Posted on 04/13/2009 1:18:23 PM PDT by Delacon
Hang captured pirates at the site of capture.
destroy their ports.
But do it in such a way as to preserve their self-esteem.
Pirate infestations have always been taken care of by the one nation among all the nations that has had enough of it and gone and done the deed. Ending piracy against only your own ships does not really improve the situation nearly so much as it would seem because our own trade goes mostly in foreign flagged bottoms and the cost of all trade is affected adversely by piracy. Rome perceived the problem long ago and solved it forthrightly in the Eastern Mediterranean. The new United States followed Rome’s example in the early 1800s and made the Med again safe for everybody’s shipping including all that foreign shipping that transited in foreign bottoms.
You forgot keelhauling with dignity.
The blueprint goes back to Pompey Magnus and Rome.
Campaign against the pirates
Main article: Lex Gabinia
Pompey on a coin by his son Sextus Pompeius.
In 67 BCE, two years after his consulship, Pompey was nominated commander of a special naval task force to campaign against the pirates that menaced the Mediterranean. This command, like everything else in Pompey’s life, was surrounded with polemic. The conservative faction of the Senate was most suspicious of his intentions and afraid of his power. The Optimates tried every means possible to avoid his appointment, tired of his constant appointment to what they saw as illegal and extraordinary commands. Significantly, Caesar was again one of a handful of senators who supported Pompey’s command from the start. The nomination was then proposed by the Tribune of the Plebs Aulus Gabinius who proposed the Lex Gabinia, giving Pompey command in the war against the Mediterranean pirates, with extensive powers that gave him absolute control over the sea and the coasts for 50 miles inland, setting him above every military leader in the East. This bill was opposed by the aristocracy with the utmost vehemence, but was carried: Pompeius’ ability as a general was too well known for any to stand against him in the elections, even his fellow ex-consul Marcus Licinius Crassus.
The pirates were at this time masters of the Mediterranean, and had not only plundered many cities on the coasts of Greece and Asia, but had even made descents upon Italy itself. As soon as Pompey received the command, he began to make his preparations for the war, and completed them by the end of the winter. His plans were crowned with complete success. Pompey divided the Mediterranean into thirteen separate areas, each under the command of one of his legates. In forty days he cleared the Western Sea of pirates, and restored communication between Hispania, Africa, and Italy. He then followed the main body of the pirates to their strongholds on the coast of Cilicia; after defeating their fleet, he induced a great part of them, by promises of pardon, to surrender to him. Many of these he settled at Soli, which was henceforward called Pompeiopolis.
Ultimately it took Pompey all of a summer to clear the Mediterranean of the danger of pirates. In three short months (67-66 BCE), Pompey’s forces had swept the Mediterranean clean of pirates, showing extraordinary precision, discipline, and organizational ability; so that, to adopt the panegyric of Cicero:[8]
“Pompey made his preparations for the war at the end of the winter, entered upon it at the commencement of spring, and finished it in the middle of the summer.”
The quickness of the campaign showed that he was as talented a general at sea as on land, with strong logistic abilities. Pompey was hailed as the first man in Rome, “Primus inter pares” the first among equals.
How do we stop piracy?
Answer:
Kill pirates at a rate much faster than replenishment. (Collateral damage is encouraged.)
:-P
“Says Barnacle Bill” the sailor!”
“Would you like some more beans Mr. Taggart?”
I suggest a couple of “Q” ships. That is, small merchant ships fitted with hidden weaponry. When the pirates move in to attack the ship opens up and no more pirates. If enough pirate crews simply fail to return the risk/cost of being a pirate becomes greater than the reward and they go find something else to destroy and/or steal.
Great post and thread! Thanks to all. Hooray Ed Morrissey!
So how fast is it going? Guestimating from the photo, maybe 2cm/.001sec or 20 m/sec ? That’s not very fast. Well, could be 3cm/.0005sec or 60 m/sec. Maybe more like it.
One in a million shot.
I was thinking of the 1700’s, and of course the Royal Navy hunted them down like dogs, too.
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