Somali Pirates Seize Largest Ship Yet

[Pelranius]

*puts on tinfoil hat*

Maybe one of the Al Qaeda affiliated outfits there has gotten a hold of some antiship missiles and have carried out these attacks to lure over western naval ships?

*takes off tinfoil hat*

[PeZook]

Convoy cause economic damage because:

1) Convoys have to be assembled, organized and commanded. At every step of this procedure delays will form.

2) Convoys always sail at the speed of the slowest ship

3) Convoys load and unload in groups, clogging docks (more delays)

4) Convoys assemble according to loading speed of the ship which takes the longest to load (eg.if you have two ships, one is loaded in six hours, the other in twenty four, the convoy will leave in twenty four hours)

5) Convoys would clog bottlenecks

...and you still need a lot of naval vessels to escort, assemble, assist and manage convoys, especially if you try to assemble them just for the traverse of dangeorus waters, in the open sea (this basically means navies have to patrol sea routes and herd all entering ships into convoys).

To top it off, sailing in escorted convoys doesn't guarantee anything: if pirates manage to board one of the ships before they're spotted, you're back to square one.

[CJvR]

Convoy cause economic damage because

Also the overall decrease of available shipping tonnage as a result of a convoy system will be quite costly.

[Siege]

No, that wasn't Roberts.

Hmm, if it wasn't Roberts, then it was Rackham, or I've just unwittingly making this up.

Could've been Edward Low too, it sounds like something he would do.

[PeZook]

Could've been Edward Low too, it sounds like something he would do.

Morgan definitely seized several naval ships during his career. Hell, he basically commanded a not-insignificant pirate fleet at one point.

The point is moot, however, since modern warships aren't XVIIth century galleons, and will easily defeat any boarding attempt.

[Lonestar]

Normal economics do it just fine on their own ; During WWII, most of the economic damage to Britain was done by instituting the convoy system, rather than the 0.5% of total Allied shipping sunk by u-boats.

I'm afraid that the only way to end piracy in those waters is to actively hunt the pirates and kill them, destroy their bases and ruthlessly take back any captured ship, whatever their owners say. Unfortunately, if this happens (and it won't in the near future) hostages and civilians will die in the crossfire.

In the United States, Just-in-time economics is "normal economics". Switching from having the parts arrive a few weeks or even days before they are to be used, to everything arriving at once every couple of months, would be disuptive to say the least.

[Thanas]

No, that wasn't Roberts.

Hmm, if it wasn't Roberts, then it was Rackham, or I've just unwittingly making this up.

Well, considering that Rackham only commanded one sloop and plundered small vessels I kinda doubt that he managed to take a man of war.

[Edi]

It's pretty bad when there are well-known pirate bases on the coast and no one does anything about it. it's not as if they couldn't treat them as mini-states, consider their actions to be declarations of war, and respond accordingly.

I was wondering about the same thing just yesterday. Naval bombardment and destruction of port facilities for pirate bases and sinking all vessels at port in communities would send them an unambiguous message that this bullshit will not be tolerated anymore. Rinse and repeat a couple of times and it shouldn't be a problem anymore.

[CJvR]

I was wondering about the same thing just yesterday. Naval bombardment and destruction of port facilities for pirate bases and sinking all vessels at port in communities would send them an unambiguous message that this bullshit will not be tolerated anymore.

Yeah, and the day after the place would be crawling with reporters interviewing the poor "fishermen" who got their innocent boats sunk and splattering images of crying women and burnt out houses all over every media outlet in the world.

Longing for the old days when payment was in iron!
http://www.puzzlehistory.com/olirnsd.jpg

[TithonusSyndrome]

It's pretty bad when there are well-known pirate bases on the coast and no one does anything about it. it's not as if they couldn't treat them as mini-states, consider their actions to be declarations of war, and respond accordingly.

I was wondering about the same thing just yesterday. Naval bombardment and destruction of port facilities for pirate bases and sinking all vessels at port in communities would send them an unambiguous message that this bullshit will not be tolerated anymore. Rinse and repeat a couple of times and it shouldn't be a problem anymore.

