Cruise Ship's Security Fights Pirates

[FSTargetDrone]

This is a bit different:

Cruise ship fends off pirate attack with gunfire

Israeli private security forces exchange fire with bandits and drive them off

The Associated Press

updated 12:43 p.m. ET, Sun., April 26, 2009

ROME - An Italian cruise ship with 1,500 people on board fended off a pirate attack far off the coast of Somalia when its Israeli private security forces exchanged fire with the bandits and drove them away.

The ship's commander told Italian state radio on Sunday that six men in a small white speed boat approached the Msc Melody and opened fire "like crazy" on Saturday night, but retreated after the Israeli security officers aboard the cruise ship returned fire.

"It felt like we were in war," Cmdr. Ciro Pinto said.

No passengers or crew hurt

None of the roughly 1,000 passengers and 500 crew members were hurt, Melody owner Msc Cruises said in a statement issued by its German branch.

Domenico Pellegrino, head of the Italian cruise line, said Msc Cruises hired the Israelis because they were the best trained security agents, the ANSA news agency reported.

The attack occurred about 200 miles (325 kilometers) north of the Seychelles, and about 500 miles (800 kilometers) east of Somalia, according to the anti-piracy flotilla headquarters of the Maritime Security Center Horn of Africa.

Lt. Nathan Christensen, a spokesman for the U.S. Navy 5th Fleet, said that last fall after the attack on a Saudi tanker more than 400 nautical miles off the coast of Somalia there had been "a definite shift in (the pirates) tactical capabilities."

"It's not unheard of to have attacks off the coast of the Seychelles, we've even had some in the past month," he said. "But at the same time, it is a sign that they are moving further and further off the Somali coast."

Separately on Sunday morning, the Turkish cruiser Ariva 3, with two British and four Japanese crew aboard, survived a pirate attack near the Yemeni island of Jabal Zuqar, said Ali el-Awlaqi, head of the Yemeni El-Awlaqi Marine company said.

"Pirates opened fire at the cruise ship for 15 minutes then stopped for no reason," he said, adding that the cruiser was heading to Aden, Yemen, to fix a broken engine.

International military forces have battled pirates, with U.S. Navy snipers killing three holding an American captain hostage in one of the highest-profile incidents.

But Saturday's exchange of fire between the Melody and pirates was one of the first reported between pirates and a nonmilitary ship. Civilian shipping and passenger ships have generally avoided arming crewmen or hiring armed security for reasons of safety, liability and compliance with the rules of the different countries where they dock.

Not the first attack on a cruise liner

It was not the first attack on a cruise liner, however. In December, pirates opened fire on a U.S.-operated ship carrying hundreds of tourists on a monthlong luxury cruise from Rome to Singapore, but the cruise liner was able to outrun the pirates. In early April a tourist yacht was hijacked by Somali pirates near the Seychelles just after having dropped off its cargo of tourists.

The Melody was on a 22-day cruise from Durban, South Africa, to Genoa, Italy, when the pirates fired "like crazy" with automatic weapons late Saturday, slightly damaging the liner, Pinto said. The pirates tried to put a ladder on board, but were unable to climb aboard, he said.

The commander said his security forces opened fire with pistols, and the ANSA news agency said the pistols had been kept in a safe under the joint control of the commander and security chief.

"When they saw our fire ... they left us and went away. They followed us for a bit but then stopped," he told Sky TG24.

Cruise line security work is a popular job for young Israelis who have recently been discharged from mandatory army service, as it is a good chance to save money and travel.

Spanish escort on its way

The Spanish warship SPS Marques de Ensenada was meeting up with the Melody to escort her through the pirate-infested northern Gulf of Aden, the Maritime Security Center said. The cruise ship was headed as scheduled to the Jordanian port of Aqaba, returning to the Mediterranean for spring and summer season cruises.

Meanwhile, Somali pirates on Sunday demanded a $5 million ransom for the release of two Egyptian fishing boats hijacked earlier this month, and the safe return of their crew, Egyptian Foreign Ministry official Ahmed Rizq said in Cairo.

"Tribal sheiks are trying to mediate to convince the hijackers to release the boats and the sailors, but it's clear to everybody that we are dealing with piracy that has no other purpose but money," he said, adding that the negotiations were between the hijackers and the boats' owners.

Pirates have attacked more than 100 ships off the Somali coast over the last year, reaping an estimated $1 million in ransom for each successful hijacking, according to analysts and country experts.

Another Italian-owned vessel remains in the hands of pirates. The Italian-flagged tugboat Buccaneer was seized off Somalia on April 11 with 16 crew members aboard.

On Saturday, the Foreign Ministry dispatched a special envoy, Margherita Boniver, to Somalia to try to win the release of the tug and crew. In a statement, the ministry also denied reports by relatives of the crew that an ultimatum had been issued by the pirates.

