# How do pirates take over such huge ships?



## ItsFairmont

I've been up close to those container ships.  How in the heck do a bunch of pirates in a motorized skiff pull up alongside of and stop a ginormous freighter doing 20 knots?

Very confused.  It seems as though the guys on the freighter would be laughing from 10 stories up, and it also seems the pirates would be easy targets for a couple plinkers on deck of the freighter.

Am I missing something?  (obviously).


----------



## RetiredGySgt

ItsFairmont said:


> I've been up close to those container ships.  How in the heck do a bunch of pirates in a motorized skiff pull up alongside of and stop a ginormous freighter doing 20 knots?
> 
> Very confused.  It seems as though the guys on the freighter would be laughing from 10 stories up, and it also seems the pirates would be easy targets for a couple plinkers on deck of the freighter.
> 
> Am I missing something?  (obviously).



The Merchant Marines have NO weapons. As to how they board I assume there is an external ladder to the ocean level.  The Pirates have Ak-47's and RPG's. An RPG can take down a TANK I doubt it would have much trouble opening the hull of  an unarmored ship.


----------



## Rightwngcrkpot

Time to arm those ships - otherwise they are sitting ducks. Now I realize that Obama and Company would oppose arming these ship....well, for the same reason the libs opposed arming commercial airline pilots, and for the same reason they want to close Gitmo:

"Terrorists have rights!!!!!!      Bawwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww!


RWC


----------



## Diuretic

Rightwngcrkpot said:


> Time to arm those ships - otherwise they are sitting ducks. Now I realize that Obama and Company would oppose arming these ship....well, for the same reason the libs opposed arming commercial airline pilots, and for the same reason they want to close Gitmo:
> 
> "Terrorists have rights!!!!!!      Bawwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww!
> 
> 
> RWC



Did you read post #2?


----------



## RetiredGySgt

Rightwngcrkpot said:


> Time to arm those ships - otherwise they are sitting ducks. Now I realize that Obama and Company would oppose arming these ship....well, for the same reason the libs opposed arming commercial airline pilots, and for the same reason they want to close Gitmo:
> 
> "Terrorists have rights!!!!!!      Bawwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww!
> 
> 
> RWC



Well Obama wouldn't have much to say about it, you see few ships are American Flagged at all. Costs to much for most companies to flag in the US.


----------



## del

Rightwngcrkpot said:


> Time to arm those ships - otherwise they are sitting ducks. Now I realize that Obama and Company would oppose arming these ship....well, for the same reason the libs opposed arming commercial airline pilots, and for the same reason they want to close Gitmo:
> 
> "Terrorists have rights!!!!!!      Bawwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww!
> 
> 
> RWC



the ships are privately owned. most don't want to arm their crews for various money related reasons and have chosen not to. piracy is not new; if they felt a compelling reason to arm their ships, they would.

owners have rights!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


----------



## dilloduck

ItsFairmont said:


> I've been up close to those container ships.  How in the heck do a bunch of pirates in a motorized skiff pull up alongside of and stop a ginormous freighter doing 20 knots?
> 
> Very confused.  It seems as though the guys on the freighter would be laughing from 10 stories up, and it also seems the pirates would be easy targets for a couple plinkers on deck of the freighter.
> 
> Am I missing something?  (obviously).



Johnny Depp can do anything.


----------



## cbi0090

Most are boarded at night, so they don't often see them coming.  To stand watch around the perimeter of that size boat would take a far larger crew than what they have.  Once they are on board they are the only ones with guns, merchant marines don't carry guns.  An earlier post is right, an RPG can tear a hole in one of these ships.  They are generally single hulled and even with multiple bulkheads, are easily disabled.  They're not a solid as they look.  
The U.S. Marine Corp came into being over just this very situation.  One of their first actions "on the shores of Tripoli" was a reaction to pirating of this kind.  The whole area needs to be occupied by someone.  As long as there is no government it's just a free for all, like a kindergarten classroom with no teacher.  It help Iran when they try and sneak missiles to the Hamas in Gaza, like they did recently, but got caught and bombed to hell by Israel in Sudan.


----------



## editec

RetiredGySgt said:


> Rightwngcrkpot said:
> 
> 
> 
> Time to arm those ships - otherwise they are sitting ducks. Now I realize that Obama and Company would oppose arming these ship....well, for the same reason the libs opposed arming commercial airline pilots, and for the same reason they want to close Gitmo:
> 
> "Terrorists have rights!!!!!! Bawwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww!
> 
> 
> RWC
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Well Obama wouldn't have much to say about it, you see few ships are American Flagged at all. Costs to much for most companies to flag in the US.
Click to expand...

