• TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
    Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
    Join free Log in
    Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.

Should ships be armed to combat pirates?

Arm the ships?

  • Yes

    Votes: 152 81.3%

  • No

    Votes: 20 10.7%

  • Offer the pirates carrots

    Votes: 15 8.0%
  • Total voters
    187
#222
D Rokk said:
nothing you said had a thing to do with what i said.. where did i say anythign about somalia i said "these pirates" i never said all of somalia isnt impoverished i said these pirates are getting money somewhere, find out where they are getting it..

if ur reading things i never wrote you really need to quit licking toads
Click to expand...

It seems that they've been getting millions of dollars in ransom payments. That's pretty widely known.
 
#231
Here's what I predict will happen. The media will hype this stuff and the pirates will notice. The frequency will increase, and these brazen attacks that include freighter hijacking, maritime robbery, kidnapping, and extortion will become more common. The risk reward factor is just tilted in their favor when they have nothing to lose.

When the cost of insurance demands it, these multinational conglomerates will start arming these freighters and tankers by hiring "security forces" that will travel onboard, and if necessary provide escort.

Weapons and personnel accountability is easier than you think. First off the scenario where you have armed personnel taking shoreleave in our ports isn't entirely accurate. Before one of these freighters enters port to unload, they have make arrangements for tug escort as well as hand the helm over to "pilots". Pilots are skippers with a Captains license that not only specialize in the slow op procedures necessary for docking, but more importantly, they have the knowledge and permission necessay for unloading at that particular port. It's safer and more cost effective, and logistically logical to do things this way than try to train every single captain in the particulars of every port.

The handoff of the helm can often occur a couple of days after the ship arrives. Within this time, Coast Guard is free, and often routinely boards the ships to check it's manifest. If these ships decide to arm, it's very east to set up an accountability program for weapons and security personnel. Before a ship leaves port with it's cargo, it can be inspected, and when it unloads they can create an accountability procedure.

I'm afraid this is where things are heading.
 
#232
It seems so simple to cure the problem of piracy off the somali coast
as they all seem to exclusively use the Yamaha F50/60 series outboard (according to all the photos) this is in order to maintain the speed they need for running down modern ships at sea nobody else other than a pirate would use this high performance 2 stroke engine in that country, its just not economical enough for fishing use.
Have a word with the local Yamaha dealer and ask for the customer list of somalian hi performance outboard owners that have not bought
water skis and program the addresses
into the targeting computers of a few j dams load up a couple of b2 bombers and hey presto. Almost 0 collateral damage.
I think they might just get the subtle hint.:ninja:
 
#234
these guys are thieves, not zealots. most of them are not going to die for this.

the one head pirate talked tough after the first time they're stood up to, but when a large percentage of these punks get cranial lead poisoning from seal snipers, they're going to sing another tune. these guys have never dealt with pushback before. they're getting it now, and they're not going to deal with it for long.

there's a perfect analogy of what's happened in traffic cops. imagine a speeder represents the pirates, and the cops reperesent the world governments involved. you can argue and stamp your foot with the cop when you get pulled over, and the cop will, generally (probably not in the south, but in the rest of the "civilized" part of the country) indulge your tantrum, and even might let you off with a warning if your suitably contrite/convincing.

but pull a gun? get violent with a -cop-? you've just entered another arena, champ, and you're -not- going to win that fight.
 
#235
When you've got a starving population, I can't imagine its too hard for the warlords and others running the piracy operations to find "volunteers" who are willing to do this for money to them or, in the event they die, their families on their death. I wouldn't underestimate the willingness of someone to potentially give up their life in exchange for sufficient money to allow their family not to starve to death. They may not be religious zealots, but the will to keep ones family alive is probably just as strong.

Its also not entirely true to say pirates haven't dealt with pushback before. They have been anti-piracy operations on the seas in different parts of the world for years (including Somaila). They just havn't been getting the press they've been getting recently. On the whole, even with this pushback, the pirates are still massively "on top". Indonesia is another area thats rife with maritime piracy, but that hasn't even been mentioned in the news yet. The biggest problem is that tracking ships and cargo in large areas of water isnt as easy as movies make out (otherwise very little in the way of drugs would make it to the US from South America).
 
#237
MakiSupaStar said:
Here's what I predict will happen..
Click to expand...

Yep, this is pretty much what I'd expect to happen, as well. Hiring a couple of extra hands with assault rifles for a couple of days while crossing Somalian waters isn't going to cost too much. I'd expect there are going to be security forces available at the closest safe ports.

It doesn't take much to disable those boats from a relatively safe range, anyways. A couple of well-placed shots with a .50 sniper rifle can disable an engine or puncture the boat when they are closing in, not to mention get the pirates to think twice about attempting an assault.
 
#238
How about instead of arming our ships with guns we arm them with flower cannons, showering pirates in a peace loving spray that'll be sure to make them change their ways.

Honestly I think that the simplest solution to this problem is to use USMM ships in the region for transport. Because technically we are in wartime, so having merchant marine vessels carrying a small US troop complement isn't completely out of hand. I'm sure a squad of marines is a bigger deterent than a bunch of idiot sailors screwing around with 50 caliber machine guns.

Of course there'd have to be some sort of discussion of world governments with US troops entering ports all the time, but I'd like to think that the UN could perhaps grant this privilege to nations that are on, say, the UN Security Council, neutral nations, etc so it wouldn't be just us.

As it stands, without protection, and as hijacking rates go up, and thus as it becomes less profitable to do business in the region, private companies are going to start hiring other private companies to protect them. Considering the public backlash companies like Blackwater have gotten, I'm sure they'd be happy to take up a security contract with shipping companies. They'd simply leave the vessel before going to port and be international douches, Blackwater style.
 
#239
the solution seems simple to me. From what I've read they use a rope between two small boats to catch the larger ship, once the front of the ship hits that rope it pulls the small boats to the side of the large ship. Why can't we just weld something to the front of the ship that will make the rope slide down and under the ship? Once it slides under it will stop pulling them closer to the ship. With a little luck the rope will get caught in the propeller which will wind it up and pull them right to the propeller to be chewed up and left as fish food.
 

Latest posts

Top Bottom
Back