Pirates?

July 4th pirate attack
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/5143858.stm

 

Anti-pirate weapons

:idea: I found a site a few years ago, futurehorizons.net, that has plans for making Nitrogen Triiodide, which can be diluted and formed into balls to fire from paintball guns. I'm not sure how explosive it would be once diluted like that, but it could possibly help to defend against a small pirate vessel. If that's not your style, try the ruby laser pistol in the space age weapons section.
Also, check out amazingone.com and spyhq.com
If you use any of this stuff, stow it and use it as your own risks, legal and physical. I just found some of it interesting as possible defensive measures against pirates.
Cheers,
Matt

 

The Real Deal

Well before I came into the business of boatbuilding, I used to be a professional mariner. I last sailed with Chevron shipping (back to the yanks!!). Well pirates have always been a menace to the conventional shipping industry. However rarely did we hear of them getting violent during the earlier days. Things have changed drastically since those days. Now these guys have boats which are fully equipped with the latest modern communications & navigation stuff (wonder who builds these boats for them). I've been chased once by a pirate boat & have gotten boarded once by pirates. However the more interesting of the stories was when I was chased. The one when we were boarded was at a Bangladeshi port of Chittagong in 1996. There were a bunch of petty thieves who got onto our car carrier & we raised & alarm & threw hammers at them when we discovered them. They jumped overboard & swam to their wooden canoe. The other story where we were boarded was quite fascinating. I was a second mate on watch on a VLCC in 1997. We were passing the Singapore & Malacca Straits (which until this day Im told happens to be the worst pirate infested waters in the world). This was the time when the Indonesians were burning forests in the Island of Sumatera to create more open land (this too has been debated many a times). Well these forest fires fires caused a hell of a lot of smoke & people in neighbouring Malaysia & Singapore died of smoke inhalation. Schools were off & kids were taken away to save them from the smoke. The point to this is that visibility was pretty bad (now thats an understatement). So here we are plowing through the waters & at 2 in the morning I see something on my radar screen I dont like. It s a very fast echo moving in excess of 35 knots heading straight for our stern. The echo was about 2 miles off on our radar screen. I figured this is probably a test for me as a navigating officer & tried to go out & looksee. Tough luck there. Visibility was less than a quarter of a mile. I told the quarter master to keep a thorough lookout toward the stern with sight & hearing. In the meantime I went & rang the general alarm bells. It was quite disconcerting for quite a few of my fellow shipmates I guess. Well we immediately swung into action & locked up everything from inside. The pirate boat was almost astern of us now & still we couldnt see anything from the bridge wing. We were calling the VTS on the VHF & the IMB (anti pirate guys) on the phone to report the incident. Well we lost the boat on the radar & still no visual sign of the enemy. Thunder strikes when we heard a gunshot from the bridge wing. I presume the bullet must have missed the quarter master not by much. We all run inside & locked ourselves up even on the bridge. I altered course very sharply towards the starboard side where they had shot from to try & scare them away. How can you scare someone you cannot see. Well needless to say things got pretty tense. But thankfully nothing really happened after this. The pirates may have realised that this ship was too much trouble & left. Moral of the story. They have guns. Also from regular reports we got from the IMB they had modern VHFs etc. On top of that if they were tracking us from more than 2 miles away at 0 visibility they sure as hell have radars. So the present world of piracy is a very different & dangerous one. Theyll stop at nothing. Id write more but my fingers are hurting now. I have been a sailor. Typing is not my forte. Well do come & visit me sometime at www.fispl.com I have a lot more stories. Check out my website in the process too. Will write more interesting experiences later.

 

coast guard chases pirates on a raft!

You can see a full size photo at this url:

http://activipedia.com/boats/rafts/coastguardraft



Enjoy!

 

personally after reading this thread i gues ill go ahead and state my opinion
1 be prepaired and know what your going to do..whatever it is
2 outside where there are places with real reaction forces my personall answer to impolite people attempting to board MY ship withou my permission, would be to get my hands on a barrett and couple of slide action shotguns in diffrent hidden gun lockers......i also happen to think keeping a small axe or long knife On ones belt is a good idea. i kind of prefer a handmade throwing axe myself. another really good sea knife/axe would be a nepaleese gurka knife
3 learn to pull the trigger or stay out of the fire.
but thats my opinion.

 

hi redsky
agree completely with your first point - thats why it is mandatory for all commercial international carriers to conduct regualar anti piracy drills under the ISPS Code. as for all your other comments it is illegal for most commercial carriers to carry weapons of any sort. at least most prudent companies don't permit due to reasons which are outside the purview of this discussion. there are however fire axes on board normally in every alleyway for fire related emergencies. help yourself to those if you will.

