Excuse me, but don’t we have Marines on these ships to prevent stuff like this?
Not civilian freighters. The Maersk Alabama is a civilian (Danish) container ship and the DoD said it wasn’t on a defense-related contract; in fact, I haven’t seen anything on what it was carrying, except one report that it was “possibly food aid.”
The crews and ships are unarmed, and there’s no troops onboard. They’re reduced to frantic Mayday calls, evasive action, and manning the rails with firehoses to fight off thug pirates with assault rifles, heavy machine guns, and RPGs.
}:-)4
“Excuse me, but don’t we have Marines on these ships to prevent stuff like this?”
No, merchant mariners are not the Marines.
“Merchant Marines” are not the same as United States Marines.
(Although the casualties among the Merchant Marines have been horrible, in previous wars, particularly WW2)
No we don't, and the head of the ship line emphasized, the crews are not armed either.
You'd not get me out in those waters, or a lot of others, without at least my privately owned weapons. IMHO they should mount about 2-4 Ma Dueces on those ships, depending on configuration. That would make the pirate scum think twice. Ma out ranges an RPG, IIRC.
Of course a 20 mm with explosive projectiles would be better.