It can't be that simple then, I have a hard time believing that any nation already suffering harassment at the hands of these pirates wouldn't simply do everyone a favor by sailing over and shell them flat. There has to be a civilian population mixed in with them who aren't a party to or perhaps even the indentured servants of the pirates.

[Marko Dash]

it seems like what is needed is something like a few radar equipped blimps. they can loiter out at sea inform any near by ships when an unknown contact is moving out from shore.

[Admiral Valdemar]

On Earth, Just-in-time economics is "normal economics". Switching from having the parts arrive a few weeks or even days before they are to be used, to everything arriving at once every couple of months, would be disuptive to say the least.

Fixed for you.

I'd like to say my two Indian work colleagues were quite chuffed that the INS Tabar actually did something.

[Kanastrous]

On Earth, Just-in-time economics is "normal economics". Switching from having the parts arrive a few weeks or even days before they are to be used, to everything arriving at once every couple of months, would be disuptive to say the least.

Fixed for you.

I'd like to say my two Indian work colleagues were quite chuffed that the INS Tabar actually did something.

Chuffed = psyched, jazzed, proud, delighted?

[Admiral Valdemar]

Yup.

[FSTargetDrone]

Chuffed = psyched, jazzed, proud, delighted?

Hee, these British and their baffling colloquialisms. Separated by common language, indeed.

"Chuffed" sounds like it has something to with, I don't know. Hell, it doesn't sound like what it is. It sounds kind of dirty.

Edit:

Whoops, meant to update the story:

Saudi Oil Tanker Owners in Negotiations With Pirates (Update1)

By Caroline Alexander and Flavia Krause-Jackson

Nov. 19 (Bloomberg) -- The owners of an oil-laden Saudi Arabian supertanker hijacked off the coast of Somalia are in talks with pirates over a ransom.

Negotiators are aboard the Sirius Star, a man identifying himself as Farah Abd Jameh, a member of the group that hijacked the tanker, said in an audio tape aired today by Al Jazeera. He didn't say how much money his group wants to free the vessel, which belongs to Saudi Arabia's state-owned shipping line, Vela International Marine Ltd, and is carrying more than 2 million barrels of crude valued at $110 million.

Saudi Arabian Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal confirmed talks were under way. ``We do not like to negotiate with pirates, terrorists or hijackers,'' he said today after meeting in Rome with his Italian counterpart, Franco Frattini.

The Sirius Star and its crew of 25 were seized about 420 nautical miles (833 kilometers) off Somalia on Nov. 15. In the past 48 hours, pirates captured ships from Hong Kong, Greece and Thailand in the worst spate of raids in the region.

Since January, at least 91 vessels have been attacked in the Gulf of Aden, an area of 1 million square miles (2.6 million square kilometers) flanked by Yemen and Somalia and leading to the Suez Canal. Since then, both Indian and British naval ships have engaged pirates in combat and commandos from France freed two French nationals held by hijackers.

Ransom payments have spurred raiders to step up their activities, and more than 14 vessels and 250 crew members remain hostage, the International Maritime Bureau says.

Anchored Off Puntland

The Sirius Star is anchored near Harardhare, a town in Somalia's semi-autonomous northern Puntland region, next to a Ukrainian-crewed vessel carrying at least 30 Soviet-designed T-72 tanks bound for Kenya, Colonel Abshir Abdi Jama, a national security official in Puntland said yesterday.

``We assure the safety of the ship carrying the ransom,'' the man said in the Al Jazeera broadcast, warning against any attempts to use counterfeit cash.

Pirates from war-torn Somalia, which hasn't had an effective government since the 1991 fall of the Siad Barre regime, have asked for $1 million ransoms on average this year, according to Chatham House, a London-based research organization that advises mainly European governments.

The pirates generally use speed boats for raids near the coast and captured fishing trawlers for attacks farther out to sea, according to Chatham House.

Pirates today freed a Hong Kong-flagged ship, Great Creation, and 25 crew members seized two months ago, Sinotrans Shipping Limited director Tian Zhongsham said in an e-mailed statement. The crew, including one Hong Kong resident, one Sri Lanken and 23 Chinese nationals are in good condition, with no injuries being reported, he said.

