Just another buoyant bumper in the rope bin.
Posted on 06/05/2007 9:34:58 AM PDT by Sub-Driver
U.S. Warship Fires Warning Shots Over Vessel Boarded by Pirates Off Somali Coast
Tuesday , June 05, 2007
The U.S. Navy has fired warning shots across the bow of a Dutch ship that has been boarded by armed pirates off the coast of Somalia, FOX News has learned.
The USS Carter Hall also fired on three small boats that surrounded the commercial ship, the "Danica White," after her crew messaged for assistance after being boarded by pirates, the Navy said.
The incident began Saturday and as of Monday the Dutch ship's crew was still believed to be held at gunpoint by an unknown number of pirates who forced the vessel into Somalia's territorial waters. There have been no reports of casualties.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
ROFLMAO! My son, who is back from deployment, told me things are really heating up in Somalia. They were told to kill anything that moves.
Not correct. LoM are for private vessels, not naval vessels. They are basically bounty hunter licenses. There does not need to be a state of war for the issuance.
"A Letter of Marquee and Reprisal is an official warrant or commission from a national government authorizing the designated agent to search, seize, or destroy specified assets or personnel belonging to a party which has committed some offense under the laws of nations against the assets or citizens of the issuing nation, and has usually been used to authorize private parties to raid and capture merchant shipping of an enemy nation."
The Treaty of Paris (1856) outlawed the use of LoM. The US is not a signator, but I doubt the UN would allow any issuing of them.
IIRC, the problem isn't that the vessels are armed on the open sea, but that the weapons are banned in most ports of call. If a merchant vessel can't dock because of the .50 cals on board, they have a hard time doing business, especially in some third world port where a bribe can get their cargo seized for "weapons smuggling".
There are a number of companies that provide vessel and cargo retrieval using briefcases and or special ops. However, they generally work for the insurance companies not the ship owners because the ship or cargo owners have sometimes been in on the heist.
Just another buoyant bumper in the rope bin.
The Pirates exist because the governments they base out of are either too afraid to do anything about them, or are taking a kickback from their activities.
No different really than in the golden age of pirates.
To get rid of this menace entirely, every government on the planet needs to be firmly entrenched against them.
I hope that he returns to you safe and sound. I'll pray for him.
Huge ships with tiny crews are an inviting target to these people...
A single plasma TV from one container on these ships could feed 5 families for months in that part of the world...
Thank you. He got home on the 23rd and (keep your fingers crossed) he may be state’s side until Christmas!
Ron Paul advocates letters of marque- maybe cuz it’s in the constitution.
CARTER HALL was my last ship. We were off Somalia doing the same thing last year too.
The CIWS mounts are useless against surface targets (I think there is a newer mod that is but the LSD doesn’t have it). There may be more .50 cals. Last year we upgunned all the mounts to twins while in the 5th Fleet AOR. They also have MK19 40mm machine guns and M60s.
BWAAHAAHAA! It's a wonder no one's done it yet.
Interesting, I didn’t know killing the people wasn’t the norm. What about rape? Is that common?
If there had been a ship laden with lovely women? Well...they are, after all, pirates. Lonely, bored pirates.
LOL, I’m sure ‘surrender the booty’ has a much less seafaring connotation these days ;) Arrgh.
I read a science fiction story once, set in the near future, where large shipping companies had a problem with piracy. They solved it by "renting" sovereignity from some nation that is a collection of coral atolls. The tiny nation had neither the money, nor the interest, to combat pirates, so the merchant companies paid it to put its flags on armed ships the merchants equipped. Presto, you don't have an illegally armed merchamt ship, but a warship from Tinynesia.
Heave to.
About 1982 or so, I officially suggested, through channels, that the U.s. government issue “Letters of Mark” , and provide coordination equipment and weaponry appropriate to the task, to private contractors to assist in the interdiction of narcotics smugglers off the Florida coast.
I got my ass verbally handed to me and damned near got suspended.
I still think it is a fine idea and one that could work.
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