Re: OT-Is this an urban legend or a fact?

Eisboch wrote:

"Lone Haranguer" <linuszrv@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message news:74bo33F10grvrU1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Eisboch wrote:

"Hunter Hampton" <airstreamingypsy@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message news:rmnvt4to19opaqaptdt4ktqc04unaspm6h@xxxxxxxxxx


The stupid thing to me is to allow any ship, in pirate infested
waters, to be unarmed. Seems they have to be because of international
law.

I mean 4 goons in a freaken open boat takes over a ship? That's crazy.

Hunter


It's not really international law. Merchant ships are typically unarmed (other than smuggled, small, personal sidearms) because they often carry flammable cargo, the vapors of which can be explosive, plus the fact that most countries around the world do not allow armed, civilian merchant vessels to enter their ports.

These containerships have a high degree of automation which is why a very large ship can be run by a small crew. Running at night, there is virtually nobody topside on deck and even if they did patrol the topsides, it's a huge ship with only what, 18 people aboard? (actually that's a lot .... most of these container type ships are run with even fewer crew members). These ships are slow and it is fairly easy to have two or three small, fast boats pull up along side, throw grapples up the side and have pirates climb aboard before a crewmember patrolling the deck could even get to the area this is happening.

It's reality versus the movies.

Eisboch


Everything you say is true but I understand the crew had fought off earlier attempts by the pirates with water hoses so they were well
aware of the attack. One of the 21 crew members should have been able to get to the point where the boat was attempting to throw grappling hooks over the
rail, wouldn't you agree?


I agree with the concept, however apparently the crew did not have that opportunity even though they displayed a willingness to fight back. We landlubbers can only speculate as to what the actual chain of events were.


And all this "unarmed" crap could be easily circumvented by putting private security teams on board by chopper while the dangerous zone is transited and then removing them the same way.


True. But this attack did not happen in the normal dangerous zone. To protect every merchant ship means a lot of people and helicopters flying around. I think this is what makes the whole scenario so frustrating to many. You would think that protecting these merchant ships would be easy but it's not. It's a big ocean out there (the Indian Ocean is over 20 million square miles in area) with a lot of ships transiting it at any one time. I realize that the pirates can't threaten the whole Indian Ocean, but the area they can operate in is still very large.

Eisboch

How often do we get satellite photos of the area? I would presume by now we have a satellite or three watching the area and someone tasked to monitor
ship/boat traffic. Boats heading toward other boats should be easy to spot. We could be warning ships to change course and increase speed long before the pirates arrived. If the pirates are launching from a mother ship, surely we can find the damned thing and sink or capture it.

I can't believe we are that helpless with the technology and military assets at our disposal. Somebody is not doing their job.
LZ
.

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