Growing Pirate Threat

Pirates have been figures of fascination and fear for centuries but for most people they are viewed as mainly subject matter for movies and books in this day and age.

The recent attack of the Cruise Ship by Pirates has showed us they are quite real even in our modern world.
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This got me thinking are modern Pirates a much bigger problem then the Media makes it out to be?

In 2004 325 pirate attacks were reported worldwide according to the International Maritime Bureau (IMB) In 2004, 30 mariners were murdered - half of them in the sea off Nigeria - making it one of the bloodiest years in more than a decade.

Heres one of the most sophisticated pirate attacks I have come across.

In 1998, pirates assumed control of the oil tanker Petro Ranger in the South China Sea and forced the crew to teach them how to operate the vessel.

They then made one of their hostages paint over the name of the ship with a new name, and replaced the Singapore flag with one from Honduras.

The tanker sailed to somewhere off the coast of China, where it was drained of its oil.

Thats scary IMHO these are not the actions of some group of thugs with a boat and AK-47s. You need some powerful networks and resources to pull something like that off.

How many of these attacks go unreported as pirate attacks every year and simple ships reported as lost at sea? Could these numbers just be the tip of the iceberg of Pirate attacks. Surely the large commercial vessels cruising the shipping lanes of the world are are profitable targets.

link

What is most troubling is the evolution of the pirate. They don't ride on massive sail-ships anymore, they don't have swords or parrots on their shoulders. Now they have Uzis and wear $300 shirts and Ray-Ban sunglasses.

In many ways, they are as dangerous as gangs and organized crime groups.

I agree sweatmonicaIdo

This latest cruise ship attack has really sparked my interest in the subject.

Heres some more information I came across

Pirate attacks tripled between 1993 and 2003. The first half of 2003 was the worst 6-month period on record, with 234 pirate attacks, 16 deaths, and 52 people injured worldwide. There were also 193 crew members held hostage during this period.

Tripled in the last ten years thats pretty scary

They also stated that of the attacks in 2004, oil and gas tankers and bulk carriers were the most popular targets with 67 attacks on tankers and 52 on bulk carriers.

I cant believe this many attacks on these huge cargo ships. I really thought most pirates would not have resourses to move such large amounts of goods. The days of ship transporting gold bullion might be long gone but these modern cargo ships seem to be some high value targets

en.wikipedia.org...

The thing is, pirates are seen as more of an annoyance rather than a big-time threat. For one thing, pirates are considered different from terrorists because they have vastly different agendas. Pirates are not the guys who are gonna damage infrastructure, economic, military, or political centers, for example. Thus, terrorists are the bigger threat and pirates are just ants.

No doubt about it, pirates just moved up a notch on my FEAR list. Seems like everyday I get to update my list and become just a little more afraid.

Gonna be awhile though till the pirates even get close to DRUNK DRIVERS on my fear list. In fact TERRORISt are like no. 80.

I would think finding pirates would be easy.

"Hey, umm....do you want thirty tons of grain?"

How does all the merch disappear?

DE

If I were an admiral in the US Navy and I was put in charge of cleaning out these pirates....I would take a juicy looking cruise ship and load it up with heavily armed US Marines dressed as tourists and park that ship in Pirate waters.

Let the pirates approach and board the ship....it would be be their last act.

Maximu§

The MN has very little chance against pirates, and theres little chance of this stopping unless etheir A) intepol gets involved or B) we create a world police

Generally the pirates are after the safe, as cash is needed on board vessels. The first person they seek is the captain- they use him/her to gain access to the safe and then flee. The safe is typically in the captain's stateroom.

I don't consider the ship that got pirated a "cruise ship". That's more like a big yacht. When I think of a "cruise ship" I think of the Love Boat. I think of Gopher, Captain Stubing, and Isaac the bartender. Ships of that size can't be pirated. They could be hijacked, but not pirated. The use of the words "pirate" and "cruise ship" in the same sentence is just another case of trying to instill fear in the masses.

Peace

Originally posted by Journey
Generally the pirates are after the safe, as cash is needed on board vessels. The first person they seek is the captain- they use him/her to gain access to the safe and then flee. The safe is typically in the captain's stateroom.

On cruise ships they have BANKS. Thats where they keep the money. I thought that pirates were after the wimmin so they could sell them into "white slavery" or take them back to their pirate lair and have their way with them.

[edit on 8-11-2005 by whaaa]

Here is a pirate story from 2001. This story made the front page of my local news paper and was the first time I has heard about modern day Pirates.

