Do you think the Merchant Navy should be rearmed?

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[Darryl]

Hello
Enlight of the current large scale threat posed by pirates in different areas around the world and the statement released by the head of the NATO task force in the Gulf of Aden, stating that they were unable to fend off every attack made on a merchant ship in that area alone. Do you think that merchant vessels should be armed and allowed to fire on pirates if their ship comes under attack?

[sadsid (†2016)]

No it should be left to the navy giving people weapons do'es not make things better
as far as i know they are quite happy to steal the ship and not harm crews.
But if they arm crews and the firing starts how many deaths then .
                                                                               Eric

[Darryl]

unfortunatly that is not always the case. Do not make any mistake these guys do not care about the crews, fact of the matter is, the crew is a hinderance to these guys while they are alive. Yes they are worth a bit more as hostages but the fact of the matter is, many sailors go missing, I would much rather take my chances with a weapon that take my chances on a savage hospitality.

Do you not think?

[JHB]

They have already been firing on the pirates and some of the pirates was killed. So yes, keep on firing, and FN, UN, NATO or whatsoever have a job to do when it comes to world poverty and starvation that makes people find other ways to get money,..trough crime.

[Darryl]

so you believe it should be rearmed?

[RMSGreatBritain]

Heres my answer: No. Giving people guns causes death. fact.

[Sam]

I allso agree, I don't think people on board a ship should have weapons.

I think, weapons shouldn't be allowed on a ship.


I allmost finished highschool and want to study for nautical sciences, not how to handle a machine gun.


B.TW: Ships can allready defend theirselves with water hoses.
Their are standard procedures wich the crew should follow when pirates are comming near the ship. Then they use water hoses on weak points to keep the pirates at a distance.
And a lot of ships have a panic button for when pirates come aboard.

Weapens will only cause more deads. On both sides.

[IRI5HJ4CK]

As Sam said above, I also want to go into the Merchant Navy, And I don't want to be trained on how to use a weapon/gun. I do understand your view, but, I don't think it should be up to any of the crew/captain/officers to to be shooting people if pirates come aboard, or attempt to come aboard.

Again, I support Sam with the fact that using something more "milder" like the water hoses. Until the Navy can arrive and deal with the situation. But even so, it still puts the crew under threat of being shot by the pirates themselves. Very hard to deal with a situation like this. Although, from what Terry said in my other topic, the pirates don't harm the crew?

Just my opinion.

Jack.

[Minime]

I just think they should fill the pirate areas with navy ships and destroy every single pirate boats they see

[Second Mate]

well said minime, my preference would be to have our navies patrol these areas & deal with the problem, after all that's what they are there for.

jacks idea of hoses is interesting, perhaps some kind of high pressure drenching device around the gunnels could be fitted. not sure how effective it could be, maybe as a last ditch, non violent resort.

to fight pirates, all mn personnel would need to be involved & i'm not sure they (& me along time ago) would feel comfortable firing real guns & killing people.

Jet

[CaptainMike1]

Many passeneger ships are fitted with these:

http://www.audionation-uk.com/page13/page13.html

Very effective they are too!!!

Mike

[saltydog]

How about sloped decks, so that the grappling hooks slide off..?
And plexiglass on the outside of the railing, of course..
The top of it would have a breaking point of 30 kg, with a trigger-wire in it to set off an alarm..

[CaptainMike1]

How about sloped decks, so that the grappling hooks slide off..?

So would sailors!!

[MrFlappy102]

Here's my idea, have a central radio command and arm the ships. But before they can fire they must tell the command what the situation isd and get permission to fire on the pirates. And for the sake of saftey if the command has not replied after 10 minutes they can fire on them in non-leathel locations but not kill them.

[JHB]

They don't need crew with guns when robots and automatically installations can do the same.
And ships got radars don't they, or are the pirate boats so small that they cannot be detected on radar?

LRAD looks cute!

