Pirates attack luxury cruise ship [New details]

Scotland on Sunday ^ | November 6, 2005 | by WILLIAM LYONS

[BearCub]

Inflatable boats against a cruise ship? A couple of shotguns would have drowned the lot.

Nah, I've got a better idea (pardon my fantasizing): Let them get close - thinking they'll be able to board. Then throw molotov cocktails into their boats. They jump overboard as their boats sink. Throw them life jackets. Then start tossing raw meat and other chum into the water around them. Line up the deck chairs and everyone gets to watch the show when the sharks start circling... Man that would be awesome.

[William Tell]

BIGLOOK said: "Don't forget fire hoses, extremely effective in repelling boarders."

As a tactic, fire hoses may be quite useful in actually "repelling" the boarders. That is, preventing them from boarding or staying aboard the ship.

The strategy in handling such pirates, however, should be to end their pirate days by killing them all and making sure that it gets plenty of publicity.

I haven't seen anything in the articles suggesting that these guys are doing anything today other than preparing to attack some other ship. That's not good enough.

[blackbird149]

What the heck was a luxury cruise ship doing near Somalia? Their GPS must have been terribly off course that day! More bounty for the sandmagoots! Oh Yeah!

[Cuttnhorse]

As mentioned several times in this thread by many people...find an atlas, put your finger on the Suez Canal, then move your finger south to Mombasa, (Kenya...north of Tanzania) and you should determine it would be difficult not to pass somewhere near Somalia. The ship was over 100-miles off the coast...these nuts were probably operating off a mother-ship trawler or large dhow.

[Robert A Cook PE]

But you don't understand the problem: IF (Big if) a qualified anti-terror/warfa-fighting individual WERE aboard (in an official capacity) THEN they would have had REAL weapons (hand grenades, fire hoses (manned and pressurized at potential boarding spots, anti-boarding drills, maneuvers and rudder commands practiced, machine guns/hand-held rapid fire weapons, armored vests and IR sensors (night ops and night attacks) and manned gun posts) DONE already.

No competent guard force WAS present, so your assumption that impromtu weapons and "bombs" could be made on the spot from kitchen ingredients isn't valid. Pershaps somebody could McGuiver a few up, but that's a Hollywood script, not real life with real people.

[Robert A Cook PE]

A previous poster noted the grappling hooks in the boat photo in #39. Cruise ships all have low access ports and open decks near the stern for small boats and ferry boats.

Climbing aboard IF the cruise ship isn't ready to "Repel Boarders" with active, aggressive defense (not some Hollywood script of impromptu makeshift tactics) would be simple.

Particularly if the first "defenders were shot to pieces by automatic weapons as the small boats approached.

Fire hoses can shoot out a little ways. Bullets randomly sprayed BACK into the few holding the fire hose would kill from 200-300 feet. RPG grendages lobbed into the general area of the fire hoses would kill more, and destroy the fire hose, and force the defenders back from the rails and open areas.

The crew?

AS defenders? The crew is made up of foreign nationals (all of ours were!) who have no blooded interest NOR DUTY to sacrifice themselves against (probable) Muslim extremists who whould ONLY be killing and cutting the heads of the American tourists aboard. Why are you assuming most/all of the (randomly selected members of the potentially Muslim-sympathetic) crew would fight back as gunfire and grenades came into the deck.

[KamperKen]

"I would say in general Americans would know to avoid Muslim areas these days, especially France."

Pardon for being OT, but what is happening to tourism in France right now? Everyone cancelling travel plans?

[Sam Cree]

Yeah, you are probably right, there are folks who'd love that.

[Tennessee_Bob]

No - every cruise ship needs to be armed with sharks with frikkin' laser beams on their heads!

[BIGLOOK]

I'll grant only that the crew was not trained or equipped to deal with pirates militarily. As seamen, they were trained and equipped to deal with on board fires.
The attack came from 25' rubber boats, small arms and RPGs. Repelling boarders using a fire hose would succeed in unmanning and swamping their crafts. Any further action against the pirates would be at the Captain's discretion.

I doubt the pirates would be successful scaling the sides of the ship. They'd probably try entry through the galley hatch.

[Squantos]

Might be the two top over the rail ladder hooks from a rope ladder or fixed ladder....

Agree 100% on the personal property prizes alone in excess of 1M. Add to that any high value passengers vs cheap tourist averaged and ya easily get a million in personal property taken.

Only then is personal data, hostage, terrorism etc an issue....that is either play or pay for the trash that did this.

Too bad one of these cruise ships doesn't take a MEF on a cruise.....:o)

But I suspect they had a point man inside before the raid that made a it's OK to visit call. Be they passenger or crew....it's possible I suppose.

[R.W.Ratikal]

Now where do you suppose the "pirates" got hold of rocket propelled grenades and machine guns?

[R.W.Ratikal]

Now where do you suppose the "pirates" got hold of rocket propelled grenades and machine guns?

[R.W.Ratikal]

27 pirate attacks since March.

[R.W.Ratikal]

27 pirate attacks since March.

[R.W.Ratikal]

27 pirate attacks since March.

[Spitzensparkin1]

"...Masquerading as a ship full of rich, unarmed tourists, passengers pay for the opportunity to plunk Somali Islamakazi pirates with concealed M-2 0.50 caliber machine guns. To add to the sense of thrill and adventure, the pirates will be armed with AK-47s and RPGs..."


Now that's a reality TV show I'd like to see, BWAAHAAHAAHAHA.

Regards,
Spitz'

[Pharmboy]

TB--Thanks for that...we're watching football here and I read your post to the room and we all LOL'd.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

If I was Sven Eric, I'd make sure I had three or four .50 cal door guns and qualified men on every shift next time out.

[mlc9852]

http://travel.state.gov/travel/cis_pa_tw/tw/tw_1764.html

Both Kenya and Somolia are on the list of travel advisories.