A few crew members armed with shotguns could make matters uncomfortable for a boarding party.
One reads of piracy from time to time. Does anyone know if such incidents have increased over, say the last 25 years?
LOL--what a wonderful display of the art of understatement.
That said; love the classic 'understatement' reportage here. . .i.e. the 'low-key/stiff-upper lip' Euro-think. . .
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.
'Just a bit'. . .for sure ;^)
I would think a few stand-by .50 cal mounts on the superstructure of those cruise liners would do wonders to discourage these scum from attacking such a vessel!!
All it took was 4 heavily armed Pali terrorists to take over the Achille Lauro in 1985. They didn't want money or jewelry. They wanted the release of terrorists from prison:
http://www.specialoperations.com/Images_Folder/library2/achille.html
I thought it was a stated goal of the terrorists to hijack cruise ships. It could happen again...
Inflatable boats against a cruise ship? A couple of shotguns would have drowned the lot.
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
"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. "
Arrrrrgh. Hand over the booty or it's the plank fo ya.
african pirates = muslim jihadist extremists
Just another ruse by the media so as to not alarm the sheeples that are being led to the slaughter.
Do not let your guard down and stay armed and alert!
An interesting post on another forum:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"My father is captain on board oil tankers and in his career he had about 10-15 pirate attacks, fortunately all unsuccessful (for the pirates ), most of the attacks happened in Nigeria, Brazil, Ivory Coast and in the Indian ocean.
"He told me that the usual operations on board a ship when in pirates areas are to be as high profile as possible. They have all the ships lights turned on, all but the bridge and one main deck door closed from the inside (usually chained), double crew guards on main deck, bridge and all fire hoses ready.
"Usually, when the pirates see that they will need too much time to board a vessel they give up or change target but when they do attack, fire hoses are as dangerous as weapons because of their pressure they can throw a men overboard or even hurt it badly if he is near the hose.
"Sometimes they had a few guns on board, but they were never used and always kept in the ships safe. Of course, sometimes, mostly in African countries it a good thing to give to the pilot or other authorities that come on board some frozen chickens, cigars, coca-cola and beer boxes and similar "valuables" just to be sure nothing bad would happen while at anchor."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
link
http://powerandmotoryacht.zeroforum.com/zerothread?id=828
"Inflatable boats" -- could you not shoot holes in them? I think I'll get a PA system and some pots and pans for the next time I am attacked.
"At first I didn't know what was going on, but when I saw the rocket launcher I started getting a bit scared."
This was said by a Brit on the ship. You have to chuckle at the way the British can put things in an understated way.
(TV COMMERCIAL)
"Hi, this is isthisnickcool for isthisnickcool cruises. We have a great new cruise for you. Imagine waking up in your beautiful suite, then after having a great breakfast strapping on a kevlar suit. From there you travel to our ship armory and pick up the weapon of your choice. We have a large selection of ranging from side arms to shoulder held systems. After you select your firepower of choice it's up to the main deck to smoke some pirates....."
My response would be to go to the bar,find some of the strongest liquor,make some molotov cocktails,then rain hellfire on them.Burn scars make great identifiers.
Of course neither do pirates.