 
Yeah, they might have to pay the crews a living wage.

But hey, don't worry about it.

Americans will inevitably pay to protect those ships anyway.

That's what Americans are good for.

Paying to protect everybody's interests_ but their own._


----------



## cbi0090

editec said:


> RetiredGySgt said:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Rightwngcrkpot said:
> 
> 
> 
> Time to arm those ships - otherwise they are sitting ducks. Now I realize that Obama and Company would oppose arming these ship....well, for the same reason the libs opposed arming commercial airline pilots, and for the same reason they want to close Gitmo:
> 
> "Terrorists have rights!!!!!! Bawwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww!
> 
> 
> RWC
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Well Obama wouldn't have much to say about it, you see few ships are American Flagged at all. Costs to much for most companies to flag in the US.
> 
> Click to expand...
> 
> 
> Yeah, they might have to pay the crews a living wage.
> 
> But hey, don't worry about it.
> 
> Americans will inevitably pay to protect those ships anyway.
> 
> That's what Americans are good for.
> 
> Paying to protect everybody's interests_ but their own._
Click to expand...


It wasn't wages that ran the shipping industry out of the U.S.  It was Valdez.  Maritime law has never held any ship liable for anything more than the value of the vessel and it's cargo.  This has been in place for hundreds of years.  Valdez changed all that here in the U.S.  It actually took an act of congress to override international maritime law and make Exxon liable for the cost of the spill.  Once that happened the liability costs of operating a cargo shipping line in the U.S. became too high and they all moved to Monrovia, Panama, and such.


----------



## editec

*



How do pirates take over such huge ships?

Click to expand...

* 
*Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaar, matie! **Dunnie ye know that:*

_it ain't the size of pirates' ship in the fight, it's the size of the fight in the pirates' ship?_


----------



## Rightwngcrkpot

The issue goes way beyond mere piracy:  Somalia is a hotbed of Al Qaeda activity and has been for years. My guess is that the hijacking of these ships is for the sole purpose of raising money for Al Qaeda, and if that is true, it makes the piracy issue one of grave international concern.

Now - will any nation (or for that matter, The UN) have the testoserone to go in there - do the right thing - and clean house? When pirates along the Barbary Coast plundered international shipping in the early 1800s, The United States Marines went in there and kicked their pirate asses and put them out of business.

RWC


----------



## Epsilon Delta

RetiredGySgt said:


> Rightwngcrkpot said:
> 
> 
> 
> Time to arm those ships - otherwise they are sitting ducks. Now I realize that Obama and Company would oppose arming these ship....well, for the same reason the libs opposed arming commercial airline pilots, and for the same reason they want to close Gitmo:
> 
> "Terrorists have rights!!!!!!      Bawwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww!
> 
> 
> RWC
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Well Obama wouldn't have much to say about it, you see few ships are American Flagged at all. Costs to much for most companies to flag in the US.
Click to expand...


That makes sense. In fact, wasn't this particular one they hijacked flying the Danish flag? Maybe the prates didn't know who they were messing with... OAIShdAPSODIHDSo.


----------



## editec

Those guys aren't much interested in supporting ARabs who think of them as non-humans, methinks.

What source can you direct me to that will show me they are Alquada operatives?

My sources tell me something very different than that, but I'm always willing to learn something new.


----------



## Epsilon Delta

Rightwngcrkpot said:


> The issue goes way beyond mere piracy:  Somalia is a hotbed of Al Qaeda activity and has been for years. My guess is that the hijacking of these ships is for the sole purpose of raising money for Al Qaeda, and if that is true, it makes the piracy issue one of grave international concern.
> 
> Now - will any nation (or for that matter, The UN) have the testoserone to go in there - do the right thing - and clean house? When pirates along the Barbary Coast plundered international shipping in the early 1800s, The United States Marines went in there and kicked their pirate asses and put them out of business.
> 
> RWC



Hmmm.... Yeah, I dunno, it would make sense for Al-Qaeda to be doing SOMETHING there,  since there's that big Islamic Fundamentalist uhhh... party? guerrilla? quasi-government? Fuck I don't even know what it is. The Islamic Courts or whatever. I mean, it might not be next to Afghanistan, but I'd imagine a huge chunk of land next to the middle east with no government would be a hotbed for terrorist recruitment. But then, I don't know if the pirates are associated with them, maybe they're just pirates. Got any links?

