Posted on 03/07/2011 7:42:19 AM PST by Travis McGee
Pirates hijacked 53 ships and held a total of 1,181 hostages for ransom last year, according to the International Maritime Bureau. Forty nine of those ships and 1,016 of those hostages – from commercial and private vessels -- were seized by pirates off the coast of Somalia, a statistic that was brought into sharp relief last month when Somali pirates hijacked a yacht and on Feb. 22 murdered the four Americans aboard. Two days later, a Danish family, including three children, was taken from their yacht by Somali pirates and as of this writing had been moved to a larger pirate vessel off the Somali Coast.
These very unfortunate events and statistics are renewing and raising awareness about Somali piracy, and many piracy experts echo the advice of Amb. David H. Shinn, former U.S. ambassador to Ethiopia and Burkina Faso, who notes that “leisure travelers have no business going into the Western Indian Ocean until the crisis caused by Somali pirates has ended.” The International Maritime Bureau also reports that there were 445 pirate attacks worldwide last year, underscoring that piracy is not just a Somali problem. “Hostile boardings happen all over the world,” especially in South Asia, the Caribbean, and even off the coast of Florida,” says Charles Clifton, founder and director of non-profit security company Humanitarian Defense.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Woof-woof!
Congrats in getting your words into a nation/worldwide article.
That will work on a ship on the ocean, or a boat on a river (think Mekong Delta) but it won’t work on a boat on the ocean, uless you have a rare flat calm day.
And all crew members trained in its proper use!
Plus this when your scattergun runs out!
Barretts amd the like are too heavy to fire offhand from a rolling/pitching/yawing boat. Your muzzle just swings all over the place. You need something light between 5.56 and 308 to take advantage of rapid fire and andjusting aim by splash. If you were to use a Barrett, you would have to rig it into a bungy sling, like the USCG does in their little birds.
50 caliber is a good thing for stopping engines, the problem is you are not in a helicopter firing at an optimal angle at the engine from above and behind. The helo pilot puts the gunner into a perfect place to shoot.
You have the other problem. You are at surface level, looking at an oncoming bow coming up your wake. A Barrett in a bungy sling might be workable, but it would take a little time to rig. I’d like to be able to send shots all the way through the lenght of their hull, though. That would be nice.
556 is much quicker to fire and adjust for fall of shot, and you can put out more bullets. (You don’t plan “one shot one kill” with this type of shooting. It’s more like “get a few hits out of a dozen on a good day.”
The point being, you want the hits to be out at 400 yards if possible. A 4X scope like a Trijicon is perfect. Nothing over 4X will work, too much motion.
Where a 308 would outshine 556 is in having better terminal ballistics after penetrating a typical wood or fiberglass hull, turning their cover into concealment.
But I only ever carried a mini-14. It’s complicated enough when traveling country to country even with, say, a revolver and a 556. Boost your armory to multiple bolt and semi-auto rifles, and you will be given a very big hassle in port. Maybe handcuffs as an “arms smuggler.” A lot of 3rd world country have guerrilla movements or drug cartels, so “arms smuggling” is on par with explosives smuggling or heroin smuggling. A VERY big deal.
"Best response to pirate attack? Free boat drinks. Arrr..."
If a pirate got close enough to see that, he was toast. Most pirates preferred smaller, faster, more weatherly (higher pointing to windward) boats.
But that was still the cure for piracy. When that man-of-war rolls into Port Royal, Tortuga or Tripoli and destroys the port and every vessel afloat, piracy becomes a bad business model in a hurry.
No pirate ports, no piracy.
I'm for that.
But the Barbary Pirate-In-Chief isn't.
Cruise missile strike then everyone looks at each other and shrugs
Good advice, the best advice as you said is to research the area. If there are thefts/threats/assaults/harassment/PIRACY those things are often well known, especially if it is a problem.
A captain is responsible for the security and safety of his vessel, be it a 25 foot sailboat or a 1100 foot aircraft carrier (okay, that makes it a bit easier to defend, I admit...:)
But to take family members anywhere near places like that is irresponsible.
That said, the world better start cracking down on piracy in a concerted way, and better start doing it soon. How far in the future will it be before they take a supertanker full of oil, and when an attempt is made to retake the ship, they figure they are screwed and just destroy it.
If I can conceive it, it is pretty possible...
Every nation’s laws are different. And besides the law on the book, some countries are lax and some are rabidly anti-gun when it comes to visiting yachts. Mexico, for example. I would throw my guns overboard if I had to make an unplanned diversion to a Mexican port. In fact, I did.
But basically, you plan your route around which countries won’t go nuts because of your guns.
And every nation’s laws vary in another way. In the USA, the big distinctions are semi-auto or full-auto. In much of the world, you can’t have certain “military” calibers, and don’t care that your weapon is legal back in the USA.
Some people get an old milsurp bolt gun like an Enfield, and call it their “shark gun.”
Compound bows, spearguns and big 25mm flare guns are also useful where guns are not allowed.
Man. I just cannot believe it is the 21st century, and we are even having this discussion.
Yeah, good timing too, with my new novel Castigo Cay coming out, since it involves these subjects.
I assume that’s a joke, But I wonder why there aren’t elaborate decoy operations going on off the coast of Somalia. You could pack a lot of fire and man power beneath the deck of a vulnerable looking little yacht. Sail back and forth and blow the crap out of any hostile pursuers. Pick one of them to be the survivor and dump him on shore with a story to tell. Word would get out quick among the pirate community.
As a matter of fact, if I were China or Russia, I would launch 4-5 cruise missiles at the ports. Of course, everyone will look at Obama and he will deny it was him. Then issue a very quick “Of course it wasn’t” and roll your eyes.
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