If the crew had been allowed to arm themselves, this story would be very different!
Saying how might get them fired or arrested; someone probably had an "illegal" weapon aboard. Good on them!
The insurance companies will not let the sailors arm themselves. Seems that increases the ins. co’s “risk”. As in “oh, somebody might make a boo-boo, a gun goes off, and we have to pay for the injury”. No, much smarter to pay the millions the pirates demand. Yep, way smarter! I mean, this IS America, we are known for our international humanitarianism (OMG! that is one long word to spell correctly!).
So, the pirates steal food meant for poor countries (yeah, Somalia, you’re not the only starving nation on the planets). They hold the food ranson for the $$. And I’m guessing once they’ve been paid, the ships are returned- minus the food they were carrying. See, the pirates then have to blackmarket the food, thereby making even more money.
Man, that’s a genius way to fund a nation’s economy! If it wasn’t for the fact that I know, in the end, we all end up paying for it, it’s pretty funny. Sort of a “National Lampoon Runs the World Economy”!