Somalia pirates taking ships- where was the on-board security?

[MD]

I'm somewhat amused and puzzled by the latest topical news story of Somalian pirates seizing giant ships with tens, and hundreds of millions of dollars worth of cargo. Lets not forget the value of the ship itself.

I find it hard to have sympathy for the ship Owners who must have known ;
a. the value of their ship plus its cargo was ...massive! And surprise, surprise attractive to pirates.
b. 30 odd ships hijacked this year alone in the region they are going through

If you were transporting diamonds or valuable artworks across town worth $182m wouldn't a normal business go to great measures to protect the merchandise? Armed guards a minimum measure. So why send a ship into danger of hijacking with only 25 seaman to look after it. Seaman who were by the sounds of it unarmed and untrained in warfare/security/self defence.

Weigh up the cost of $182m cargo PLUS the new ship itself valued at $160m, against the wages for a dozen well trained, well equipped Mercenaries - a bit of a no brainer to me. The loss of income alone from the ship being 'unavailable' would pay for a hundred well armed guards a day easily.

Surely there is radar technology around these days that can detect small vessels approaching and weapons capable of blowing a few dingies out of the water before they take 5 minutes clambering up crappling hooks?

Just all seems hard to comprehend to me. Maybe they are expecting Peter Pan to help them.

[98tls]

Have to say i wondered the same when i saw that.Black hawks to oil tankers,skinnys are doing well.

[Indiana_Jones]

UN & IMO Policy is not to defend with weapons etc (as they believe this will piss off the pirates and they will butcher the crew should they get onbaord)

They promote using water canons etc to ward them off & to keep a good watch.

As far as Using Radars to pick up small vessels, it could be done if they had small radars on the bow and stern of the vessel of that size, but ship owners won't pay for it (though you'd think they would considering the worth of the cargo/ship) also, with only 2 MAX on the bridge at night (one OOW and an AB/IR) it could easily be missed on a RADAR etc.

-Indy

[Trumpess]

Somalia is un-Governed country so no-one can can help there via governments.
I did read today though that there are French, Saudi and American war ships over there near the Arabian Sea.
I wonder how long it takes for them to act when a ship from their country is attacked.
The specialized shipping lane that runs up the coast patroled by Nato aint protecting anything due to the sophisticated equipment the pirates have.

Seeing as Somalia is un-governed country, does this not mean any twit can go in there and insight war freely?

Seems the solution is slapping them in the face really.

[Trudes]

Glad you started this thread and asked the exact questions I had MD! Would be very interested to find out more.....

[portokiwi]

You get what you pay for. A lot of those firms will not pay for security, They hire staff for very poor countries to crew on very little wages.
Been there done that I had my pay cut in half 6 months after I started all F/Ns were classed as 3rd country so we had the option..... take the cut or pay our own way home.
Thats when I changed to close protection. better job and better pay.
In Dubai you see it everywhere. indians, and a huge contengent of philapinos work there on very poor work standards. But much better then what they would make back in the homes so they do it.
The tanker crew will be the same.

[Trudes]

So a bit like servo attendants, minimum wage, shit work conditions, no way are they taking a bullet for a couple hundy cash and a few cartons of ciggies. Fair enough. So boohoo to the owner of the oil, but it's a bit shitty considering what the money from the stolen oil will be used to buy.

[Hitcher]

I am surprised that commercial ships, such as tankers, don't have a "panic room" where the crew can abscond and operate the ship remotely while Long John Silver et al wander around looking for mischief. All ships' systems are electronic and shouldn't need to be operated from a bridge. GPS, radar and CCTV should provide more than enough resource to put a vessel into a slow circle whilst mayday messages are broadcast.

[avgas]

Surely there is radar technology around these days that can detect small vessels approaching and weapons capable of blowing a few dingies out of the water before they take 5 minutes clambering up crappling hooks?

An weapons that automatically fire when ever such radar devices are turned on. Damned if you do, damned by pirates if you dont.

On the other side of the fence, say the system works really good - what happens when you oblitterate a the males in the local village who were out fishing for their kids.

Also by the sounds of things these "Pirates" are not as simple as they would make you believe.

[MD]

I am surprised that commercial ships, such as tankers, don't have a "panic room" where the crew can abscond and operate the ship remotely while Long John Silver et al wander around looking for mischief. All ships' systems are electronic and shouldn't need to be operated from a bridge. GPS, radar and CCTV should provide more than enough resource to put a vessel into a slow circle whilst mayday messages are broadcast.

That is a good ideal and so obvious and cheap. You should work for a shipping company! Plus taking precautions like that gives you a bargaining power to reduce the current Insurance hikes these Ship owners are bleating about. Doh. I have little doubt that the cost of a dozen soldiers on board would be a fraction of the insurance premiums to cover $342m.

I just watched the Close up story on this. The Sirius Star was totally un armed! Well bugger me. Value $342,000,000 versus cost of a dozen guns. Or run the highly likely risk of having to pay tens of millions in ranson, only to see your ship later re-flagged and sold after you pay to supposedly get it back = priceless stupidity.

And yes the expert on Closeup showed us they can see small run-abouts quite clearly by 3km out. he said by then it's probably to late. WHAT? 3 km and approaching doesn't give them enough time to send a distress signal, alert the crew, get armed men in positions and the crew to a safe room. Maybe they better add a gym to the ship to get the crew in better shape.

Currently these Pirates - ex-fisherman most of them, have 13 large ships hijacked. Something doesn't add up here.

Does anyone have the email or phone number for Peter Pan? Or maybe Flipper can help these clowns out.

[CM2005]

there's one answer to this problem... that answer is miniguns.

[Finn]

I am surprised that commercial ships, such as tankers, don't have a "panic room" where the crew can abscond and operate the ship remotely while Long John Silver et al wander around looking for mischief. All ships' systems are electronic and shouldn't need to be operated from a bridge. GPS, radar and CCTV should provide more than enough resource to put a vessel into a slow circle whilst mayday messages are broadcast.

Before a ship even touches water, it can be brought and sold many times on the futures market. It is not uncommon for this to happen several times dependant on market conditions. Very rarely does a shipping company own ships. They lease them.

In all this carry on, I guess that that panic room was over looked.

The ship owners don't give a damn about the ship, the cargo or the staff (within what their insurance allows) so it's business as usual.

However, like that smart Japanese general once said "You have not achieved victory today, you have awoken the sleeping giant" or words to that effect.

You don't fuck with the Saudi's.

Interesting fact: That ship contained the oil for 1/3 of the world's DAILY use. Wow.

P.S. I'm drunk

[riffer]

Call me a conspiracy theorist, but me - I'm left wondering if someone wants the price of oil to go back up again.

[jrandom]

Call me a conspiracy theorist.

OK, you're a conspiracy theorist.

My rule: never attribute anything to malice that can be adequately explained by stupidity.

[wayne708]

mmmm miniguns, some good footage on youtube of those little beasties.

Problem with taking an attack to these pirates is they will proberbly have some sort of hand held missile, which, if you piss them off they could sent into the ship at the waterline, then you have more of a problem than you started with. Ship should carry it's own Apache helicoper to keep the little fookers away.