some years back in a documentary I remembered. And strangely, not a single ransom broker has ever been hauled into the courtroom to stand trial.

That would be interesting to look up,....I don't recall that,...but I don't doubt it either.