So, pirates: Cruise ships may not be such easy pickings after all!

[Edi]

Makes sense to put security on cruise ships, because that many hostages would be a totally unacceptable situation. The militaries engaged in anti-piracy operations need to start leveling pirate ports or at least sinking all ships they encounter in ports where pirates have been known to operate from as a matter of policy.

[PeZook]

There's no way six men could've properly managed 1500 hostages, anyway. It's far less of a headache to pick on cargo ships which always carry minimal crews - and still get heaps of money out of it for far less risk and logistical problems.

[Darth Wong]

There's no way six men could've properly managed 1500 hostages, anyway. It's far less of a headache to pick on cargo ships which always carry minimal crews - and still get heaps of money out of it for far less risk and logistical problems.

Perhaps they intended to terrorize the passengers in order to "send a message" rather than undertaking this operation for practical reasons.

[Rogue 9]

There's no way six men could've properly managed 1500 hostages, anyway. It's far less of a headache to pick on cargo ships which always carry minimal crews - and still get heaps of money out of it for far less risk and logistical problems.

Perhaps they intended to terrorize the passengers in order to "send a message" rather than undertaking this operation for practical reasons.

This seems likely, since they didn't follow their usual MO; the article says they opened fire rather than attempting to board.

[Posner]

I could be mistaken, but when piracy was starting to get a lot of attention in the area a lot of it revolved around protection rackets. If I remember correctly they even fired a few RPGs at a small cruise ship, not to sink or capture it, but in order to extort the cruise line.

[PeZook]

Then there's the Idiot Redneck possibility:

"Look, a ship! Hey, look at me blast it! Wooo hoo! BOOOM!"

"Oh shit, they're shooting back! Quick, turn around! Turn around!!!"

[Sea Skimmer]

There's no way six men could've properly managed 1500 hostages, anyway. It's far less of a headache to pick on cargo ships which always carry minimal crews - and still get heaps of money out of it for far less risk and logistical problems.

The pirates they attack ships with small groups because one small boat often goes by unnoticed. If they managed to get on board a cruise ship they’d quickly radio a larger pirate ship or shore and have a hundred more pirates swarm out to help.

[PeZook]

The pirates they attack ships with small groups because one small boat often goes by unnoticed. If they managed to get on board a cruise ship they’d quickly radio a larger pirate ship or shore and have a hundred more pirates swarm out to help.

It's still pretty risky, isn't it? They'd have to manage the situation somehow between the boarding and arrival of help, and hope a military helicopter or airplane doesn't show up in the meantime ready to blow up their reinforcements, or that there are no armed people aboard etc.

It seems like it's safer and more cost-effective to abduct cargo ships with a dozen crewmembers rather than cruise liners with 500, counting on help which may or may not arrive in time.

[Sea Skimmer]

It's still pretty risky, isn't it? They'd have to manage the situation somehow between the boarding and arrival of help, and hope a military helicopter or airplane doesn't show up in the meantime ready to blow up their reinforcements, or that there are no armed people aboard etc.

These people are pirates, just sailing the open ocean in such tiny boats waiting to be swamped is a major risk. If they didn’t get shot at prior to boarding it would be quite safe to assume no one onboard had significant armament and that people would just kind of run and hide while the pirates capture the bridge.

If a military force shows up its no different then if they captured any other ship. The military force is sure as fuck not going to open fire or do anything to provoke the pirates when they have two thousand hostages. Destroy the reinforcements, not bloody likely. Not until they have a hundred commandoes ready to rope down to secure the ship at the same time. If militaries were remotely willing to take risks and shoot first, ask questions latter piracy on the Horn of Africa would have been wiped out by now.

The worst thing that is likely to happen is the pirates have to jump back in whatever small boat they have and speed off.

It seems like it's safer and more cost-effective to abduct cargo ships with a dozen crewmembers rather than cruise liners with 500, counting on help which may or may not arrive in time.

They get an average of a million dollars per freighter they hijack, for a cruise ship full of westerners they could easily demand a billion dollars and maybe get over 100 million, or about as much money as they made in all of 2008. Sounds damn cost effective to me. Once seized such a ship would present essentially an impossible hostage rescue target.

Most pirate attacks do fail, and all the attacks on cruise lines have failed so far because its just damn hard to climb up a ship with so much freeboard, while the liners are also just have big enough crews to maintain decent lookouts. Liners also tend to be faster then cargo ships and tankers which counts for a lot on the open sea when effective speed is largely proportional to the size of a vessel and speed boats go pretty slow. Still none of this means they couldn’t and don’t want to capture a liner if they try enough. Luckily this liners owners realized it and hired guards, a cost much more easily afforded by a giant liner company then typical shippers.

