American crew regains control of pirated ship

The status of the other pirates was unknown, the official said, but they were reported to “be in the water.”

There are other things in that water, too ... with bigger teeth.

Yep, that’s good news and I’m glad it turned out that way. I think this is a good sign for how crews can regain control of these ships. Something has to be done about those pirates.

I’m going to be off and reading a bunch of stories on this now and be back later...

[ also run a bunch of errands before I get hijacked by the “real people” around here... LOL.. ]

Per Fox News, our crew isn’t even armed — but trained well to protect the ship.

Oh yeah, and give them welfare too.

CNN is saying that 3 pirates escaped by “jumping” into the water...

escaped?.....How about commited sucide?

Something tells me the mothership isn’t coming for them...

Note to pirates. Don’t mess with Americans. We may have a surrender monkey for president but the rest of us will fight for what is right.

You got it. Defending Robes is all.

On one episode of (can’t remember the title) Bering Sea King
Crabbers the captain was shown unloading a mini-14 off the port side.

It made me go out back and burn some powder too!

Awesome!
And they didn’t wait for a government help!!

They'll probably get prosecuted for not waiting for official "Federal Bailout."

And Hussein'd people will demand the resignation of their CEO...

Juest sayin...

"True but the pirates were kept in check because they feared the wrath of the U.S. Navy coming down on them.

Apparently, they don’t anymore. Dangerous turning point here.

When was that? The Barbary pirates (North African Muslim Sultanates of Algiers, Tunis, and Tripoli ) used to hijack our ships and hold the crew for ransom all the time. (Morroco also supported piracy, but because Washington agreed to a treaty (in 1777 and pay "tributes") they didn't bother our ships and weren't involved in the Barbary wars like other North African states.

from 1776 until the revolution, US ships were under the protection of British and French, who also had "treaties" (paid tributes" for safe passage).

In 1778 American ships came under the aegis of France due to a treaty of alliance with France. Because of the revolution, in 1783 the US became soley responsible for the safety of it's commerce and its citizens.
Without the means or the authority to field a naval force necessary to protect their ships in the Mediterranean, the nascent U.S. government took a pragmatic, but ultimately self-destructive route. In 1784, the United States Congress allocated money for payment of tribute to the Barbary pirates and instructed her British and French ambassadors (John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, respectively) to look for opportunities to negotiate peace treaties with the Barbary nations.

In 1786, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams went to negotiate with Tripoli's envoy to London, Ambassador Sidi Haji Abdrahaman or (Sidi Haji Abdul Rahman Adja). Upon inquiring "concerning the ground of the pretensions to make war upon nations who had done them no injury", the ambassador replied:

"It was written in their Koran, that all nations which had not acknowledged the Prophet were sinners, whom it was the right and duty of the faithful to plunder and enslave; and that every muslim who was slain in this warfare was sure to go to paradise. He said, also, that the man who was the first to board a vessel had one slave over and above his share, and that when they sprang to the deck of an enemy's ship, every sailor held a dagger in each hand and a third in his mouth; which usually struck such terror into the foe that they cried out for quarter at once."

Jefferson reported the conversation to Secretary of State John Jay, who submitted the Ambassador's comments and offer to Congress. Jefferson argued that paying tribute would encourage more attacks. Although John Adams agreed with Jefferson, he believed that circumstances forced the U.S. to pay tribute until an adequate navy could be built. The U.S. had just fought an exhausting war, which put the nation deep in debt. Federalist and anti-federalist forces argued over the needs of the country and the burden of taxation. Jefferson's own Democratic-Republicans and anti-navalists believed that the future of the country lay in westward expansion, with Atlantic trade threatening to siphon money and energy away from the new nation on useless wars in the Old World.[4] The U.S. paid Algiers the ransom, and continued to pay up to $1 million per year over the next 15 years for the safe passage of American ships or the return of American hostages. Payments in ransom and tribute to the privateering states amounted to 20 percent of United States government annual revenues in 1800.

Jefferson continued to argue for cessation of the tribute, with rising support from George Washington and others. With the recommissioning of the American navy in 1794 and the resulting increased firepower on the seas, it became increasingly possible for America to refuse paying tribute, although by now the long-standing habit was hard to overturn.

On Jefferson's inauguration as president in 1801, Yussif Karamanli, the Pasha (or Bashaw) of Tripoli, demanded $225,000 from the new administration. (In 1800, Federal revenues totaled a little over $10 million.) Putting his long-held beliefs into practice, Jefferson refused the demand. Consequently, in May 1801, the Pasha declared war on the United States, not through any formal written documents but by cutting down the flagstaff in front of the U.S. Consulate. Algiers and Tunis soon followed their ally in Tripoli.

In response, Jefferson sent a group of frigates to defend American interests in the Mediterranean, and informed Congress. Although Congress never voted on a formal declaration of war, they did authorize the President to instruct the commanders of armed vessels of the United States to seize all vessels and goods of the Pasha of Tripoli "and also to cause to be done all such other acts of precaution or hostility as the state of war will justify."

The schooner USS Enterprise defeated the 14-gun Tripolitan corsair Tripoli after a fierce but one-sided battle on August 1, 1801.

