Navy: Activists tried to kidnap 3 commandos during Gaza aid flotilla raid

haaretz ^ | 6/4/10 | amos harel

[Nachum]

During Israel's takeover of a Turkish ship in the Gaza-bound aid flotilla this week, some passengers tried to take captive three commandos who lost consciousness as a result of the activists' blows, according to early findings of a navy investigation. The three were dragged into one of the passenger halls below deck and were held there for several minutes.

After dozens of other commandos began searching the ship, the Mavi Marmara, the three soldiers regained consciousness and managed to join their comrades.

[NoLibZone]

I am so old that I can recall when people said we ( Jews) were smart.

They never, ever, never ,should have boarded.

Navy Commandos simply have to disable the vessels.

Every vessel runs raw water to cool at least a part of their engines.

Even modern enclosed systems draw raw water.

The water is drawn up through a sea cock ( inlet ) on the bottom of the ships hull.

All they need to do is seal or clog that inlet.

The vessel operators will have to turn off their motors or fry them.

Then divers can then cut the propeller blades or shafts.

OR

Just pull the boats far out to sea each night.

EVERYTHING THE PLO does is for press.

This removes the photo ops.

[OldDeckHand]

I've been around ships my entire life. I'm not sure how one "clogs" the fresh water intake of a 2,000 ton ship at sea while underway. Other than a torpedo, the only way to do what you're suggesting - stopping a ship underway - is to disable the rudder. This has inherent risks as a errant shot could easily hit something other than the rudder.

The IDF is between a rock and a hard place. It's tough to stop a ship without some collateral damage, and in this case, that means protesters deaths.

[LouAvul]

[He'sComingBack!]

Too much “24”

[SJackson]

Middle East and terrorism, occasional political and Jewish issues Ping List. High Volume

If you’d like to be on or off, please FR mail me.

..................

[dennisw]

lol...sez it all

[NoLibZone]

Use a Tug boat(s) to stop the vessel.

[OldDeckHand]

"Use a Tug boat(s) to stop the vessel."

Again, that would be tough, but not necessarily impossible. The problems with tugs is, because of the way they're geared, they have a VERY difficult time matching the speed of a ship in open water if that ship is traveling at full speed ahead.

Since the tug couldn't match the target vessel's speed, they'd have to impede it's progress in some way, block it if you will. Essentially, you'd have a collision. A collision at speed involving several thousand tons of steel would be ugly. Now, that may very well disable the target vessel, but perhaps fatally. There's the very real possibility that both might sink.