[FSTargetDrone]

The heaviest weapons that have been used by these various pirate attacks have been RPGs, right? How likely is it that let's say that several direct hits (3 or 4, for argument's sake) by an RPG could significantly damage a cruise liner so much so that it slows or stops, short of some lucky hit to the bridge? I would think that the engines are fairly well protected, considering their placement in the hull, but are fuel tanks usually located in vulnerable positions, etc?

[Stuart]

The heaviest weapons that have been used by these various pirate attacks have been RPGs, right? How likely is it that let's say that several direct hits (3 or 4, for argument's sake) by an RPG could significantly damage a cruise liner so much so that it slows or stops, short of some lucky hit to the bridge? Are fuel tanks usually placed in vulnerable positions, etc?

Hitting her is the problem, shooting an unstabilized weapon from a speedboat in a heavy sea is a triumph of optimism over reality. The RPG round is as likely to go straight up in the air as anything else. The accurate range of the RPG is almost certainly less than the arming distance of its warhead. So, even if they did get a direct hit, the probability is tat it wouldn't explode. If it did, as always, the main risk would be fire. Blast would be seriously confined by the ship structure but fire could be quite hard to put out. There's a good reason why everybody fears fire at sea.

[Coyote]

I was also curious about ships left over from whatever navy Somalia had before it went to hell. Have any of those ships bene used yet? Even an old 1960's-era corvette or patrol boat would be a hell of a upgrade.

Also, I wish they'd call a cruiser liner a "liner" and not a "cruiser". That can be a bit confusing.

[Thanas]

But "liner" would be the wrong term as it is already used to shorten "Ocean liner" and no modern cruise ship fulfills the definition of an ocean liner save the QM2 (which cruises only very seldomly) and the QE2 (which now is permanently moored in Dubai AFAIK).

[Karrick]

There's no way six men could've properly managed 1500 hostages, anyway. It's far less of a headache to pick on cargo ships which always carry minimal crews - and still get heaps of money out of it for far less risk and logistical problems.

There's also the case of the Achille Lauro in 1985. It only took four hijackers to control the passengers and crew. Going by this there were at least 400 passengers, and an unknown number of crew. However, it was stated that there were 330 crew prior to that leg of the trip. Regardless, the hijackers were outnumbered by at least 100:1.

Now, the hijackers started off on board and only maintained control of the ship for two days, but they still managed to redirect the ship and negotiate safe passage in the end. I can't speak to the likelihood of a group of people sneaking guns on board a cruise ship in the current day, but if it happened they should be able to contain a seemingly disproportionate number of hostages. Then they could link up with any number of their comrades to pull off the job of a lifetime. From what I recall, there were U.S. special forces ready to move in on the ship, but as Skimmer said Western militaries are not willing to take the risk of that many civilian casualties.

[FSTargetDrone]

I was also curious about ships left over from whatever navy Somalia had before it went to hell. Have any of those ships bene used yet? Even an old 1960's-era corvette or patrol boat would be a hell of a upgrade.

This is what Global Security has to say about the navy

Somalia - Navy

In 1965 the Soviet Union helped Somalia establish a navy. As part of its mission to help SNA forces maintain coastal security, the navy maintained bases at Berbera, Mogadishu, and Chisimayu, and a radar site at Merca.

In 1990 the naval inventory included two Soviet Osa-II missile-armed fast attack craft, four Soviet Mol PFT torpedo-armed fast attack craft, and several patrol craft. The Somali navy also possessed a Soviet Polnocny-class landing ship capable of carrying five tanks and 120 soldiers, and four smaller mechanized landing craft. Much of this equipment had been unserviceable since the departure of Soviet military personnel in 1977.

The navy has not been operational since 1991.

Whoops, meant to add, if those ships have been sitting around intact somewhere, unserviced since 1977, there might not be much left of them to use now.

Also, I wish they'd call a cruiser liner a "liner" and not a "cruiser". That can be a bit confusing.

Yeah, I've only ever heard of them called "ocean liner" and "cruise liner." At first reading I thought that the "Turkish cruiser" was referring to a naval vessel.

[Raw Shark]

Another Italian-owned vessel remains in the hands of pirates. The Italian-flagged tugboat Buccaneer was seized off Somalia on April 11 with 16 crew members aboard.

A self-described pirate that we found drinking rum in a bar in Eyl, speaking on condition of anonymity, told the AP, "Normally we wouldn't even bother with a tug boat, but that name, man... C'mon, they're just fucking with us, now."

[Akkleptos]

Protect-USA, Israeli trained Security Solutions

SSI, Homeland Security training in Israel

You don't mess with Israeli trained security, that's for sure.

For a time now I have wished I had the money to hire some of those guys to do some direly-needed cleaning up over here.