August 21 - Calgary, Canada

Bob Medd, who barely survived a murder attempt while sailing in the Sea of Cortez aboard his Aloha 34 The Learning Curve, flew to Calgary, Canada, yesterday, to be with his family and undergo reconstructive surgery. This according to Bob Willmann of the Islander 34 Viva, who buddyboated with Medd most of last winter and who started Medd's fateful cruise in company with him. The good news is that "Bob is doing extremeley well and is expected to make a full recovery." He will live with his daughters when he gets out of the hospital. Having lost everything, Medd's future is uncertain, but he would like to get another boat and continue cruising.

[...]

Tuesday afternoon around 3PM, four fishermen spotted his boat on the rocks and came over to investigate. They discovered Bob on the beach and immediately saw that he was in dire need of medical attention. They managed to get him into their panga and used five of his flares to attract a Mexican naval vessel that then transported him back to Santa Rosalia. An ambulance was waiting when they arrived and Bob was taken to the local hospital. The Mexican doctors did everything they could, and were responsible for saving his life.

On Thursday he was taken by car to a hospital in Southern California. The drive took over 12 hours. The California doctors were told they had an emergency patient who had been attacked by pirates and had his throat slit. They didn't believe the story until they actually saw Bob. When they saw him, they were amazed he'd managed to stay alive for so long. They operated on him during the early hours Friday morning, and were able to stabilize him.




www.latitude38.com...

We watch our movies and see pirates and have our fantasies, but the reality of pirates is a grim one.

Originally posted by DeusEx
I would think finding pirates would be easy.

"Hey, umm....do you want thirty tons of grain?"

How does all the merch disappear?

DE

The fact that they are attacking large merchant ships would suggest they have some rather large networks in place to fence large amounts of stolen goods.

I have even seen accounts were they steal the entire boat things like yachts and then change the boat's identity and sell it. Some of those recreational boats are worth insane amounts of money.

Umbrax thanks for posting the story Thats the first I heard of that one.

Originally posted by LA_Maximus
If I were an admiral in the US Navy and I was put in charge of cleaning out these pirates....I would take a juicy looking cruise ship and load it up with heavily armed US Marines dressed as tourists and park that ship in Pirate waters.

Let the pirates approach and board the ship....it would be be their last act.

Maximu§

That would work like maybe once or twice. They aren't stupid you know and they will adapt to sonic weapons as wel eventually.

[ enable sarcasm mode ]

Perhaps it isn't all bad.

Consider the following graph.



It shows that the rise in global average temperatures is inversely proportional to the number of pirates. If piracy keeps rising then we'll not need to worry about global warming being a problem.

[ disable sarcasm mode ]

Seriously. I am surprised, like others have said above, that they'd have the ability to offload such large cargos, especially a super tanker.

- McGrude

Originally posted by sardion2000
That would work like maybe once or twice. They aren't stupid you know and they will adapt to sonic weapons as wel eventually.

Remember that old Pirate saying?

Dead Men Tale no Tale's

arrrrrrrrr....

Maximu§

[edit on 073030p://222 by LA_Maximus]

Originally posted by LA_Maximus

Originally posted by sardion2000
That would work like maybe once or twice. They aren't stupid you know and they will adapt to sonic weapons as wel eventually.

Remember that old Pirate saying?

Dead Men Tale no Tale's

arrrrrrrrr....

Maximu§

[edit on 073030p://222 by LA_Maximus]

But the press does

You know Sardion, there was once a day when Pirates were hanged by the neck out at sea. Maybe that needs to start happening again.....hang them and sink their boats.

When the Scumbags fail to come back home and others like them who go out fail to come back home, you can bet the message will be loud and clear.....pull out your fishing nets and find another line of work.

Maximu§

Contemporary piracy at sea is nothing new

...These attacks would be shocking if they were isolated cases. But according to reports compiled by IMO, between 1984 and the end of November 1999, there had been 1,587 attacks by pirates on ships around the world. In some areas these attacks involved a disturbing increase in violence....UN Atlas of the Oceans

Cases such as the Alondra Rainbow, Tenyu, MV Cheung Son are in the above article.

I personally knew individuals (years ago) which paid for their annual college tuition and expenses by working only summers as armed security personnel serving on grain ships to Africa. Very, very lucrative at the time.

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How do we know that the Cruise ship was attacked by pirates...and not terrorists? They didn't get onboard...we dont know if they were planning on stealing cash...or killing people, or crashing or sinking the boat to make a statement and end lives.

I wonder if that sonic thing actual did anything at all. I'm sure its no cheap...personaly my method would be the cheapest and best...guns. Once they fire apon you unload on them...or just use a rifle and shoot a couple holes in there itty bitty boat...the ship that was off the coast of somolia was 100 miles from shore...just let them sink and see if they can swim 100 miles. Or just take out the motor...they will have days to think about there actions before they die.