Ya think?!?!?!

[hankdatank1362]

"The pirates are living between life and death," said the pirate leader, identified by only one name, Boyah. "Who can stop them? Americans and British all put together cannot do anything."
The interview with the pirate was conducted in late August by journalists employed by the Somali news organization Garowe. The complete interview was provided to CNN last week and provides a glimpse of why piracy has been so hard to control in the region.
Recorded on grainy video, the interview took place in the Somali port city of Eyl, now a center of pirate operations. Eyl is on the east coast of Somalia in the autonomous territory of Puntland. It is a largely lawless zone, considered extremely dangerous for Westerners to enter.
The Puntland government said two unidentified Western journalists were taken hostage Wednesday as they attempted to report on pirate activity.
Boyah said that the piracy began because traditional coastal fishing became difficult after foreign fishing trawlers depleted local fish stocks. Traditional fishermen started attacking the trawlers until the trawler crews fought back with heavy weapons. The fishermen then turned to softer targets. "We went into the deep ocean and hijacked the unarmed cargo ships," Boyah said.

(Emphasis added)



Words can't describe what I'm thinking right now. For some reason, even when the bad guys admit that they don't want to get shot, and they will leave whoever shoots at them alone, there is still clamor for pacifism and caving in to the whims of pirates. :banghead:

Link to source, including video interview with pirate.

 

[moi_self26]

Yup, the sad thing is, these civilian ships, aren't even able to be armed most of the times, because most of the ports won't allow you to pull in with arms on board. In areas like the Gulf of Aden it's majorly dangerous.

 

[Sinixstar]

Yup, the sad thing is, these civilian ships, aren't even able to be armed most of the times, because most of the ports won't allow you to pull in with arms on board. In areas like the Gulf of Aden it's majorly dangerous.

A lot of it has to do with insurance as well.

 

[Kind of Blued]

The potential for somewhat immediate and painful death is a great deterrent.

Of course that would be too easy if the good guys could just, you know... protect their own lives. Wouldn't make for a good movie.

 

[moi_self26]

Yup, the sad thing is, these civilian ships, aren't even able to be armed most of the times, because most of the ports won't allow you to pull in with arms on board. In areas like the Gulf of Aden it's majorly dangerous.

A lot of it has to do with insurance as well

Well I know of civilian ships that DO bring on arms for certain parts of the transit where it doesn't interfere with the rules of the port that they need to dock in.

 

[Blakenzy]

International Maritime law has got to change. Allow locked and stowed weapons into port with prior declaration to local customs services. As long as the weapons stay on the ship under key why should anyone care?

 

[MIL-DOT]

I posted this another related thread. Wouldn't this work ?

Just a hypothetical solution : What if these large ships were to tow a smaller launch,or raise and lower one with its davit (crane), and leave some of the guards and the weapons out at sea, beyond the 20 mile limit when it goes into a port, then pick up the launch with weapons on board when it returns to international waters ? They could legally be as armed as they wanted to be 90% of the time, and be un-armed for only a 20 mile jouney to and from a presumably safe/freindly port.
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[zombienerd]

I posted this another related thread. Wouldn't this work ?

Just a hypothetical solution : What if these large ships were to tow a smaller launch,or raise and lower one with its davit (crane), and leave some of the guards and the weapons out at sea, beyond the 20 mile limit when it goes into a port, then pick up the launch with weapons on board when it returns to international waters ? They could legally be as armed as they wanted to be 90% of the time, and be un-armed for only a 20 mile jouney to and from a presumably safe/freindly port.

Technically yes, but you are missing the big logistics picture... Take one of my ships for example.. We are around 500ft long, and when we pull into port, we usually stay there for a few weeks.

If we were to do this, we'd need an even smaller boat on board the second boat, to ferry supplies and personnel back and forth from the ship. I don't know about you, but when you've been out to sea for 2+ months, I wouldn't want to be the guy who has to "hang back" and hold on to the guns while everyone else gets to go ashore and have fun...

Not to mention, food, cooking area, bunking area, a place for the "3rd" boat, and the fact you'd need at least 3 people on board, and the sea conditions 20+ miles off shore, you'd need at least a 40ft boat to make this work. I don't know about every other boat, but I know mine doesn't have room for another boat on deck, no less a 30-40ft one.

It's a novel idea, and may work on some vessels, but it would never work with my company.

+1 for actually trying to solve the issue, though