Yeah, tell me about it!
Posted on 11/08/2005 2:47:21 PM PST by NormsRevenge
MIAMI - Cruise lines say their crews and ships are well prepared for attacks like the one off the coast of Somalia this past weekend, when pirates fired rocket-propelled grenades and machine guns at the luxury vessel Seabourn Spirit. The ship safely evaded two pirate boats after using an earsplitting sonic weapon, changing course and heading out to sea.
But security experts say that despite all the preparations, cruise liners remain vulnerable to attacks like this or the deadly bombing by al-Qaida-linked militants of the USS Cole in Yemen five years ago. The Cole was rammed by an explosives-laden boat in the port city of Aden; 17 U.S. sailors were killed and 37 were injured.
"No ship apart from a naval vessel is really prepared to protect against a waterborne assault of the sort against the Cole," said Kim Petersen, president of maritime security consultant SeaSecure and a former cruise line security official. "Even those ships that are best equipped to cope with such a threat, in the case of the Cole, are in a difficult situation."
Cruise industry officials said the Spirit's successful efforts to repel the attackers validate security plans that all ships must have in place under U.S. and international law. They point out that no passenger was injured on the Spirit and just one crew member had minor injuries.
"Cruising is and has been one of the most safe vacations that you can engage in and will remain so," said Michael Crye, president of the International Council of Cruise Lines, an industry lobbying group.
Cruise lines are in constant communication with authorities on land, and the U.S. military responded to the attack on the Spirit, Crye said. The U.S. counterterrorism task force for the Horn of Africa is based in Djibouti, which borders Somalia.
But he also noted that attacks on cruise ships are rare — this was the first since Palestinian terrorists hijacked the Achille Lauro in the Mediterranean in 1985 and killed a wheelchair-bound American.
Cruise lines are reluctant to talk about their specific security plans, fearing that the information could help those willing to pounce on ships. Crye said companies are permitted to arm their crews, but he wouldn't say if they did.
Kenneth Bissonnette, staff manager for surveillance and security at Carnival Cruise Lines, told The Associated Press in March 2004 that security personnel for the world's largest cruise line didn't carry firearms, but had defenses like pepper spray. He said the company's security staff recruited heavily among Gurkhas, elite Nepalese soldiers renowned for their fearlessness.
Bissonnette declined to comment Monday. Tim Gallagher, a spokesman for company parent Carnival Corp., declined to comment on specific security procedures.
Cruise lines are reluctant to have armed guards onboard because that might hurt their image with some passengers, said William Callahan, president of maritime security consultant Unitel. He proposes that they should have armed speedboats as escorts when traveling in dangerous areas.
Other known defenses on cruise ships include high-pressure firehoses used to prevent intruders from boarding ships. That method was also used by the Spirit's crew. Seabourn Cruise Line, the Carnival Corp. subsidiary that operates the ship, also has bought high-tech sonic weapons, which were developed for the U.S. military after the Cole bombing.
The Long Range Acoustical Device sends earsplitting noise in a concentrated beam. Its maker, American Technology Corp. of San Diego, doesn't know of any cruise lines other than Miami-based Seabourn that have installed them, said A.J. Ballard, the company's director of military operations.
But Callahan questioned why the Spirit was about 100 miles off Somalia, which has no effective government and is ruled by warlords. The International Maritime Bureau has for several months warned ships to stay at least 150 miles away from Somalia's coast because of an increase in pirate attacks.
"That place is teeming with high-speed stolen vessels," Callahan said.
Many cruise lines have tried to avoid the area, but vessels going from the Mediterranean to Asia or Africa must pass through there.
Seabourn spokesman Bruce Good said the line hasn't decided whether to change its routes. But he said the Spirit was on its highest alert while there.
"As far as we're concerned, the incident is behind us. We are now in the next phase, getting people where they need to be and continuing with what we do for a living, which as make people happy on board," he said.
Seabourn has said it appeared the attackers were pirates whose motivation was robbery. But Petersen doubted that was the case, because he said pirates would have tried to disable the ship's steering and propulsion if they wanted to get onboard. Witnesses said the attackers shot grenades toward passengers.
Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said Monday the attackers might have been terrorists.
Either way, cruise lines fear that their image as safe havens of fun could be tarnished. After the Achille Lauro hijacking, the eastern Mediterranean cruise market had a sharp decline in traffic. The Sept. 11, 2001, attacks forced cruise companies to offer heavy discounts to lure leery passengers onto ships, and ticket prices are only now getting back to pre-attack levels as the industry is having a year of record profits and traffic.
Because no one was killed in the Spirit attack, travelers probably won't be spooked, said Jeff Sharlach, chairman and CEO of The Jeffrey Group, a public relations firm that runs crisis management teams for companies like FedEx Corp.
"You want to avoid making it into a bigger news story than it is naturally. Sometimes if you respond too aggressively, you make it more frightening than it is," said Sharlach, whose company doesn't work with cruise lines.
___
On the Net:
International Council of Cruise Lines: http://www.iccl.org
Carnival Corp.: http://www.carnivalcorp.com
Seabourn Cruise Line: http://www.seabourn.com
Yeah, tell me about it!
Problem solved.
This will make vacation cruises more adventurous for the global elite. Even if most tourists aren't really global elite, the pirates think they are, and that is all that matters.
Where did they get that idea?
Sounds like it would be a good thing if the US military would lend/lease some 37mm cannons and 106mm recoilless rifles to the American flagged cruise lines. Both pieces are easy to operate, reliable, and could be stowed below deck until needed.
How about hails of lead? That seems a better idea than water hoses. Yeah, yeah, I know, cruise ships are "reluctant" to have firepower aboard. Might offend the sensibilities of the faint of heart.
Time to revisit the Q-boat...
You know...I can't think of any American Flagged Cruise lines.
ISLAMOFASCISTS!!!
Are there any?
(Not American-OWNED, American FLAGGED)
There is absolutely no rational reason to load a large ship with tourists, money, jewelry, or valuable cargo of any kind, and go trolling around in dangerous waters, lacking any means of self defense at all. The "loud noise" defense worked this time, but, I'll bet the pirates are finding some earmuffs, even as I speak.
I'll tell ya what, had the cruise ship just had a couple of decent marksmen aboard, with a couple of decent rifles, the barstards would never have got close enough to be a problem!
The first thing they need to do is quit posting the layout of the entire ship on the Internet.
http://www.croisieres-voyages.com/Images_croisieres/Seabourn.Pride.Spirit.Legend_ponts.jpg
Yeah! That's what I'm talking about! Put a bunch of vacationers that are actually Marines on a disquised armed cruise ship, and clean up...
I think it's a perfect time lo launch "Aegis Cruise Lines."
The Soviets flooded every third world dump on the planet with this crap, in the hope that terrorists and malcontents would raise hell for years to come. They sure have gotten their wish.
USS Irene Forsyte, a WWII American Q Ship.
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