 

Redsky - thoughly agree with you there -and if the law sez no be prepared to dispose of weapons before they check you out - what me officer? no way I'm law abiding I am! Or get a 'flag' that does allow weapons onboard! there are some enlightened countries who allow their ships to be armed! If the law of the 'flag' says you are allowed arms onboard all you have to do is either put it under bond (ships bond locker along with the booze etc) on arrival at somewhere who doesn't or land it (also under bond) for collection before sailing from that country. they may not like it but as long as you do it properly they can't do a bloody thing - in an emergency you can always break open the bond locker - to bribe the guy? (so you got an automatic in there? why not?) And don't forget the flare gun in the wheelhouse/charthouse! a flare in the guts slows 'em all down, especially when you show the rest your second gun! he he (and of course if they've got any sense showing them the flare gun in the first place might (just) work. All go away nobody hurt (yeah right)

 

Let me get this straight you are going to fly any flag you think best.The fact that it is not your flag of registration doesnt matter????

You intend to carry a pop gun --sorry a shot gun and fire a flare at them.
We have just heard from the first officer that they tracked him with radar, they had VHF communication. They fired a weapon at the bridge that was not just a small fire arm.

These people will kill you. They do not care about dying, they are not of your religion or belief. They will kill your wife and raper her both before and after. They do not understand that you own the boat, some of these people off places like Soccotra ( the worst) dont accept that you own something, you just have it now. They will take it from you without a care and laugh and enjoy every minute of it.

I have sailed up and down the straights of Malaca in small boats many times. I have been chased , just to see who I am. They have at least 15 men on board. If they decide to take you, there is but one out come. Unless you build your boat like brick out house and arm it with anti aircraft guns you might have a chance but then what would be the point.

 

i believe you have taken things a bit wrong jack safewalrus there was only recomending that if the decision to carry arms was made registrate the boat with countrys that allow it,,,2 i did say barret did i not a barret light 50 is a semi auto rifle weight 35# 5 round box mag bipod or tripod mount caliber .50 browning, effective range 2000 meters original use anti light armor vehicle sniper at under 1000 meters said 700 grain bronz slug will go thru! a 15 meter boat the long way...dont try to shoot the guys on board shoot the dam boat. shotguns are in case. a power boat w a 700 grain slug in the engine block goes nowhere fast.
a imobilised pirate boat slowly sinking from multipal hull holes in the ocean is just one thing....bait, and personally my answer would be to broadcast in the clear their exact coordinates..and then leave and let the vipers fang each other you can just bet diffrent boat teams dont like each other at all..

 

Maybe he did, But here in the far east I have never come accross the option to bond arms in your boat. No sir,- you have to take the arms to the armement or hand them to the police. You get them back on production of your port clearance and pay for a security company to escort you to your vessel.

I used to carry a shot gun with the solid slugs that you mention. I never needed it so I sold it back to the guy I bought it off. I now use polypropelyne rope, hundreds of yards of it, about 8mm No I am not joking if I am being pursued I will lay this stuff out. It floats nicely
15 guys are shooting at you!!., behind what are you hiding,you will not have a second to pop your head up and return fire. Say you did, and you got one you only have 14 more to go. Nope I will immobilise them with my poypropelyne. I strongly believe that it is a better chance of survival ---deterent---.

 

good Idea but just killing them is my favorite

 

Just you hope there are no airboat or hovercraft pirates out there.

 

actually after some thought i can see were it works 2 bad points it can also snag up people trying to get away! from said pirates because it floats for a long time and next thing you know some spmart assed pirate will make tangle nets out of the stuff and there will be huge mats floating every damed where,,,, just better to sink their boat and them if possable.....3/8" steel hull works pretty well against everything up to .40 caliber as i recall.. and onece agian i reiterate shoot the boat , at range a boat is 20 times the target any guy is...if you screwed up and have boarders slugs gods no single 0 buck you dont want to be in a enclosed steel space with a inch thinck chunk of lead accidently whanging around inside it. plus i got one more trick caled a R/o knuckleboom sheaf crane w a folding stumpsplitter off a cat d6 bulldozer bayonet added to it.

 

The History Channel has several specials airing right now. One is on old fashion Pirates of 200-300 years ago. The other is on more moderen organized crime pirates and terrorist.

http://www.historychannel.com/pirates/

Both are worth watching.

Only 10% of piracy gets reported.

Only 1% of modern pirates are caught and punished.

The cold war kept piracy at bay, it's on a huge uprise now - corruption and poverty are root causes.

 

Jack it may intrest you to know that this particular section of the forum (Pirates et al) is populated by some interesting people who have had a few experiences with the gentlemen to who you refer - some know what they are talking about and have survived (I guess this means the 'P' people didn't)! some have even done it in the same place as you so easily sail up and down - so take heart buddy there is a way, stop being so bloody pessamistic - rearm and go hunting for bear - before it comes hunting for you!

And Yes the polyprop trick is terrific against outboards! but not the detriment of evry thing else which you seem to think - you need to have everything ready - including and especially a PLAN (or several - things change)