Free Republic

An American cargo ship was attacked by pirates armed with grenade launchers and automatic weapons in the Gulf of Aden on Tuesday, but the attackers failed to take over the ship, which was able to continue with its delivery of food aid to the Kenyan port of Mombasa. The ship, the Liberty Sun, was damaged in the attack but the crew members were not hurt, according to a statement from the ship’s owner, Liberty Maritime, of Lake Success, N.Y. “We are under attack by pirates, we are being hit by rockets. Also bullets,” a crew member aboard the Liberty Sun,...

<p>This week's pirate attack on an American vessel in the Indian Ocean has renewed a fierce debate in the shipping industry: Should sailors carry guns?</p> <p>Many sailors support the idea. But ship owners and naval officials tend to say armed crews would only add to the volatile mix in a hostile environment.</p>

A spate of attacks on ships off Somalia and the rescue Sunday of an American captain held hostage by pirates have reinvigorated a long-simmering debate over whether the crews of commercial vessels should be armed. While the arming of merchant vessels was commonplace for centuries, it faded in recent decades because of ship owners’ concerns about liability and the safety of their sailors. Despite repeated problems with pirates in the Strait of Malacca between Indonesia and Malaysia and now in the waters of the Arabian Sea, ship owners worried that their crews would be killed instead of held for ransom...