As for no nation having the testosterone... well, I'm sure you remember the Battle of Mogadishu. Hell, not even the Americans managed to stick around. In fact, I've heard that it was that sort of thing that emboldened Bin Laden, and he's always saying that Americans are weak once the body bags start coming, that they can't stomach conflict, etc. But fuck, I mean, there were 160 people in the US side (some Malaysians, Pakistanis, and Italians too) against 4,000 militias? Goes to show that you have to go in strong or not gone in at all. Afterall, America is the superpower... it CAN pretty much quash any objective it chooses, but it's gotta get that internal support. 

I mean, you say not even the UN, but that's obvious. The UN can't do anything... it doesn't have an army! The UN can only do as its members states allow. So if no nation has the 'testosterone' to deal with the problem the only solution is to get MANY nations to do it co-ordinating through the UN. That way it's more fair... Americans shouldn't have to shoulder the full responsibility of cleaning that place up. Once we FINALLY agree to do something about Somalia it should be a whole international force (but a real one, one that can actually tame the goddamn place), and you know, most likely its gonna need a mini-Marshall plan once the mess gets cleaned up. 

I know- it won't come cheap, but it's gotta be done eventually. We might as well go halfs.


----------



## xotoxi

I'm not sure how effective they actually are, but I think the concept of a sonic cannon is pretty cool!

Long range acoustic device - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


----------



## editec

cbi0090 said:


> editec said:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> RetiredGySgt said:
> 
> 
> 
> Well Obama wouldn't have much to say about it, you see few ships are American Flagged at all. Costs to much for most companies to flag in the US.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Yeah, they might have to pay the crews a living wage.
> 
> But hey, don't worry about it.
> 
> Americans will inevitably pay to protect those ships anyway.
> 
> That's what Americans are good for.
> 
> Paying to protect everybody's interests_ but their own._
> 
> Click to expand...
> 
> 
> It wasn't wages that ran the shipping industry out of the U.S. It was Valdez. Maritime law has never held any ship liable for anything more than the value of the vessel and it's cargo. This has been in place for hundreds of years. Valdez changed all that here in the U.S. It actually took an act of congress to override international maritime law and make Exxon liable for the cost of the spill. Once that happened the liability costs of operating a cargo shipping line in the U.S. became too high and they all moved to Monrovia, Panama, and such.
Click to expand...

 
Where do you get this crap?

American Maritime industry was dying long before the Exxon Vadez incvident.


----------



## Indiana Oracle

Agree with RetiredGySgt on the how.  Thing is we cannot let them get away with this when direct US interests are connected with the ship. I think The Prophet's crowd is handling things well btw.


----------



## WorldAHope

Rightwngcrkpot said:


> Time to arm those ships - otherwise they are sitting ducks. Now I realize that Obama and Company would oppose arming these ship....well, for the same reason the libs opposed arming commercial airline pilots, and for the same reason they want to close Gitmo:
> 
> "Terrorists have rights!!!!!!      Bawwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww!
> 
> 
> RWC


They are private vessels, not government or military. And they are from many nations, sail under many flags. Did you know that? Yes, you probably did, but that does not stop you from passing out another sneering comment.  
Obama did not decide, does not decide to disarm those private international vessels, nor did he or does he decide to keep them unarmed. No matter how many times you lift up a cheek and let your ridiculous comments leak out from your opinion hole, you are wrong. Every time. Amazing.


----------



## WorldAHope

xotoxi said:


> I'm not sure how effective they actually are, but I think the concept of a sonic cannon is pretty cool!
> 
> Long range acoustic device - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


Cool cannons. Can they be made to emit melodic blasts, like very loud skull shattering 
"Greensleeves", or "Inna Gadda Davida" ? 
I'll see it I can get one of those to bring to a Tea Party. 
For protecting shipping, they could be purchased with proceeds of an international Stimulus bill. 
Or would that be construed by NOsers as interpork ?


----------



## xotoxi

*"How do pirates take over such huge ships?"*

Pirates are wily.


----------



## WorldAHope

xotoxi said:


> *"How do pirates take over such huge ships?"*
> 
> Pirates are wily.


They don't always target large ships (some guys just love going after the big fat ones....), they target just about any possible ransoms.  In that area, the piracy has spread away from the more heavily patrolled Straits to less protectible open ocean shipping lanes. 
Big problem. Lots of money to protect those important shipping routes. Last count there were more than 60 naval ships from several nations on patrol in that area, and more US navy supply ships in support of the patrols. The US has been picking up most of the tab, so far.
This incident will cause the piracy problem to get a lot more attention, fast. 
Who votes for a good sized invasion and occupation force being sent into of parts of Somalia                    again ?


