The Rise of the Pirates
A suspected pirate mother ship , the Burum Ocean. If you see her, beat to quarters, send a distress signal, and full speed ahead! Pirates seize a Saudi tanker, three times the size of an aircraft carrier (!), with 2 million barrels of oil headed for the U.S. She's brand new, and fully laden, and with British citizens aboard, and the fact it actually affected the price of oil this morning, you can bet a big reaction is coming.
Meanwhile, attacks on shipping are now coming almost daily. The M/V Faina is STILL being held, with its cargo of Soviet tanks suspected of being for the Sudanese government- an instance where you might be tempted to root for the pirates. I'm beginning to suspect that the reason she's still sitting there is that everyone else realizes that the safest place for a bunch of tanks in the Horn of Africa is aboard a pirate prize-ship.
Somali pirates are now the subject of a NYT photo essay.
"Pirates, pirates, pirates," said Gure Ahmed, a Canadian-Somali inmate of the jail. "This jail is full of pirates. This whole city is pirates."
Meanwhile, the world's navies have opened a protection corridor, and last I read it included the U.S. Navy (Fifth fleet), Russia, India, Kenya, Denmark, Britain, and now, with a new incident, Korea, which is, in itself, an absolutely remarkable example of international naval cooperation.
Amazing then that the incidents seem to be going up, the pirates' resources and daring only growing. How big is it now? No Wii for you! It's around the Cape of Good Hope!
The IMB Piracy reporting center latest info is here (I admit that I think this is really cool.)
And now the award for most traditional pirates this week:
- 05.11.2008: 0300 LT: Posn: 03:40.8S - 114:26.7E, Taboneo anchorage, Kalimantan, Indonesia.
Four robbers armed with catapults, knives and hacksaws boarded a bulk carrier at anchor. They threatened the duty crew with catapults and stole ship's stores from forward locker. Alarm raised and ship's whistle sounded. Robbers jumped overboard and escaped in a wooden fast boat. Incident reported to coastal authorities.
Catapults?
posted by JAB at 9:47 AM
2 Comments:
It'll end in tears, mark my words. I kinda noticed that the U.S. isn't exactly timid about destroying anything and anyone who messes with its oil supply.
This attack was blue-water, far out at sea. All their robot-electro gear and the world's very expensive navies dropped the ball yet again, outclassed not in equipment, but in tactical imagination.
This morning, the Sirius Star is anchored. Now we've got a serious problem- and we can't blow the floating oil field up, it's kind of full of oil.
Note that the U.S. and British navy are being repeatedly SURPRISED by pirates, made to look a pack of damned fools by a pack of ragamuffin knaves and cutthroats.
Speaking as pretend First Sea Lord, I am rather disappointed in the Navy vis-a-vis the pirates. If China sends a gaggle of zodiacs across the Taiwan straight will our fine navy be running about like a bunch of sea-ninnies, waving their arms and hooting like a bunch of loons?
Shape up or Ship Out!
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