Sea Captain Safe!

[trysail]

30 October 2011

David Cameron has announced that ships sailing under a British flag will be able to carry armed guards to protect them from pirates.

In an interview with the BBC's Andrew Marr, the prime minster said he wanted to do more to tackle the threat to ships off the coast of Somalia, where 49 vessels were hijacked last year.

It is currently illegal for security guards to carry arms onboard British flag ships, but Mr Cameron said he intended to change the law.


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-15511343

 

[voluptuary_manque]

About damned time!

 

[oggbashan]

The small print in David Cameron's announcement is that there are very few ships actually sailing under a British Flag and small arms aren't much use when pirates have RPGs.

It is much cheaper for ship owners to flag their ships in Liberia, or...

Before WWII all British merchant ships had to be built so that a 4" gun could be mounted fore and aft. When WWII came, there weren't enough 4" guns. Doh!

A 4" gun, even a reconditioned WWII one, would sink any pirates long before they came within range to use their own weapons. More modern naval guns would be far more effective.

If piracy became an occupation with over 50% fatality rate, piracy would stop.

 

[voluptuary_manque]

The small print in David Cameron's announcement is that there are very few ships actually sailing under a British Flag and small arms aren't much use when pirates have RPGs.

It is much cheaper for ship owners to flag their ships in Liberia, or...

Before WWII all British merchant ships had to be built so that a 4" gun could be mounted fore and aft. When WWII came, there weren't enough 4" guns. Doh!

A 4" gun, even a reconditioned WWII one, would sink any pirates long before they came within range to use their own weapons. More modern naval guns would be far more effective.

If piracy became an occupation with over 50% fatality rate, piracy would stop.

You wouldn't even need something that large. Given modern range-finding and fire control, something as small as a 20mm rapid fire cannon or even an updated Browning .50 cal machine gun would send the pirate speed boats to the bottom in acceptably short order.

 

[CarlusMagnus]

Before WWII all British merchant ships had to be built so that a 4" gun could be mounted fore and aft. When WWII came, there weren't enough 4" guns. Doh!

Why should there have been enough 4" guns? There wasn't enough of anything else.

 

[Handley_Page]

You wouldn't even need something that large. Given modern range-finding and fire control, something as small as a 20mm rapid fire cannon or even an updated Browning .50 cal machine gun would send the pirate speed boats to the bottom in acceptably short order.

Good point. The Mini-Gun or the 0.5 inch Browning automatic. I saw a video the other day of one with explosive bullets; made a real mess of the target.

 

[R. Richard]

It's not realy a lack of weapons, it's the lack of legal authority and willingness to use the weapons available.

 

[voluptuary_manque]

It's not realy a lack of weapons, it's the lack of legal authority and willingness to use the weapons available.

Legal authority? Hell, they're on the High Seas. Legal authority consists of what the captain does. It's all those sissy port authorities who won't let armed civilian ships port that are preventing a sudden end to the piracy problem.

 

[oggbashan]

Egypt won't allow merchant ships carrying armed guards through the Suez Canal.

Guess where most ships hijacked by Somali pirates are heading to or from...


The Suez Canal.

 

[trysail]

Hollywood was paying attention !


​

It's not going to be necessary to pay pirate ransom in at leasst one case. Comment?

Official: US sea captain freed in swift firefight

MOMBASA, Kenya (AP) - An American ship captain was freed unharmed Sunday in a U.S. Navy operation that killed three of the four Somali pirates who had been holding him for days in a lifeboat off the coast of Africa, a senior U.S. intelligence official said...