Posted on 06/25/2009 12:49:14 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Luxury ocean liners in Russia are offering pirate hunting cruises aboard armed private yachts off the Somali coast.
Wealthy punters pay £3,500 per day to patrol the most dangerous waters in the world hoping to be attacked by raiders.
When attacked, they retaliate with grenade launchers, machine guns and rocket launchers, reports Austrian business paper Wirtschaftsblatt.
Passengers, who can pay an extra £5 a day for an AK-47 machine gun and £7 for 100 rounds of ammo, are also protected by a squad of ex special forces troops.
The yachts travel from Djibouti in Somalia to Mombasa in Kenya.
The ships deliberately cruise close to the coast at a speed of just five nautical miles in an attempt to attract the interest of pirates.
"They are worse than the pirates," said Russian yachtsman Vladimir Mironov. "At least the pirates have the decency to take hostages, these people are just paying to commit murder," he continued.
I see Anavova has finally found the internet joke, and reported it in true Ananova fashion.....;)
This is bogus! This exact same story, and info, was an email joke about a month ago. I call BS!
A ruskie giving the world ethics lessons? LOL
See. Capitalism works!
The Ruskies could give us a few lessons in Capitalism.
If this were real, it’s what I’d ask for for my 50th birthday next year. Maybe someone will actually do this, they’d make a killing! (pun intended)
It would be a fun vacation!
I would totally sign up for that.
It was so depressing to read that this is a joke.
Can you imagine all the lives that would be saved if this were true? The only people the pirate hunters would have to fear would be the UN and other enemies of the people.
Hemingwayesque. Didn’t he hunt German submarines in the Caribbean in his fishing boat?
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2261310/posts
Don't feel bad, I just saw it plugged on Erin Bunrett’s closing piece on CNBC’s Street Signs - the pros got suckered too. I checked but the vid is not on the CNBC site; maybe they discovered their error.
Yup. But I’d feel a little bad about encroaching on the Navy and Seal’s turf.
While I think if this were true, I would not support it, I could see this model turned into a real business:
Have these (ex-special forces/navy guys/guns for hire) create their own private navy in the Somali area then when a pirate ship attacks either cargo, yacht, etc..these guys go after the priates and ‘retake’ the ship/cargo, but before they give it back to the owners they ask for 10-15% of the profit to pay for their recovery/risk/ammo/payroll etc!
They’d probably sign up for it to not have to worry about ROE’s.
Holding the cargo or ship for ransom would probably make them pirates.
A better approach would be for a group like this to approach the shipping lines and offer to provide protection to their ships while they are transitioning through dangerous areas.
Only if they put up a no trespassing sign.
Well that’s true, but NOT if they (Congract) agree with the company ahead of time the #1 Pay, #2 Terms of the Contract, #3 Agree to attempt to get back the cargo/ship with attempted minimal damage on their part!
Lettres de marques. These were given by European monarchs to sea captains, literally permitting them to engage in piracy. We should bring back the custom, but for pirate hunting!
Best. Vacation. Ever.
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