What should be done to prevent more ships from being pirated?

[CBC News]

An Indian warship was able to fight off and destroy a suspected Somali pirate vessel, the navy said on Wednesday.

The attack came the same day a Thai fishing boat with 16 crew members and an Iranian cargo ship with a crew of 25 were also hijacked in the Gulf of Aden. Also Tuesday, pirates who hijacked a Saudi-owned supertanker anchored the vessel off the north coast of Somalia.

Noel Choong, who heads the International Maritime Bureau's piracy reporting centre in Kuala Lumpur, said a total of 17 vessels are currently being held hostage in Somali waters with more than 300 crew members.

"It's getting out of control," Choong told the Associated Press.

Choong said eight ships have been hijacked this week. Since the beginning of the year, 39 ships have been hijacked in the Gulf of Aden, out of 95 attacked.

Pirates have generally released ships they have seized after ransoms are paid.

Full story

What should be done to prevent more ships from being pirated?



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[scratch]

Put weapons and gun turrets on them and have them at the pirates.

 

[darkbeaver]

Nothing, if we don't act to stop capitalist banking pirates who pillage the guts out of the very planet in our own neighbourhoods why should we lift a finger to help those same pricks save their cargoes. Good luck to the pirates, at least it's a slightly more honest living.

 

[Ron in Regina]

Decoy ships...armed to the teeth. Let the Pirates come out to play, after several are blown
to pieces with all hands lost, not knowing if the next ship is a real cargo ship or another
decoy.

 

[#juan]

I think we should put together an international convoy of warships and hunt these criminals down, destroy them and their vessels. I can't believe the Somalian government, such as it is, isn't in this with both feet. There are a number of hijacked ships at anchor off the coast that are apparently booby trapped with explosives until the ransom is paid. Until now we've been treating these guys with kid gloves. Time to get rough.

 

[darkbeaver]

Decoy ships...armed to the teeth. Let the Pirates come out to play, after several are blown
to pieces with all hands lost, not knowing if the next ship is a real cargo ship or another
decoy.

A/ who pays for the arms and ships and crews?
B/ is there really a problem with the local economy?
C/ why do you hate small business?
D/ why not form the Somalian Ship Insurance Group?



and recruit the pirates as owner/operators, they are the experts in shipping in that part of the sea and would be the most cost effective. Pirates are hard to wipe out especially in the absence of other industry and the available resources. There are pirates there because there are floating business oportunitys there.

 

[Northboy]

Submarines out hunting will do the trick.

 

[scratch]

Submarines would work.

But whose submarines?

regs, North

scratch

 

[darkbeaver]

I think we should put together an international convoy of warships and hunt these criminals down, destroy them and their vessels. I can't believe the Somalian government, such as it is, isn't in this with both feet. There are a number of hijacked ships at anchor off the coast that are apparently booby trapped with explosives until the ransom is paid. Until now we've been treating these guys with kid gloves. Time to get rough.

Why don't we try diplomacy first? We could send a business deligation with notable CFOs and CEOs and bankers to work out a real good deal for both sides without bloodshed. I don't like to see government get involved with private business when their perfectly capable of moving their balls along the global level playing field.
Who cares if the pirates eat well at the expence of the rich? What does Canada loose?

 

[#juan]

The same reason why Afghan authorities are planning to negotiate with the Taliban..... because it get's things done and may save more lives down the road, rather then being stubbron and trying to prove a point.

Just for a moment I'll treat this as a serious discussion. The taliban could be seen as fighting invaders of their own country.........If you squint hard enough.....So I'll give you that.

These pirates however, are attacking vessels in international waters, hijacking them and taking any passengers and crew as hostages. This is the unlawful interference of trade between countries that have every right to that trade. Indeed, trade is the lifeblood of most countries and they have a right to protect themselves and their trade. To negotiate with these criminals is foolish because you would be giving them a legitimacy they don't have a right to. I haven't even mentioned the rights of the people working on the hijacked ships but I'm sure you will agree that they have rights.

 

[Ron in Regina]

A/ who pays for the arms and ships and crews? Those that use the waterway off Somalia.
Those that have already been hit or will be hit or might be hit. This would be the Insurance
Group you're alluding to. Pre-emptive and heavily armed insurance...

B/ is there really a problem with the local economy? Yeah, it's a mess, and these Pirates are
hero's injecting much needed $$$ into the Somalia economy...building big houses and hiring
staff to build and clean and do the upkeep on them...and spend like drunken pirates.

C/ why do you hate small business? Oh come on DB.

D/ why not form the Somalian Ship Insurance Group? Sort'a like the Mofia's protection money?

 

[scratch]

Very good point about Canada d.b.

 

[darkbeaver]

Nuke Somalia, problem solved.

That is the dream of the Ethiopian pirates.

 

[darkbeaver]

Very good point about Canada d.b.

It's also a very good idea for economically poor Nova Scotians. While we have a history of coastal exploitation I think we could copy the Somalian design locally. We have water, we have fat merchantmen plying our waters free and most importantly we have pirates. I'd like to explore merger proposals with these guys.

 

[Praxius]

......Noel Choong, who heads the International Maritime Bureau's piracy reporting centre in Kuala Lumpur, said a total of 17 vessels are currently being held hostage in Somali waters with more than 300 crew members.

