Posted on 11/06/2005 7:39:59 AM PST by aculeus
IN MARITIME circles it is regarded as the pinnacle of luxury - a boutique ship that offers its passengers a lifestyle which, like private jets, the top suite at the Ritz and Krug champagne, is reserved for the privileged few.
But in the early hours of yesterday morning, as guests slept in their spacious en-suite cabins complete with sea views, marble bathrooms and mahogany dining rooms, a band of armed pirates was preparing to storm aboard the Seabourn Spirit.
Passengers, some of whom had paid more than £19,000 for the 16-day voyage, were woken at 5.30am when the attack began 100 miles off the coast of Somalia, in the Indian Ocean.
Armed men on board two 25ft inflatable boats fired live bullets and rocket-propelled grenades as they tried to climb aboard the liner. Terrified passengers reported a series of explosions as the pirates fired on the luxurious 10,000-tonne cruise liner.
But despite the onslaught by the heavily armed bandits, the 200-man crew managed to scare them off using a loud acoustic boom to imitate the sound of an explosion.
None of the 302 passengers, 20 of whom were British, were injured, although one crew member was slightly hurt by flying debris from a ricocheted bullet.
The ship was rated as the most luxurious in the world earlier this year by Condé Nast Traveller and has previously boasted passenger lists including Bill Gates and Donald Trump.
Solicitor Norman Fisher, 55, from Hampstead Garden Suburb in north London, was on board working when captain Sven Erik Pedersen announced over the ship's PA system: "Stay inside, we're under attack."
The passengers were told to go to the restaurant as the sound of the grenade and gunfire filled the air.
"I heard what sounded like a crack from outside at 5.50am," said Fisher.
"I looked out of the window and saw a small boat with about five people in it about 20 yards away.
"One of them clearly had a rifle. Later I realised that two of them had rifles and one had some kind of rocket launcher.
"They were firing the rifle and then fired the rocket launcher twice. One of the rockets certainly hit the ship - it went through the side of the liner into a passenger's suite. The couple were in there at the time so it was a bit of an unpleasant experience.
"At first I didn't know what was going on, but when I saw the rocket launcher I started getting a bit scared."
Fisher said the captain tried to ram one of the boats in an attempt to capsize it and stop them getting on board.
"The atmosphere in the restaurant was a little tense. People were pretty good and they weren't panicking, but one or two were certainly looking nervous," he added.
"The captain came in at about 6.30am and explained what was going on and said he was reasonably confident we had lost them. Of course, he got a massive round of applause.
"It was all a very surreal experience - not the kind of thing you expect on a cruise."
The guests, mainly wealthy Americans, were 13 days into a 16-day voyage which had taken them via Jordan, Egypt and the Red Sea. They were due to visit Mombasa in Kenya, where an exclusive safari awaited them.
Barman Richard Fuller, who worked on board, said the passengers were kept inside while the crew attempted to repel the bandits. He said the atmosphere on the ship was still tense.
He said: "A lot of the guest are still nervous. One of the crew suffered minor injuries while he was on deck watch duties. He was hit by a bit of debris but he is all right."
Another passenger, Edith Laird from Seattle, said one of the grenades launched at the ship hit a cabin just a few doors away from where she and her daughter had been sleeping.
In an e-mail sent from the ship, she said: "My daughter saw the pirates out our window.
"There were at least three RPGs that hit the ship, one in a stateroom four doors down from our cabin."
Passenger Mike Rogers of Vancouver said: "The captain tried to run one of the boats over, but they were small boats, about 25ft long.
.
"There's some minor damage done to the ship. I believe one of the grenades actually went off in one of the cabins, but everyone on board is fine."
Carol Marlow, a spokeswoman for the Miami-based company Seabourn Cruises owned by US cruise giant Carnival, said the ship was sailing in an area it had sailed many times before and was adhering to international maritime safety regulations.
She said: "All the passengers and crew are safe. The ship's crew immediately initiated a trained response and, as a result of protective and evasive measures taken, the occupants of the small craft were unable to gain access to the ship.
"The ship has diverted so we are now heading to the Republic of the Seychelles rather than Mombasa. We felt that was a more appropriate measure in the light of what has happened.
OK how? They were a hundred miles offshore and Somalia has the longest coastline in Africa. Please answer the question, how would YOU get from Egypt to Kenya on a ship and not pass Somalia?