The American navy went unchallenged on the sea, but still the question remained undecided. Jefferson pressed the issue the following year, with an increase in military force and deployment of many of the navy's best ships to the region throughout 1802. USS Argus, USS Chesapeake, USS Constellation, USS Constitution, USS Enterprise, USS Intrepid, USS Philadelphia and USS Syren all saw service during the war under the overall command of Commodore Edward Preble. Throughout 1803, Preble set up and maintained a blockade of the Barbary ports and executed a campaign of raids and attacks against the cities' fleets.

In October 1803, Tripoli's fleet was able to capture USS Philadelphia intact after the frigate ran aground while patrolling Tripoli harbor. Efforts by the Americans to float the ship while under fire from shore batteries and Tripolitan naval units were unsuccessful. The ship, its captain, William Bainbridge, and all officers and crew were taken ashore and held as hostages. The Philadelphia was turned against the Americans and anchored in the harbor as a gun battery.

On the night of February 16, 1804, Lieutenant Stephen Decatur, Jr. led a small contingent of the U.S.'s first Marines in the captured Tripolitan ketch rechristened USS Intrepid, to deceive the guards on board the Philadelphia and float close enough to board the captured ship. Decatur's men stormed the vessel and overpowered the Tripolitan sailors standing guard. With support from American ships, the Marines set fire to the Philadelphia, denying her use to the enemy, and captured the city. This action was memorialized in a line from the Marines' Hymn — "the shores of Tripoli." Subsequently, the bravery in action of Lieutenant Stephen Decatur, Jr. made him one of the first American military heroes since the Revolutionary War.

Preble attacked Tripoli outright on July 14, 1804 in a series of inconclusive battles, including a courageous but unsuccessful attack by the fire ship USS Intrepid under Captain Richard Somers. Intrepid, packed with explosives, was to enter Tripoli harbor and destroy itself and the enemy fleet; it was destroyed, perhaps by enemy guns, before achieving that goal, killing Somers and his crew.

The turning point in the war came with the Battle of Derna (April-May 1805). Ex-consul William Eaton, who went by the rank of general, and US Marine First Lieutenant Presley O'Bannon led a mixed force of eight United States Marines and 500 Greek, Arab and Berber mercenaries on a remarkable overland march across the desert from Alexandria, Egypt to assault the Tripolitan city of Derna.

Wearied of the blockade and raids, and now under threat of a continued advance on Tripoli proper and a scheme to restore his deposed older brother Hamet Karamanli as ruler, Yussif Karamanli signed a treaty ending hostilities on June 10, 1805. Although the Senate did not approve the treaty until the following year, this effectively ended the First Barbary War.

Article 2 of the Treaty reads:

The Bashaw of Tripoli shall deliver up to the American Squadron now off Tripoli, all the Americans in his possession; and all the Subjects of the Bashaw of Tripoli now in the power of the United States of America shall be delivered up to him; and as the number of Americans in possession of the Bashaw of Tripoli amounts to Three Hundred Persons, more or less; and the number of Tripolino Subjects in the power of the Americans to about, One Hundred more or less; The Bashaw of Tripoli shall receive from the United States of America, the sum of Sixty Thousand Dollars, as a payment for the difference between the Prisoners herein mentioned.

In agreeing to pay a ransom of sixty thousand dollars for the American prisoners, the Jefferson administration drew a distinction between paying tribute and paying ransom. At the time, some argued that buying sailors out of slavery was a fair exchange to end the war. William Eaton, however, remained bitter for the rest of his life about the treaty, feeling that his efforts had been squandered by the State Department diplomat Tobias Lear. Eaton and others felt that the capture of Derna should have been used as a bargaining chip to obtain the release of all American prisoners without having to pay ransom. Furthermore, Eaton believed the honour of the United States had been compromised when it abandoned Hamet Karamanli after promising to restore him as leader of Tripoli. Eaton's complaints generally fell on deaf ears, especially as attention turned to the strained international relations which would ultimately lead to the War of 1812.

Anyways, it seems our current government, and the American people in general have long forgotten history, and what animals Muslims have always been. Their Koran still reads the same, and their desire to conquor remains intact.

And now we are paying "tributes" again.

Now that this is confirmed, I am *extremely happy* that this happened. Something had to be done about these pirates...

I’m off and out running errands now and will stay away from the pirates... LOL..

Why worry about torture? Do whatever you want to them because it is sailing under a Norwegan flag so anything that happens to them can be blamed on the vikings.

“All the crew members are trained in security detail in how to deal with piracy,” Maersk CEO John Reinhart told reporters. “As merchant vessels we do not carry arms. We have ways to push back, but we do not carry arms.”

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,513238,00.html

I’m pretty sure the Euro-weenies and their new American partners will put a stop to those “ways of pushing back”.

0 response?

Release pirate, an apology, and $$$$.

LOL! That’s good

The crew probably had some images of Blackhawk Down and decided that this time things are going to be different.

ROFL

Every ship has at least one sharp fire ax aboard, the thought of some screaming Americans armed with a such is enough to shiver the timbers of any Somali pirate.

Even if could not carry guns, other things possible. Tasers?
_________________________________________

Don’t boats carry ‘flare guns’? *evil grin*