Why aren’t the ships traveling through the troubled waters off the cost of East Coast of Africa not employing security details to protect them from pirates. I’d be willing to be on one of those teams (for a fee). Are there maritime laws that prohibit commercial ships from having armed security?
Wouldn’t it be cost? I heard that the going rate for a security specialist is down from the $200k figure from a few years ago (no I was not looking), but that still aint cheap, how many would you need on a boat? At least 5?
I see an opportunity for a new Magpul DVD set of instructional videos!
IIRC from my time in the USCG there are prohibitions against commercial ships being armed. Also, many shipping companies and insurers would rather pay a ransom than pay for full-time or contracted security.
What needs to happen is we need to go after them in their hideouts on land and tear them up. If we hit them with sporadic airstrikes and have a maritime stake out of the areas where they originate, it will be very difficult for them to get underway or get resupplied. The other thing we need is surgery to get our balls sewn back on, but that is a different issue.
Money and the legal issue the US Navy and MSC ships are covered but a civilan ship employing hired guns not worth it the money and the leagal implications if something were to go wrong. The men on the ships arnt worth as much as the cargo in the eyes of the compay.
The Captain of most merchent shipping vessles will has a pistol in the safe.
We could just bomb Somalia off the face of the planet.
That would work for me.
More pirates = less global warming. It’s a basic tenet of pastafarianism.
Ramen.
Arrgh! I’m sending you all to Davy Jones Locker!
M_P
Ahhh, you have been blessed by his noodly appendage.
Negative on the prohibition on commercial ships. They are free to lock & load, from a legal standpoint. All bets are off on the policy of the boat owner.
The solution for this problem has been around since Nov 10 1775 .
SEND IN THE MARINES!!! and keep them there this time.
I know its not going to happen but thats what the Marines are for.
does that apply in foreign ports, too, though?
this thread reminds me that i have not been to “the spaghetti warehouse” in awhile. i gotta get back there for dinner soon…it’s pastafarian heaven. 
I’ve got a buddy that’s deployed with 151 right now and he is complaining about just how huge the patrol area is and the fact that by the time the reach the trouble spots, the pirates are long gone.
These aren’t a bunch of skinnys in a raft. These are well funded and equipped pirates working for crime syndications (my guess, Russian). They’ve got inside info on maritime shipping schedules, routes and manifests. It’s too much of a coincidence that the ships getting hit have “interesting” cargo. (weapons or food, for example.) Also, too coincidental that they know exactly where they are (and the naval ships aren’t)…
Listening to the radio last night, it was reported that the area these pirates are operating in, is roughly four time the size of Texas. The Navy Commander (Ret.) on that program said that a sea based operation against them is next to impossible. May of the pirates operate from mother ships, that look like normal fishing vessels. The only way to combat these pirates, according to him, is to attack them on land.
I will reluctantnly admit, that the show was Jim Bohannon’s America In The Morning. (JimBo is definitely no friend of the 2nd Amendment). His guest was Retired Nay Commander John Patch.
Last year, I just happened to read the book; Jefferson’s War: America’s First War on Terror 1801-1805 It is a pretty good read. It was frustrating to read how the American Forces kicked but over in present day Libya, only to have Congress end the war and pay tribute to the pirates that the Marines had just defeated.
Hmm, I wonder where the money comes from…
What needs to be done will never be done as long as Barry The Kenyan is in the WH…
He will simply monitor the situation and take credit if it goes good and tell the world how sad he is if it goes bad…
:mad:
Correct…somewhat. The crew of the vessels I believe cannot carry weapons, but there is nothing that I’ve read, that says the merchant companies can’t hire PMCs for security.
Please correct me if I’m wrong.
IIRC some companies were doing that fairly recently in the other pirate haven- the Straits of Malacca. The gov’t of Singapore I believe said that they were not going to allow PMC’s to operate in their waters. I think there have been other countries with similar sentiments.
I got a friend working maritime security… unarmed. They use water hoses and axe handles. Not my idea of a good gig.
When the pirates start killing people, things will change.
From what I have seen numerous times, the logic appears to be that if you arm the crews it will only heighten the chance of catastrophe when pirates attack. In other words, don’t do anything to really piss off the aggressors, or they might shoot even more RPG’s at you…:rolleyes:
Could this same horrendously weak logic be used against owning a firearm to defend ones’ home? Or against arming commercial pilots? Even armed contractors operating in a hostile zone?
It is beyond lame. Just arm the fu*king crews already. Not rocket science, just common sense dictated by circumstance.