PIRACY ON THE HIGH SEAS - A TRADITIONAL ANSWER TO AN OLD PROBLEM - citizenstuart

PIRACY ON THE HIGH SEAS - A TRADITIONAL ANSWER TO AN OLD PROBLEM

A major news story this week (almost as prominent as the Strictly Come Dancing business) has been the hijacking of the supertanker Sirius Star by Somali pirates . The usual political talking heads have been quick to condemn this action, but a bit slow to come up with practical solutions. Sure, the areas of sea around Somalia are patrolled by various nations' navies, and they do their best (the Indians and French having done some particularly good anti-pirate work recently) but the sea's a big place and complete coverage is impossible. It's also a problem that's likely to get worse - it was bad enough when these pirates were limited to hijacking smaller craft, but now that one gang has proven the feasibility of hijacking a supertanker, how long will it be till some terrorist group has a go? Never mind ransom, imagine an oil tanker being hijacked and then either blown up or deliberately run aground in a spot where the oil spillage is likely to cause the most trouble - or a cruise liner being taken over and the crew and passengers being massacred. So, given that the military aren't going to be able to guarantee complete protection to all commercial shipping at all times, isn't it about time we went back to traditional remedies?
What did they do about pirates a couple of hundred years ago, apart from getting the navy to hunt them down and hanging them when caught? What did they do in addition to military action and the legal process? They allowed merchant ships to arm themselves. Can you think of any sensible reason why the same can't be done today? OK, the owner of your typical African fishing boat isn't going to be able to afford much in the way of defensive hardware, but even just an AKM or a shotgun or two could well be enough to at least give them a chance of scaring off any gang of scumbags who try to board them. As far as oil tankers go - well, their owners can basically afford any level of protection short of a carrier escort. Just as an example, imagine if the captain of the Sirius Star had had a locker full of automatic or semi-automatic rifles ready to distribute to his crew in case of trouble. Better still, I don't see any reason a ship like that couldn't carry a bit of light artillery, of the sort appropriate for blowing attack boats out of the water.
I'm sure the UN would hate the idea, since individual and voluntary collective action for self defence is basically against its dominant statist ideology, and gun-grabbers everywhere would faint with shock at the very thought of it.
So I don't see a downside. Unless you're a pirate.

Really, wouldn't it look nicer with a couple of gun turrets?

22.11.08 01:11

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yarb / Website (22.11.08 04:24)
I understand that some commercial shipping does traverse pirate-infested regions with a private security presence on board, but many ship owners are too stingy for that. It certainly seems the sensible option (rather than retraining merchant seamen to use automatic weapons), and no doubt marine insurers will be mandating it before long.