----------



## WorldAHope

WorldAHope said:


> xotoxi said:
> 
> 
> 
> *"How do pirates take over such huge ships?"*
> 
> Pirates are wily.
> 
> 
> 
> They don't always target large ships (some guys just love going after the big fat ones....), they target just about any possible ransoms.  In that area, the piracy has spread away from the more heavily patrolled Straits to less protectible open ocean shipping lanes.
> Big problem. Lots of money to protect those important shipping routes. Last count there were more than 60 naval ships from several nations on patrol in that area, and more US navy supply ships in support of the patrols. The US has been picking up most of the tab, so far.
> This incident will cause the piracy problem to get a lot more attention, fast.
> Who votes for a good sized invasion and occupation force being sent into of parts of Somalia                    again ?
Click to expand...

Hostage dies as French attack Somali pirates - CNN.com

updated 23 minutes ago

*
Hostage dies as French attack Somali pirates*

(CNN) -- A French hostage and two pirates died Friday in a rescue operation off Somalia, the French president's office in Paris said Friday.
The luxury yacht, Tanit, was captured by pirates off Somalia last weekend.

The luxury yacht, Tanit, was captured by pirates off Somalia last weekend.
Four hostages, including a child, were freed from the hijacked yacht after almost a week of captivity, Nicolas Sarkozy's office said.

The French military decided to move in when pirates refused their offers and increased threats against the hostages, it said.

A defense ministry source told CNN the pirates were threatening to execute their captives.

The four adults and a child had been held aboard their yacht, the Tanit, since it was seized in the Gulf of Aden on Saturday, the president's statement said.


----------



## eots

ItsFairmont said:


> I've been up close to those container ships.  How in the heck do a bunch of pirates in a motorized skiff pull up alongside of and stop a ginormous freighter doing 20 knots?
> 
> Very confused.  It seems as though the guys on the freighter would be laughing from 10 stories up, and it also seems the pirates would be easy targets for a couple plinkers on deck of the freighter.
> 
> Am I missing something?  (obviously).



they only go about 8 knots and are essentially floating coke cans...and when traveling with a load the deck is surprisingly close to the waterline..


----------



## mightypeon

Rightwngcrkpot said:


> The issue goes way beyond mere piracy:  Somalia is a hotbed of Al Qaeda activity and has been for years. My guess is that the hijacking of these ships is for the sole purpose of raising money for Al Qaeda, and if that is true, it makes the piracy issue one of grave international concern.
> 
> Now - will any nation (or for that matter, The UN) have the testoserone to go in there - do the right thing - and clean house? When pirates along the Barbary Coast plundered international shipping in the early 1800s, The United States Marines went in there and kicked their pirate asses and put them out of business.
> 
> RWC



I would suggest you to read up a bit of history, than awnser with the nation which actually did most of the final anti Barbary pirates fighting. Hint, its an European nation that stayed where the Barbary pirates are coming from until after WW2.


Apart from that, the barbary pirates where defeated by telegraph poles.

The US stopped beeing targeted a lot even earlier, since Portugal and England had something of a join effort to seal off Gibraltar.

By the way, 90% of the somalian pirates will have better things to do with there money than giving it to Al-Quaida.


----------



## Peejay

Put a bounty on the heads of the pirates.  

Deploy decoy vessels,  loaded with armed mercenaries.

Form an international blocade off the Somalia coast.

Mine the coast line.  


There are a lot of things to do,  short of an invasion of Somalia.


----------



## krotchdog

How do pirates take over a huge ship, you wait until its safe, you wait until the most liberal democrat president ever, obama to take over, you watch to see if he bows to the king of saudi arabia, if obama bows, you know he is one of you and that he will cede authority to the king of saudi arabia, once you see those signs you know its safe to take over the ship.