Indian Navy

An Indian Navy ship fired at a pirate vessel in the Gulf of Aden yesterday, the government in New Delhi said today. The Navy's Tabar encountered the boat 285 nautical miles southwest of Salalah in Oman. The Tabar has been on an anti-piracy mission in the Gulf of Aden since Nov. 2.

The clash came a week after the Indian frigate rescued the Saudi Arabia-registered merchant vessel Timaha and a 38,000 metric-ton Indian bulk carrier from pirates.

On Nov. 13, British Royal Navy commandos gave chase to suspected pirates off the coast of Yemen, killing two of them in an ensuing gunfight and capturing eight. In September, French commandos freed two kidnapped nationals, killing one pirate and capturing six.

Cargo of Wheat

The Hong Kong-flagged Delight was hijacked in the Gulf of Aden yesterday. It was carrying 36,000 metric tons of wheat to the Iranian port of Bandar Abbas and had a crew of 25. The Thai- operated boat was also taken yesterday off the coast of Yemen as it sailed toward the Red Sea. The Greek Merchant Marine Ministry in Athens said it couldn't confirm a Greek-flagged or Greek-owned vessel had been seized.

``The pirates really demonstrate unexpected things and are sending a message to the world that they can do what they need to,'' Andrew Mwangura, head of the East African Seafarers Association, said by phone from Kenya.

Pirates are honing their techniques and using Global Positioning System navigational aids and satellite phones to find potential targets, according to Chatham House.

The Sirius Star, bigger than the Chrysler Building, a 77- story Manhattan skyscraper, is the largest ship seized and the hijacking was the farthest out to sea that Somali pirates have struck, according to the U.S. Navy. Analysts said the chances of a military response to rescue the ship are slim.

Ecological Disaster

``Everything is possible but it would take extraordinary means and organization, and the risk of an ecological disaster is very high,'' Dominique Montecer, director of operations at GEOS, a French risk management company, said by phone from Paris yesterday. ``They are sitting on a bomb.''

The U.S. Navy Fifth Fleet hasn't had any communication with the pirates or the ship, spokesman Lieutenant Nate Christensen said by phone from Bahrain today.

Hijackers may force shippers to divert vessels from the Gulf of Aden, to take the longer route to Europe and North America around South Africa's Cape of Good Hope, delaying deliveries to Europe and the U.S. and adding to costs.

The Indian Ocean is vast and patrolling it is extremely difficult, the Fifth Fleet's Christensen said.

``We patrol an area of 2.5 million square miles, from Pakistan to Kenya. The area is extensively large and we can't be everywhere at once,'' he said.

International Cooperation

When asked why the Sirius Star wasn't being taken back by force, he said an armed response would require a great deal of international agreement and cooperation.

``It's certainly a very complex environment to work in -- a Liberian-flagged vessel, owned by a Saudi company, in Somali waters, with so many different nationalities on board,'' Christensen said.

The pirates probably fired grappling hooks onto the supertanker's deck, allowing them to scale the ship's 10-meter- high (33-foot) side using rope ladders, said Roger Middleton, an analyst at Chatham House.

Ships are normally attacked by five or six pirates, though as many as 15 may have been involved this time, Middleton said. Once the pirates are on board they're normally joined by others, he said.

Frontline Ltd., the world's largest owner of tanker ships, said it has yet to make a final decision about sending carriers away from Somalia, Jens Martin Jensen, interim chief executive officer of the company's management unit, said by mobile phone from Singapore today.

Sirius Star Crew

The crew of the Sirius Star, 19 Filipinos, two Britons, two Poles, a Saudi and a Croatian, is ``believed to be safe'' and Vela is ``working toward their safe and speedy return,'' Vela said in a statement.

The U.K. Ministry of Defence today identified the two Britons as Peter French and James Grady. French serves as the ship's chief engineer and Grady is the second officer.

Saudi Arabia is unlikely to be considering an armed response to the hijacking because it may endanger the crew, according to Nick Day, London-based chief executive officer of Diligence Inc., a security and intelligence group.

Last Updated: November 19, 2008 11:16 EST

[TithonusSyndrome]

The pirates probably fired grappling hooks onto the supertanker's deck, allowing them to scale the ship's 10-meter- high (33-foot) side using rope ladders, said Roger Middleton, an analyst at Chatham House.