"It's getting out of control," Choong told the Associated Press.

Choong said eight ships have been hijacked this week. Since the beginning of the year, 39 ships have been hijacked in the Gulf of Aden, out of 95 attacked.

Holy crap, I thought there was a lot of ships being hi-jacked, but not that many..... seriously wtf does Somolia have over there?

Long John Silver University?

What should be done to prevent more ships from being pirated?

As they explained on the report I seen last night, arming the crew isn't the best idea, because that will just step up the pirates attacks to get on board, as they clearly have nothing really to loose. Having a security force on board the vessels armed with SMG's and the sort wouldn't be all that productive either, as they can only effectively use those weapons once they are already on board the vessel, and thus increases the chances of people dying more then before. The Pirates seem like a bit of a riff raff with crude weaponry, but they claimed last night that they have GPS's, Assault Rifles, RPGs, new and faster speed boats, and are being regularlly trained for this type of operation.

The most logical option is to stop them on the waters before they can board.

Instead of turning the crew into a little commando, the best bet is to load up 2-4 30mm Cannons on each corner of the vessels for coverage purposes, and mow their boast to Davy Jone's Locker.

Something like these guns:

You see a boat heading your way..... you check them out with your binox.... they seem like they have guns and look pretty angry..... you message them to stay the hell away from you or face death..... if they don't turn back, turn all guns to their direction and sink their sorry asses.....

.... and for the fun of it, turn the tanker around and run the rest of them over who survived.

Teach them arseholes a lesson or two.

The again, the new problem that is brought from that, is if you missed them and they board, they will probably make examples out of a few crew members, and when the destroyers come around to deal with the situation, the pirates on the ship now have some big guns to turn back on them.

So what do you do?

Start investing in some solar power.

 

[darkbeaver]

And even better idea is to load the boats up with tourists, head for a ship to pirate and get the tourists to board the ship first (Say it's all part of the show or something) then when the ship being attacked wastes most of their ammo on the tourists, the experienced pirates board and take over with more ease......

and then not only would we have the ship in our control, but the tourists are dead, we already got their money as well, and we don't have to worry about dragging their arses back to shore..... just dump them in the water for the sharks along with the crew of the other vessel.

What tourists? We just went fishing today officer and we stumbled accross this ship with no crew... it was in international waters, so we claimed it as our own, along with all the property and stock within..... bullet holes? Blood? That was all there when we got here.

It's heartening to see young entreprenurial thinking in action Praxius, very dynamic stuff moving forward. There may be a small problem with return business we should examine, but overall the plan seems to be meating up. Someone will have to do some leg work chasing provincial grants.

 

[#juan]

Why don't we try diplomacy first? We could send a business deligation with notable CFOs and CEOs and bankers to work out a real good deal for both sides without bloodshed. I don't like to see government get involved with private business when their perfectly capable of moving their balls along the global level playing field.
Who cares if the pirates eat well at the expence of the rich? What does Canada loose?

What the hell are you talking about?? These people are criminals and should be dealt with as criminals. Shoot them. Sink their vessels. Hunt them down where they live. There are honest people working on the ships these criminals hijack. Do we care about those the hijackers have killed? DB that was one of the more shallow posts you've made. Why would anyone negotiate with killers and thieves?

 

[darkbeaver]

Bunch of Reckless Mavericks here. is it any wonder that this country is for sale? Why don't we negotiate with these protestors and try to find a solution to the problem before we have to spend needed assets to correct somebody elses problem that really isn't a problem? Unless of course a freighter whose holds are full of christmas teddy-bears destined for new homes this x-mess season is being held for ransom from tiny children in America. I can see the pirate eradication sales pitch as something wholesome to plug the screens with this holiday season perhaps even a christmas day special which would feature the nuclear destruction of the pirate hideaway and the release of the teddys by marines.

 

[darkbeaver]

This is a serious incident only in a local sence. I'm perplexed by the virulent racism afforded these Somalian amateur pirates. These poor wretches don't even begin to register on the criminal scale. We seem ready to address this problem at the behest of the filthy rich loosing money and exterminate any and all trace of them at great cost to real situations in our own hemisphere. While Hatians starve in their thousands and endure the brutalites of sanctioned capitalist piracy some here favour a longer more expensive voyage to vent their righteous indignation of criminal acts in remote locals on easy targets. There is no limit to the ruin of the western ethic.

 

[Praxius]

It's also a very good idea for economically poor Nova Scotians. While we have a history of coastal exploitation I think we could copy the Somalian design locally. We have water, we have fat merchantmen plying our waters free and most importantly we have pirates. I'd like to explore merger proposals with these guys.

We in Nova Scotia like to be referred to as "Privateers" as it sounds fancier and more professional.

And yes, NS does have a long history with pirates and a good chunk of our tourism can be linked to various historic moments in time that involved pirates..... they say there's still treasure that was never found out in Smugglers' Cove.

^ I've been there.... good luck finding it, as the tide's a b*tch.

But I don't think anybody in Nova Scotia is planning on the Piracy plan anytime soon.... not until we seperate from Canada anyways.