Italy Cruise Ship Fires on Somali Pirates

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,517955,00.html ^

[Jonny foreigner]

ROME — An Italian cruise ship fended off a pirate attack off the coast of Somalia, with its security forces exchanging fire with the bandits, the commander said Saturday.

Cmdr. Ciro Pinto told Italian state radio that six men in a small white boat approached the Msc Melody and opened fire Saturday night, but retreated after security forces aboard the cruise ship returned fire.

Domenico Pellegrino, head of the ship-owner Msc Cruises, told ANSA news agency that all 1,500 passengers and crew aboard the Melody were safe, and credited Pinto for his "cool-headed" handling of the incident.

The attack occurred about 180 miles north of the Seychelles. The ship was on a 22-day cruise from Durban, South Africa, to Genoa, Italy.

ANSA said the ship was now headed as scheduled to the Jordanian port of Aqaba.

Pirates have attacked more than 100 ships off the Somali coast over the last year, reaping an estimated $1 million in ransom for each successful hijacking, according to analysts and country experts.

Another Italian-owned vessel remains in the hands of pirates. The Italian-flagged tugboat Buccaneer was seized off Somalia on April 11 with 16 crew members aboard.

[Renegade]

It involved EVIL firearms .

[El Gato]

We should immediately require all US flagged merchant ships to be armed. This BS with using water hoses (only!) is just that, Bovine Scat. The pirates are at big disadvantage, they are lower in the water, and when boarding must climb to the decks of the merchie and cruise ships. They could be swept right off their ladders by a couple of guys with even semi-automatic rifles. Add a Barret .50 or Ma, and you'd keep them out of RPG range as well.

[wardaddy]

not likely....multi compartment baffling that can be isolated

some not many are doubled skinned

a flammable Chem or LNG ship maybe with a well placed shot which would be very tough on the open seas

[wardaddy]

Durban was rough even in the good days in South Africa

Genoa...not so bad....pretty close to San Remo and Portofino

in between...depends doesn’t it

[El Gato]

I would be in favor of hanging the pirates from the battleship’s yardarm.

What battleships, and for that matter what yardarm?

Maybe a Destroyer or a Frigate, and you'd have to run them up the signal mast.

But otherwise, sounds like a fine idea.

See "Clear and Present Danger", the book not the pitiful excuse for a movie. "Pirates", in that case one of the pirates, got run up on the signal lanyards, but not killed. Still it concentrated the mind of his partner rather well.

[gondramB]

>>Is that a real hat for sale online?<<

It sure ought to be but I just saw the graphic on another message board and grabbed it so I don’t know. Sorry about that.

[El Gato]

but I don't think an rpg has enough power to blow through the steel hull of an oil tanker.

An RPG, with a HEAT warhead, can penetrate up to 600mm of rolled steel armor. I don't think that ships are built of anything that thick. (600 mm ~= 23.6 inches). They don't make an especially large hole however. I don't know what the standoff distance to the inner hull on a tanker might be, but I suspect it's sufficient that the jet from the HEAT warhead would not penetrate the second hull, but I could be wrong about that.

[antiunion person]

Thanks for sharing your knowledge with me. I really appreciate it. I'm retired Army, Ranger/Airborne, but I never fired an rpg at anything on water. I specialized in tanks, personnel carriers and anything else they would let me blow up. LOL

[DieHard the Hunter]

> See “Clear and Present Danger”, the book not the pitiful excuse for a movie.

I am going down to the library later today. Sounds like a rollicking good read!

[GGpaX4DumpedTea]

The point is - the Titanic was billed as “Unsinkable”. Icebergs were the only serious threat to shipping then. An iceberg sunk her.

[MinorityRepublican]

We should be issuing letters of marque, and allowing privateers to troll for pirates while armed with heavy machine guns and TOW missiles.

Sounds like a job for Blackwater.

[Joe 6-pack]

"An Italian cruise ship fended off a pirate attack off the coast of Somalia, with its security forces..."

"Godfather, there's a small boat approaching off the port bow."

[dsc]

The real danger would be fire, not holes in the hull.

[tom h]

"At some point the Somalis will sink a tanker or cruise ship with an rpg. "

I don't believe that these young men want to kill people. They are pirates because it was easy to be one -- get a small boat, some inexpensive firepower, and beat your chest because big, big ships are afraid to fight.

Unfortunately, I do agree that while most of the pirates will crawl back to the mainland now that the Western world is shooting back, there will be just a couple of fools who WILL sink a shit and cause a different sort of international outcry over the loss of life.

At that point, will Obama have the cojones to respond with overwhelming force?

[Marysecretary]

Shoot them all! It’s the only thing that will work.

[river rat]

"Now that's a hell of an idea. You could give prizes for the most killed, etc. "

Unfortunately, there are laws against shooting over a baited field...... Remember. Under Obama pirates have rights.

[AxelPaulsenJr]

Wow, just think what could have happened if the iceberg had also had an rpg?

[El Gato]

The real danger would be fire, not holes in the hull.

As I understand it, there is nothing to burn between the two hulls.

[El Gato]

The real danger would be fire, not holes in the hull.

As I understand it, there is nothing to burn between the two hulls.

[El Gato]

I am going down to the library later today. Sounds like a rollicking good read!

It is. The first several Clancy novels are much better than the later ones. My favorite is "Red Storm Rising", about a war between the USSR and the West. It's the only one that is not part of the "Jack Ryan" world.