AWESOME. I think a pirate's life IS for me.

I don't foresee any serious anti-piracy agreements being brokered between any nations or at least put into practice before the dreaded Peak slows international shipping to a crawl, at any rate. What's the reaction in American news media? Does this pick up on any media outlet's TERRAH RADAR?

[Dartzap]

Pity the RN arn't doing more there at the moment. The public morale just shoots through the roof when we get to blow stuff up which deserves it. Of course, the legality of doing such is anouther kettle of fish, but such is life.

[Siege]

Pity the RN arn't doing more there at the moment. The public morale just shoots through the roof when we get to blow stuff up which deserves it. Of course, the legality of doing such is anouther kettle of fish, but such is life.

Legality doesn't stop the French from blasting the crap out of people hijacking French yachts, so I daresay the Royal Navy should be fine should they decide to leap into action...

[White Haven]

``It's certainly a very complex environment to work in -- a Liberian-flagged vessel, owned by a Saudi company, in Somali waters, with so many different nationalities on board,'' Christensen said.

Check me on this, but didn't the UN already say 'Hey, feel free to fuck shit up in Somali waters, we're tired of this,' quite some time ago. Not saying there aren't other considerations, but 'waaaaaah it's in Somali territory (as if a nation without a functioning government has the right to 'territory')' isn't one of them.

[Kanastrous]

I read that technically "there is no law on the high seas; only international agreements."

Do those agreements specifically prohibit killing pirate crews and sinking their vessels?

[Ryan Thunder]

I was wondering about the same thing just yesterday. Naval bombardment and destruction of port facilities for pirate bases and sinking all vessels at port in communities would send them an unambiguous message that this bullshit will not be tolerated anymore.

Yeah, and the day after the place would be crawling with reporters interviewing the poor "fishermen" who got their innocent boats sunk and splattering images of crying women and burnt out houses all over every media outlet in the world.

Isn't there some kind of charge for instigating undue panic?

[Themightytom]

http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/africa/11 ... index.html

MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) -- Somalia's increasingly brazen pirates are building sprawling stone houses, cruising in luxury cars, marrying beautiful women -- even hiring caterers to prepare Western-style food for their hostages.


Hostages and armed pirates on the MV Faina.

And in an impoverished country where every public institution has crumbled, they have become heroes in the steamy coastal dens they operate from because they are the only real business in town.

"The pirates depend on us, and we benefit from them," said Sahra Sheik Dahir, a shop owner in Haradhere, the nearest village to where a hijacked Saudi Arabian supertanker carrying $100 million in crude was anchored Wednesday.

These boomtowns are all the more shocking in light of Somalia's violence and poverty: Radical Islamists control most of the country's south, meting out lashings and stonings for accused criminals. There has been no effective central government in nearly 20 years, plunging this arid African country into chaos.

Life expectancy is just 46 years; a quarter of children die before they reach 5.

But in northern coastal towns like Haradhere, Eyl and Bossaso, the pirate economy is thriving thanks to the money pouring in from pirate ransoms that have reached $30 million this year alone.

In Haradhere, residents came out in droves to celebrate as the looming oil ship came into focus this week off the country's lawless coast. Businessmen started gathering cigarettes, food and cold glass bottles of orange soda, setting up small kiosks for the pirates who come to shore to re-supply almost daily.

Dahir said she is so confident in the pirates, she instituted a layaway plan just for them.

"They always take things without paying and we put them into the book of debts," she told The Associated Press in a telephone interview. "Later, when they get the ransom money, they pay us a lot."

For Somalis, the simple fact that pirates offer jobs is enough to gain their esteem, even as hostages languish on ships for months. The population makes sure the pirates are well-stocked in qat, a popular narcotic leaf, and offer support from the ground even as the international community tries to quash them.

"Regardless of how the money is coming in, legally or illegally, I can say it has started a life in our town," said Shamso Moalim, a 36-year-old mother of five in Haradhere.

"Our children are not worrying about food now, and they go to Islamic schools in the morning and play soccer in the afternoon. They are happy."