----------



## Rightwngcrkpot

_From the jungles of Somalia to the shores of Tripoli -
We will kick some pirate asses - and we'll do it with much glee!
We will throw them to the sharks for bait - just to hear their mournfull screams - 
And will teach them a hard earned lesson from The United States Marines!!!_


RWC


----------



## cbi0090

editec said:


> cbi0090 said:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> editec said:
> 
> 
> 
> Yeah, they might have to pay the crews a living wage.
> 
> But hey, don't worry about it.
> 
> Americans will inevitably pay to protect those ships anyway.
> 
> That's what Americans are good for.
> 
> Paying to protect everybody's interests_ but their own._
> 
> 
> 
> 
> It wasn't wages that ran the shipping industry out of the U.S. It was Valdez. Maritime law has never held any ship liable for anything more than the value of the vessel and it's cargo. This has been in place for hundreds of years. Valdez changed all that here in the U.S. It actually took an act of congress to override international maritime law and make Exxon liable for the cost of the spill. Once that happened the liability costs of operating a cargo shipping line in the U.S. became too high and they all moved to Monrovia, Panama, and such.
> 
> Click to expand...
> 
> 
> Where do you get this crap?
> 
> American Maritime industry was dying long before the Exxon Vadez incvident.
Click to expand...


True, as we became less and less of an exporter our maritime industry became fewer but what really brought the hammer down was the change in liability and the precedent set by the Valdez incident.  If Valdez had been a Russian tanker, do you think they would have paid for the clean-up?  International maritime law would only have allowed us to sue for the value of the ship and its cargo.


----------



## user_name_guest

The reason why they can get onto freighters from their boats because they have high verticals.  Just check the NBA and you can understand why.


----------



## sealybobo

Rightwngcrkpot said:


> _From the jungles of Somalia to the shores of Tripoli -
> We will kick some pirate asses - and we'll do it with much glee!
> We will throw them to the sharks for bait - just to hear their mournfull screams -
> And will teach them a hard earned lesson from The United States Marines!!!_
> 
> 
> RWC



Can you imagine how bad Bush or McCain would have fucked this up?  

Who am I kidding, just like during the surge when Bush paid the Sunni & Shiite insurgents billions of dollars to stop shooting our boys.

The surge worked my ass!  How about caving into and paying terrorists worked.

And actually, I don't see them as "terrorists".  The Sunni's and Shiites in Iraq were fighting for their own freedom.

McCain would have flown in and he would have crashed his airplane and ended up a POW in Somalia for the next 5 years.


----------



## Iriemon

krotchdog said:


> How do pirates take over a huge ship, you wait until its safe, you wait until the most liberal democrat president ever, obama to take over, you watch to see if he bows to the king of saudi arabia, if obama bows, you know he is one of you and that he will cede authority to the king of saudi arabia, once you see those signs you know its safe to take over the ship.



You are confused.  Obama took office in 2009; Bush was president before that.


----------



## krotchdog

ItsFairmont said:


> I've been up close to those container ships.  How in the heck do a bunch of pirates in a motorized skiff pull up alongside of and stop a ginormous freighter doing 20 knots?
> 
> Very confused.  It seems as though the guys on the freighter would be laughing from 10 stories up, and it also seems the pirates would be easy targets for a couple plinkers on deck of the freighter.
> 
> Am I missing something?  (obviously).



Ya, your missing something, your brain, I cannot imagine a question any more stupid, thats why I did not take the time to explain to fairmont the many different ways to scale a wall while your buddys cover your climb with Ak-47's

Iriemon, uh, duh, uh, thanks for uh.......the history lesson, uh, duh

I see why you post like a moron in my thread, I forget my post over here. 

So to answer your question first lets break it down to its basic form

Fairmont asks basically, how do I climb a wall. On second thought if I told you, you would get out of your baby crib and than little fairmont would get in all kinds of trouble.


----------



## Missourian

> Their decision to abandon the vessel that their company was paid handsomely to protect attracted some criticism. One Western aid official in the region told _The Times_ that after calls for commercial vessels to hire security guards, it was &#8220;somewhat ironic that they jump overboard to save themselves&#8221;.
> 
> Their British employer, however, insisted that the three former soldiers were heroes who had resisted a sustained attack by heavily armed pirates with great courage and would have been killed if they had stayed any longer. &#8220;They were unarmed. They had no other option. As far as I&#8217;m concerned they deserve a medal,&#8221; said Nick Davis, a former British Army pilot who runs AntiPiracy Maritime Security Solutions (APMSS) out of Poole, Dorset. *Mr Davis said his guards were unarmed because it was almost impossible to carry firearms through Customs and on to vessels in most countries*, and because ships with cargoes of chemicals or gas seldom allowed weapons on board. The ship concerned, the Liberian-flagged tanker the _Biscaglia_, was carrying a cargo of palm oil.


 
British and Irish anti-piracy experts rescued - after pirates attack - Times Online (site has pop-ups)


----------