I think you're right. There's not that much on a cruise ship that would tempt pirates, except ransom of wealthy passengers (either cash, or freeing prisoners from Western custody), or the beheading of passengers for Al Q
I don't think passengers carry huge amounts of cash or jewelry these days
Personally, I wouldn't feel safe in that general area any time so I won't be going on a cruise there any time soon.
Well, all some enterprising cruise operator needs is a private bill granting an exemption from the machine-gun ban and letters of marque and reprisal against pirates operating in the Indian Ocean and contiguous seas, bays and gulfs.
That old Constitutiona provision about letters of marque and reprisal ought to good for something.
Inflatable boats against a cruise ship? A couple of shotguns would have drowned the lot.
Where the nearest countries patrol the area with warships.
Does this mean that when going on a cruise in certain areas of the world it is appropriate to ask what defensive measures the ship has? Is is reasonble to assume that protection against pirates is part of the expected "package"?
Finally, don't cruise ships, particularly the most exclusive kind, have the radar and sonar means to monitor when boats of any size are approaching?
As a captain, having the proper weapons on board, I would have aimed at disabling the boats and having them deal with paddling 100 miles home.
Naaaah. I would have sunk the SOB's and celebrated afterwards.
Probably. OTOH, the market for cruises where the ship needs to be armed with MG's and stuff might be unpredictable.
I somehow stumbled onto this piracy issue a little while back, can't remember why. But this comes up on sailing forums, some pretty harrowing stories to be found.
People have to be armed when they take to the seas, it's bad out there on the water.
Here's one link that came up when googling:
http://www.cruiserlog.com/forums/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=652
FYI:
Piracy prone areas and warnings
S E Asia and the Indian Sub Continent
Bangladesh : Chittagong at berth and anchorage.
India : Chennai , Kandla
Indonesia : Anambas/Natuna Island, Balikpapan, Belawan, Dumai, Gaspar/Bar/Leplia Str, Jakarta (Tg.Priok), Pulau Laut, Vicinity of Bintan Island
Malacca straits : avoid anchoring along the Indonesian coast of the straits. Coast near Aceh is particularly risky for hijackings.
Singapore Straits
Africa and Red Sea
Gulf of Aden / Southern Red Sea
Somalian waters - eastern and northeastern coasts are high-risk areas for hijackings. Ships not making scheduled calls to ports in these areas should stay away from the coast.
West Africa : Abidjan , Conakry , Dakar , Douala , Freetown, Lagos , Tema, Warri
South and Central America and the Caribbean waters
Brazil – Rio Grande
Haiti – Port au Prince
Dominican republic - Rio Haina
Jamaica - Kingston
Peru – Callao
And had a damned fine captain. You gotta have confidence in a guy named Sven Eric...
"Two suicide bombers detonated their explosives-packed boat next to the U.S. warship(COLE) as it refueled in Aden harbor at Yemen's southern tip, killing 17 U.S. sailors and wounding 39. "
The odds of that are minuscule.
This cruise ship had already stopped at a few sandmaggot ports and I am sure its speed, course and itinerary were aboard those inflatables. Even sandmaggots can learn to use GPS.
"This ship was pretty far off shore from what I understand... how on Earth did these "pirates" find it? Were they just out joyriding and stumbled across it?"
~~~~~~~~~
That is answered in something that I just now found:
"Masters should bear in mind the possibility that attackers are monitoring ship-to-shore communications and using intercepted information to select their targets. Caution should, therefore, be exercised when transmitting information on cargo or valuables on board by radio in areas where attacks occur."
from a pdf file:
http://www.imo.org/includes/blast_bindoc.asp?doc_id=941&format=PDF
found at:
http://powerandmotoryacht.zeroforum.com/zerothread?id=828
Yeah, it does. I'm sure it's seen as especially unfair that some people get to spend thousands on luxurious cruising, especially when that money is unfairly taken from the world's limited financial resources and could have been "distributed" to the poor. Not that it matters how many jobs are created by the demand for luxury, or that even the poor dream of luxury, I'm sure the people working in those jobs would be so much better off staying at home and just having the funds distributed to them by a bureaucracy. 'Course some people would get stuck actually *working* for the bureaucracy, but that's life, I guess.
Arrrrrgh. Hand over the booty or it's the plank fo ya.
The RPG on one of those little boats might have given them away though. If the cruise ship crew spotted it in time, that is...
The high seas are still ruled by Barbary Pirates, it seems!
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