Captain Phillips

[BoyNextDoor]

Watching it on HBO.

Four dummies in a speed boat? For real? How hard would it be to put a small armory onboard so the crew can use it for douchebag repellent?

 

[SkAoUt]

A merchant sailor's going to risk his life for some non essential cargo? Yeah, right. You must be one hell of a company man.

More like hire mercenaries to guard the freighter. Possibly better anti piracy measures. Remote control water cannons, tear gas, flash bangs, rubber bullets etc...

 

[doowdniw]

A merchant sailor's going to risk his life for some non essential cargo? Yeah, right. You must be one hell of a company man.

More like hire mercenaries to guard the freighter. Possibly better anti piracy measures. Remote control water cannons, tear gas, flash bangs, rubber bullets etc...

How about risking his life for his life and the lives of his fellow crewmen? And to hell with rubber bullets - bring on the live ammo. Pirates are more about ransoming the crew and ship than they are about stealing the cargo. As soon as they fire a shot...sink the lot.

 

[trysail]

How about risking his life for his life and the lives of his fellow crewmen? And to hell with rubber bullets - bring on the live ammo. Pirates are more about ransoming the crew and ship than they are about stealing the cargo. As soon as they fire a shot...sink the lot.

Merchant sailors are civilians. They're not trained (nor are they interested, for the most part) for combat.


Without that training, they'd be just as likely to shoot each other as boarders.




​

 

[Amberchgo]

It was political. Most ports would not allow ships to dock if they were carrying armed soldiers. That's been changing.

 

[Skiddles2014]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ESFFFW0B64I

 

[Cumference]

The pirate attacks have dropped drastically ( and those that are attempted have failed bloodily in most cases) since the ships started having armed guards* aboard.

But now the criminal infrastructure is established, and they will probably adapt and find new sources of income.





*if they do not junk themselves to death.
And it happened on the very same ship.

 

[SkAoUt]

How about risking his life for his life and the lives of his fellow crewmen? And to hell with rubber bullets - bring on the live ammo. Pirates are more about ransoming the crew and ship than they are about stealing the cargo. As soon as they fire a shot...sink the lot.

They're merchant sailors not military sailors. Different training/mentality.

Breaking out live ammunition can escalate tensions. Sure one ship makes it through. Killing a few pirates along the way. The next ship through doesn't have the same quasi military mercenary force and all of a sudden the game has changed and its an eye for an eye... You've got 3 crew murdered in front of the rest, thrown overboard, everyone is scared shitless and the pirates are hungry for more vengeance...

Its a commercial shipping firm ffs not a navy. Though the un is encouraging more anti piracy activities. http://allafrica.com/stories/201311200113.html

 

[IWonderWhy]

I see no reason why the Captain and his officers are not armed. Sailing into that part of the world without any kind of protection is just stupid. Even a few armed guards with Hand Grenade launchers, give them a warning and if they dont take it just blow there boat out of the water and let God sort them out

 

[Skiddles2014]

The pirate attacks have dropped drastically ( and those that are attempted have failed bloodily in most cases) since the ships started having armed guards* aboard.

But now the criminal infrastructure is established, and they will probably adapt and find new sources of income.





*if they do not junk themselves to death.
And it happened on the very same ship.

In Somalia they have a stock market for attacks.

If you like it, you can invest in it.

 

[Cumference]

I see no reason why the Captain and his officers are not armed. Sailing into that part of the world without any kind of protection is just stupid. Even a few armed guards with Hand Grenade launchers, give them a warning and if they dont take it just blow there boat out of the water and let God sort them out

Do you base this on a Hollywood movie? Do you read the news sometimes?

The ships have been bringing armed guards for quite some time now, and it has made the number of attacks, and especially the number of successful attacks plummet.


An interesting sound bite is by the way:
"In the United States alone, the National Cargo Security Council estimated that between $10–$15 billion were stolen from ports in 2003, a figure several times higher than the projected global cost of piracy"





By the way: "Hand grenade launchers" went out of fashion after WWII. They are inherently dangerous for the user, have limited range and even more limited accuracy. To some extend they are still used to launch riot control munitions at larger than normal throwing distance.
They are used in Libya now.... saying more about the Libyan approach than about usefulness.
Adding fins to the hand grenades like the US did it with the "M1 Grenade adapter" helps a bit, but not much.
Dedicated launchers like the Russian or NATO 40mm types are a lot better, but to have any effect on on a pirate skiff, you would either need to score a direct hit or use time- or proximity fused grenades.
Shooting a slow projectile from a moving platform against a small moving target, while the target is returning fire, is not an easy job.
Bringing high explosive munitions along on a civilian vessel raises further complications.

If you had followed the news, you would see, that the guards typically use semi- or full-auto rifles (in the good old boooooring standard calibres).
To make boarding difficult, razor wire and fire hoses are added along the sides of the ship.

Warning shots on the distance typically make the pirates abort the attack, realizing that the ship is not an easy catch.
Should they press through, boarding a large ship at high speed, making your way through razor wire while receiving aimed small arms fire from above, really is not what the occupational safety board would prefer you to do.

 

[Cumference]

In Somalia they have a stock market for attacks.

If you like it, you can invest in it.

Yup.
If it has value, the money men are ready to invest in it.

An interesting article from The Economist:
http://www.economist.com/news/middl...somali-piracy-financed-more-sophisticated-you

 

[LiFeNdEaTh]

lol..

 

[Aphro]

Saw it, and all I could think was that every old lady and nutbar in America has a gun, just in case someone farts near them, but the guys on the big ship in the middle of an area known for pirate attacks...they have water cannons. WTF.