Despite a beefed-up international presence, the pirates continue to seize ships, moving further out to sea and demanding ever-larger ransoms. The pirates operate mostly from the semiautonomous Puntland region, where local lawmakers have been accused of helping the pirates and taking a cut of the ransoms.

For the most part, however, the regional officials say they have no power to stop piracy.

Meanwhile, towns that once were eroded by years of poverty and chaos are now bustling with restaurants, Land Cruisers and Internet cafes. Residents also use their gains to buy generators -- allowing full days of electricity, once an unimaginable luxury in Somalia.

There are no reliable estimates of the number of pirates operating in Somalia, but they must number in the thousands. And though the bandits do sometimes get nabbed, piracy is generally considered a sure bet to a better life.

NATO and the U.S. Navy say they can't be everywhere, and American officials are urging ships to hire private security. Warships patrolling off Somalia have succeeded in stopping some pirate attacks. But military assaults to wrest back a ship are highly risky and, up to now, uncommon.

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The attackers generally treat their hostages well in anticipation of a big payday, hiring caterers on shore to cook spaghetti, grilled fish and roasted meat that will appeal to a Western palate. They also keep a steady supply of cigarettes and drinks from the shops on shore.

And when the payday comes, the money sometimes literally falls from the sky.

Pirates say the ransom arrives in burlap sacks, sometimes dropped from buzzing helicopters, or in waterproof suitcases loaded onto tiny skiffs in the roiling, shark-infested sea.

"The oldest man on the ship always takes the responsibility of collecting the money, because we see it as very risky, and he gets some extra payment for his service later," Aden Yusuf, a pirate in Eyl, told AP over VHF radio.


The pirates use money-counting machines -- the same technology seen at foreign exchange bureaus worldwide -- to ensure the cash is real. All payments are done in cash because Somalia, a failed state, has no functioning banking system.

"Getting this equipment is easy for us, we have business connections with people in Dubai, Nairobi, Djibouti and other areas," Yusuf said. "So we send them money and they send us what we want."

Great its becoming the cornerstone of the local economy
And if you consider the shorter lfie expectancy, the women attracted to this successful lifestyle bearing the children of the men predisposed towards it, they are breeding a pirate Race!
:-p

[Sea Skimmer]

In the last thread we've had about this Skimmer also pointed out that small crews of most modern ships would make any kind of armament useless, since you need to keep watches in order to actually employ it against a boarding attempt. Most succesful boardings are detected once the pirates are already on board. Though it does seem that it should be possible to arrange a proper security setup using remote sensors (for quite a large chunk of change, of course) and remote-controlled weapons, so that one or two watchmen can keep tabs on most of the ship and detect boarders immediately.

Fixed armament is basically out of the question, any ship with fixed weapons is a warship and would be barred from using civilian docks, and indeed would be barred from entering some ports completely. Insurance premiums would also skyrocket because of the enormous risk of weapons accidents. While I don’t know, I’d be willing to bet that the cost of insuring an armed merchant ship against accidental damage from weapons fire would exceed the cost of buying kidnap and ransom insurance for the crew. It would also likely be cheaper to helicopter out guards with only small arms just for the passage past the horn of Africa, Blackwater is already proposing doing just that.

Quite right on the convoys, they are impractical and dangerous for even more reasons then you’ve listed. Indeed I don’t think most people realize it but even in WW2 the majority of merchant ships bound for the UK did not sail in convoys. In the Pacific they hardly got used at all. The 1980s tanker war convoys meanwhile involved nearly as many warships as tankers being escorted, and geography pretty much meant that Gulf shipping already sailed in what amount to convoys, all the tankers already stay in just a couple internationally agreed traffic lanes.

An alternative to convoys would be forming a defended sea lane, the concept used by the British in WW1 before convoys, but this would tie down a lot of assets and it probably wouldn’t work. One of the reasons why pirate attacks are such a problem is that the area is a cross roads not only for international shipping, but also for a huge number of very small local craft. Most of these small boats and dhows are completely innocent, but you can’t tell with a flyover from a UAV or a helicopter if they’ve got RPGs and machine guns hidden under a tarp. The only way to do it is to stop and search every single one, and even with a couple dozen international warships around (I think the actual number is like 11 in the entire western Arabian Gulf) that’s not very practical.

