And it wouldn't take much for the crews to be armed either;
Just 3 items per crew member:
( Anti boarding pikes) 
( Anti Tank Shoulder launched Missiles) 
( Auto Shotguns with Hi Cap Mags, with a variety of shot size selections)
Posted on 04/12/2009 6:41:35 PM PDT by reaganaut1
A spate of attacks on ships off Somalia and the rescue Sunday of an American captain held hostage by pirates have reinvigorated a long-simmering debate over whether the crews of commercial vessels should be armed.
While the arming of merchant vessels was commonplace for centuries, it faded in recent decades because of ship owners’ concerns about liability and the safety of their sailors.
Despite repeated problems with pirates in the Strait of Malacca between Indonesia and Malaysia and now in the waters of the Arabian Sea, ship owners worried that their crews would be killed instead of held for ransom if the crews tried to defend themselves and failed.
But the expanding range and seafaring skills of Somali pirates are prompting some experts to start calling for changes. The killing by United States Navy personnel of three Somali pirates during the rescue on Sunday of Richard Phillips, the American captain of the container ship Maersk Alabama, has further raised the stakes, with at least one Somali pirate on shore threatening vengeance on the next American seafarer captured.
Barry Parker, a shipping consultant in New York and former ship broker, predicted that an international agreement would be drafted to allow captains to keep firearms and distribute them to crew members during times of potential danger from pirates. New international rules pushed through by the United States after the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, authorized captains to monitor maritime security in their vicinity and maintain their vessels at elevated levels of vigilance in response to dangers.
If that antiterrorism system were expanded to include piracy and ships were armed, Mr. Parker said, captains could be authorized to take greater measures. “The captain declares there’s some elevated level and they open up the gun locker,” he said.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
If ever someone needed an example against gun control, this is it.
DUH. If you don’t want untrained sailors bearing arms, then put a couple of trained armed guards on the ship. You have millions of dollars in cargo, and the stakes are high. I would put a .50 cal MG on both sides and keep a radar watch 24/7. These pirate skiffs are easy to sink if you see them coming. This is a no-brainer. If international ports don’t allow armed ships in port, then don’t go to those ports. The laws will change quickly.
Don’t arm the crew, arm the CAPTAIN!! After all, he’s in charge, and he ought to have every means at his dispoal to protect the ship he’s charged with.
Obama's Fault!
Isn't it like 90' vertical from gunwale to gunwale?
Yes.
...whether public school teachers should be armed.
Yes.
...whether all law-abiding adults should be armed.
Yes.
Pretty simple, no?
Excellent Post!
The solution to the problem of dealing with Somali piracy is as simple as you indicated.
These ships are big enough to accomodate a small contingent of armed guards. 50 cal MG’s, rocket launchers and automatic weapons ought to be good enough to deal with any Somali attack.
For some reason, the shipping community seems stuck on stupid as to dealing with this issue. There’s gotta be some other reason (other than liability) for their reluctance to deal with this issue.
And it wouldn't take much for the crews to be armed either;
Just 3 items per crew member:
( Anti boarding pikes)
( Anti Tank Shoulder launched Missiles)
( Auto Shotguns with Hi Cap Mags, with a variety of shot size selections)
They generally carry RPG-7's along with their AK's. Those things will rip through a ships hull like it wasn't even there. There's a very real risk of these savages actually sinking a freighter.
They then use grappling hooks and climb up the sides. All they're facing is fire hoses. So all the bad guys have to do is back up and point an RPG at the ship and threaten to blow holes in it or stand off and launch them at the wheel house.
Personally I think there's an excellent business plan in here somewhere.
L
Dead crews, crews being held hostage, ships and cargos being held ransom and/or sold are big liability issues too - albeit in different ways.
Maybe the shipping community has said “Oh well, stolen ships and dead hostages are just one of the risks of the business”. But it shouldn’t be.
I agree, Steve. An ounce of prevention...
In the early eighties, I was crewing on a small ship that was in the Caribbean waters. At that time, there was a lot of “Piracy” taking place in those waters.
The Captain of our ship was a Aussie Vietnam Veteran. He had lost a brother there.
We were always armed, despite foreign laws, and were very willing to use them, if needed.
Well, making the shipping companies pay for their own protection certainly makes better sense than making the American taxpayer pay for a problem that the U.S. never created in the first place.
The U.S. hasn’t been paying ransoms like the other shipping companies and the countries that they are from, have been doing for years. They are the ones who have created this mess in the first place.
There’s no way the American taxpayer should have to pay for our military to take care of problems created by other countries and their shipping companies. No more *bailouts* and *especially* not for other countries and foreign companies...
So, sure..., make the companies take care of themselves...
This is such nonsense. Ships always used to be armed in the old days, as this article points out. Since no one wants gangs of armed sailors getting drunk on shore and shooting the place up, the usual custom was to keep the arms in an arms locker and issue them when needed.
The captain has responsibility for his ship. He should also have responsibility over the arms locker.
There’s no reason why hired guards couldn’t also be used, but many shipping companies and independent traders probably couldn’t afford them.
Safety? What about their liability for sending the crews through pirate infested waters with no protection and no means to protect themselves?
Hmmm?
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