Pirate Problem Solved - Attack The Pirates

Don't you find it hard to believe it has taken this long for the crews and owners of ships that must traverse pirate infested waters to choice to fight back - and why haven't they armed that ships and crews with automatic weapons? Destroy the attackers before they even get close to the ship.

Oh sure, I know - it wouldn't be fair - after all, the pirates are in the water in small boats and the ships crew have to much of an advantage firing down on these poor souls. They're probably just victims of America's foreign policies forced on the world by that horrible George Bush.

If only we could sit down and have a meaningful dialogue with them, and explain that we just want to get along, maybe we could solve this problem without bloodshed. How cool is that - we can all, in the end, be friends.

Keep the faith - get on board, the battle is joined!

Fighting From the Stern Castle
Posted By James R. Rummel On March 13, 2009

In Crime and Punishment, Law Enforcement, Military Affairs, Transportation

Venturing out to sea on boats during the bad old days of Viking culture was tantamount to suicide.Their longboats were marvels of engineering. Shallow draft so they could travel up rivers, yet also able to operate in the open ocean, they were the perfect craft for lightning commando raids. They were also fast enough that they could catch any ship the Vikings could see, using oars for propulsion while larger ships were at the mercy of the wind.

If a band of Vikings set their sights on taking a ship, there wasn’t anything the merchant skippers of the day could do to prevent a screaming group of northmen from swarming aboard. But then some nameless genius, or more likely a group of geniuses, came up with a brilliant idea. If it was impossible to prevent the Vikings from boarding, why not build ships where the crew could fight them after the pirates were on deck? This simple concept led to a ship known as the Cog, or cog-built ships.

Ironically, the general design was adapted from the Vikings own merchant vessels, but there were two changes that proved to make all the difference. The European ship builders constructed little wooden forts in the front and rear of the ship. They called these wooden castles the [4] “stern castle” for the one in back, and the “forward castle”, or “fo’c’sle”. Quaint names that echo with past blood and terror. The idea was to let the Vikings come aboard if they so chose, while the crew retreated to their forts. The pirates would be out in the open, vulnerable to any sort of attack, while the crew fought from relative safety.

These new tactics by their former prey created problems for the Vikings that they never did manage to overcome. The best they could do was tie a bunch of longships together, forming a sort of floating roadblock to the merchant ship, and using the combined Viking crews to try and overwhelm the defenders through sheer numbers. The increased casualties that came from assaulting prepared defenses meant that going a-viking was nevermore as much fun as it used to be.The merchant crews, even if faced with overwhelming numbers, would often refuse to surrender, and fight to the death.

Word had gotten around from the few survivors and escaped sailors that managed to make their way back home that slavery, misery, and painful death awaited anyone who was captured alive by the Vikings. There just wasn’t any reason to give up.

I’m going over ancient history with you because It seems that the same tactics first developed to deal with berserk Norsemen coming over the side also apply when faced with modern day pirates.The crew of a Chinese merchant ship named the Zhenhua 4 managed to keep some pirates off the coast of Aden from taking their ship last December. When beset by armed gunmen in speedboats, the modern equivalent of Vikings in a longship, they took action.“The resolute crew retreated to their living quarters and called for help. As the pirates came aboard, the crew fought back with fire bombs and fire hoses, and refused to come out of the living quarters. The pirates fired at the crew, and were apparently perplexed at what to do.

Meanwhile, a nearby Malaysian warship dispatched a helicopter, which shot at the pirates and caused them to flee in their speedboats. The crew of the Zhenhua 4 patched up the bullet holes and resumed their voyage. “Ships are still built with raised areas to the rear, leaving an area of open deck. This is to make it easier to load and unload cargo, as well as for open air storage while the ship is under weigh. But it also leaves the pirates with little cover if the crew decides to barricade themselves in the stern castle and fight back.The weapons were most assuredly different from those used by the sailors manning the Medieval cogs, with fire hoses and fire bombs instead of arrows and boat hooks, but the result was the same.

It is ironic that the old ways, the ancient tactics, have been rediscovered in this age of high tech marvels. The main difference seems to be that communications have become essentially instantaneous, with the skipper of the Zhenhua 4 using the radio to call for assistance. It seems that the Internet is also taking a role, informing other crews that are at risk as to their options.“The Internet have proved an invaluable tool for ships planning for the Aden run.

Everyone knows of the measures used by the Zhenhua 4 and the North Koreans, but there are many more ideas that have not gotten much coverage in the mass media. For example, crews now make more use of the fire hoses, and collect large objects (sheets of metal, junked furniture and empty boxes) to be heaved overboard onto the pirate boats. Poles are fabricated for pushing away ladders pirates often use to get aboard. The captains and crew members on the Internet exchange techniques for training crews, and preparing “repel boarders” drills.”Notice, if you will, that even the lowly boat hook is enjoying a renewed popularity as an anti-piracy tool. Besides steel hulls and firearms, I really doubt that a 10th Century sailor would be all that out of sorts if they were called upon to repel boarders.

The crews of modern merchant vessels are held for ransom by the pirates, so they are not made into slaves like in days of old. But, even so, most find that coming under the control of armed pirates to be less than a happy experience, and the sailors who went through that ordeal are eager to spread the word.“Sailors that have been aboard captured ships, and spent months in captivity, relate what that experience was like, and let other sailors know what to expect. This encourages the merchant ship sailors to pay closer attention to the drills and techniques to be used to avoid capture in the first place. “The biggest value of resisting is to buy time so a warship can intervene.“These efforts by the crews have led to nearly 250 pirates being captured, in the past six months, by warships that often show up.”As Alphonse Karr once said, “Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose.”(Cross posted at Hell in a Handbasket.)