We know from history how to handle this. Attack the pirates on land, and cut off revenue by recapturing seized ships, not paying ever bigger ransoms. But no ones got the balls to do it, and everyone keeps letting the shipping companies call the shots. Thanks to the stupidity of modern law we can’t even execute the damn pirates anymore. Funny though that we have some people calling for just that who I know would throw a screaming fit if we went and executed terrorists.

[Jim Raynor]

India doing what the West won't.

India claims pirate ship sunk

CNN) -- An Indian warship has exchanged fire with a pirate "mother vessel" off the hijacking-plagued Horn of Africa, leaving the ship ablaze, an official said Wednesday.

Indian naval spokesman Nirad Sinha said: "Given the condition we left it in, it would have sunk by now," he said.

The skirmish took place Tuesday evening about 326 miles (525 kilometers) southwest of Oman's Salalah port when the frigate INS Tabar spotted a suspected pirate ship with two speedboats in tow, India's Defense Ministry reported.

Capt. Pottengal Mukundan, of the International Maritime Bureau, in London said: "The pirates have been operating with impunity in these waters, and it is time now, it is well overdue that we send a signal to the pirates that they cannot conduct these criminal operations without sanction."

The defense ministry said in a written statement: "This vessel was similar in description to the 'Mother Vessel' mentioned in various piracy bulletins."

The battle follows a recent surge in piracy off the Horn of Africa, including the weekend hijacking of a Saudi-owned supertanker by pirates based in largely lawless Somalia.

Three other vessels have been captured since then in what a London-based maritime official called a "completely unprecedented" situation.

The Saudi owners of a hijacked oil supertanker carrying an oil cargo worth up to $100 million, which pirates Tuesday anchored off the Somali coast, said they were negotiating with its captors.

Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al Faisal said he could not confirm if a ransom had been demanded, but said the owners of the 300,000-ton Sirius Star were "negotiating on the issue," The Associated Press reported.

In its clash with the pirate vessel, the Tabar's crew hailed the ship and demanded it stop for inspection, and the pirates threatened to destroy the Indian ship, the ministry reported.

"Pirates were seen roaming on the upper deck of this vessel with guns and rocket-propelled grenade launchers. The vessel continued its threatening calls and subsequently fired upon INS Tabar," the ministry said.

The Indian frigate returned fire, setting the pirate ship ablaze and setting off explosions on board, the statement said. Two speedboats in tow behind the ship fled; one was found abandoned after a pursuit by the Tabar.

Michael Howlett, assistant director of the International Maritime Bureau in London, which tracks pirate attacks, said the recent upsurge in activity was unprecedented. "We've never seen a situation like this," he said. Watch Maersk CEO describe risks to shipping »

On Tuesday, pirates hijacked a Thai fishing vessel and a Chinese-flagged Iranian cargo ship carrying wheat in the waters off the Horn of Africa.

A third ship -- a Chinese fishing vessel -- was hijacked Saturday, but word did not reach authorities until Tuesday, Howlett said.

Noel Choong, who heads the IMB's Piracy Reporting Center in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, said 95 pirate attacks have taken place so far this year in the Gulf of Aden.

Of those, 39 resulted in successful captures; 17 of those vessels and their crews -- a total of about 300 sailors -- remain in the hands of the pirates.

But the seizure of the 300,000-ton supertanker Sirius Star took place well south of the gulf, in the Indian Ocean off Kenya.

Pirate attacks are spreading farther north to the Gulf of Aden and farther south off the Kenyan coast, Choong said.

"The risks are low and the returns are extremely high for these pirates," he told CNN. Pirates know that their chances of getting killed or captured during a hijacking are very low, he said.

I didn't hear any bullshit about "asylum." Even if no Navy has the nerve to take the fight to the pirates' turf on the land, I imagine that more examples like this could reduce attacks. Based on this, and that incident in 2006 when pirates took on a fucking US cruiser, it seems that these guys are stupid enough to engage serious warships. Let them make examples out of themselves.

EDIT: quotes

[Admiral Valdemar]

Way to go Raynor. Miss the thread all about that on the first page of this forum?