Headlines

What's with all the Pirates szieing oil ships?!?!

C

cigdaze

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Pirayes, my azz!! Sounds more like a scheme cooked up by OPEC nations to create panic to get their prices back up!

Headlines:

HONG KONG CARGO SHIP HIJACKED BY PIRATES... DEVELOPING...

Iranian-operated cargo ship hijacked off Somalia... Developing...

Danish oil ship briefly seized off Nigeria... Developing...



PIRATES CAPTURE SUPERTANKER WITH $100 MILLION CARGO...

Open negotiations...

Saudis brand pirates 'terrorists' ...call for international action

US Admiral 'stunned' by pirates' reach...

http://www.drudgereport.com/
 
i find it amazing that these ships with millions of dollars of cargo are not heavily armed. one article said the oil tanker had a couple armed guards. if it was my ship it would have huge guns, a couple soldiers, and be ready to attack right back. call me crazy...but it doesn't seem like a crazy idea to me.
 
Perlmudder said:
i find it amazing that these ships with millions of dollars of cargo are not heavily armed. one article said the oil tanker had a couple armed guards. if it was my ship it would have huge guns, a couple soldiers, and be ready to attack right back. call me crazy...but it doesn't seem like a crazy idea to me.
Click to expand...

Interesting how history repeats itself, there was a time when merchant ships were always armed. This tanker was nearly 400 miles offshore. I have boarded a tanker that was under way from a small tug, it's sheer size tends to settle the water making it fairly easy with a ladder already in place.

I'd bet the pirates used radar to locate and creep up on the tanker early in the morning wouldn't be hard to fire some grappling hooks and board before anyone was aware.
 
Wobble said:
Come to think of it there is a website that will show you the location of any merchant ship if you know it's callsign, I think it's updated every four hours or so.
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seems like it would be a cool idea for the regular person. but for the safety of the ship, that seems horrible that pirates can see where they are within 4 or so hours.
 
Most operations are based off larger vessels. They stay in position for days just waiting for the right one.

Vessels can be tracked in real-time on board with an AIS receiver. Each ship broadcasts information about its position, course and speed; often more specific information about the ship is included, like cargo, and flag state.

Most hijackings involve holding the captain or crew for ransom. The ship owners usually pay to an offshore account and their guys are released.

It scary how many times these incidents go without notice. Its considered "bad practice" in the shipping community to have been hijacked; no ship owner wants to admit anything happened as it affects their reputation and future business. Insurance is also affected.

I've seen high powered water cannons and directional sound machines that act as a deterrence. Heard today that private contractors are now providing protective service in the hot areas.

This will not end soon. As long as there are ships in the ocean, there will be pirates. The bounty has simply changed.
 
Somalia is a $hithole. The International community should turn the whole area into a sheet of glass....Then there'd be no more pirate problems at the horn.
 
I have a buddy that is working for one of those "private contractors" aka. Mercenaries. He has been riding around on ships for the last month. I think he got tired of being in Afghanistan doing whatever he was doing.
 
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2008-11-18-somali_N.htm

On Tuesday, a major Norwegian shipping group Odfjell SE ordered its more than 90 tankers to sail around Africa rather than use the Suez Canal after the seizure of the Saudi tanker, MV Sirius Star, on Saturday.

The route is thousands of miles (kilometers) and many days shorter than going around the Cape of Good Hope off the southern tip of Africa.

It's gotta be cheaper to put a few helo's on the deck of these ships with missles, a few dozen 50 cal.'s on the decks and surface radar.
 
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