[pirateybob]

Pirate attacks vary quite alot. I've read countless reports, many of them attempting to engage crew in conversation, or pretending to be in distress. It depends on the quality of the Radars as to whether they will be seen, and the quality of the officer on watch. We usually had difficulity with small fishing boats on radar, but the ones who didnt want to end up at the bottom of the ocean kindly provided lights at nighttime so they were visible. I've only been chased by pirates once, and they gave up after about 20 minutes, think 25 knots and a 13 metre freeboard might have sent them off for a nice easy bulker. Witnessed one attack, 2 high speed fishing boats went alongside a ship underway. Fortunately for them a US destroyer was in the area and responded on the VHF. Pirates must have had a radio aswell, they didnt stick around for long. Both these incidents were in the Gulf of Aden and Arabian sea.

Pirates are well organised, and have much the same equipment as a ship has in terms of communications and navigation. A vessel may only have an officer on watch and maybe a lookout in the middle of the night, when everybody else is asleep. It is very easy to miss a tiny fast moving target on radar.

As for the issue of being armed, I couldn't have imagined our puny water hoses doing much except give them a nice refreshing shower. Weapons, primarily guns, would most likely increase the risk to the crew. Perhaps the crew could successfully repel an attack, but what if they don't? The pirates would, i reckon, be much more willing to kill the crew if they had tried to kill them.

My two pence anyway.

[IRI5HJ4CK]

Pirate attacks vary quite alot. I've read countless reports, many of them attempting to engage crew in conversation, or pretending to be in distress. It depends on the quality of the Radars as to whether they will be seen, and the quality of the officer on watch. We usually had difficulity with small fishing boats on radar, but the ones who didnt want to end up at the bottom of the ocean kindly provided lights at nighttime so they were visible. I've only been chased by pirates once, and they gave up after about 20 minutes, think 25 knots and a 13 metre freeboard might have sent them off for a nice easy bulker. Witnessed one attack, 2 high speed fishing boats went alongside a ship underway. Fortunately for them a US destroyer was in the area and responded on the VHF. Pirates must have had a radio aswell, they didnt stick around for long. Both these incidents were in the Gulf of Aden and Arabian sea.

Pirates are well organised, and have much the same equipment as a ship has in terms of communications and navigation. A vessel may only have an officer on watch and maybe a lookout in the middle of the night, when everybody else is asleep. It is very easy to miss a tiny fast moving target on radar.

As for the issue of being armed, I couldn't have imagined our puny water hoses doing much except give them a nice refreshing shower. Weapons, primarily guns, would most likely increase the risk to the crew. Perhaps the crew could successfully repel an attack, but what if they don't? The pirates would, i reckon, be much more willing to kill the crew if they had tried to kill them.

My two pence anyway.

Thats very interesting to hear, right from someone that has been attacked by pirates. One thing, does this only happen around the Gulf Of Aden, or does/can this happen further our way too?

Jack.

[pirateybob]

The Gulf of Aden is the hotspot at the moment. I'm not sure if there's been an attack in European waters for a fair while, although the mediterranean has seen acts of piracy, and the altantic just to the south of the gibraltar straight. There was an attempted hijacking outside liverpool last year, but that had been the first one in 200 years, and it wasn't successful http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/article612298.ece
There is a live piracy map, linked to google earth, which shows the location of attacks. As you can see they're focused around the Gulf of Aden. Sporadically around the East coast of Africa, the odd one or two around India and Sri Lanka, and a whole bunch in the Malacca straight, although this has reduced considerably due to vessel reporting.

Piracy Map:
http://www.icc-ccs.org/index.php?option=com_fabrik&view=visualization&controller=visualization.googlemap&Itemid=89&phpMyAdmin=F5XY3CeBeymbElbQ8jr4qlxK1J3

I'll see if i can dig out some piracy reports. They make quite interesting reading.

[Darryl]

guys I am aware that some of you were in the merchant navy, possibly some of you are in the Merchant Navy. However a lot of the comments posted are made by guys not in the Merchant Navy. Fact of the matter is guys the world is not all sunshine and showers at sea. The work is dangerous enough for these guys as it is. Fact, pirates do fire rounds at almost every ship they wish to board. Fact, in some cases the crew have went missing and so has the ship. Fact these guys do not care if they do not get a ransom because all they have to do is take that ship into one particular port in Somalia and the whole ship, its crew and its cargo are gone. Ship can be re-registerred, crew can be killed and the cargo can get the pirates a nice amount of money.
Fact the Merchant Navy is at war with these guys because our governments cannot give more resources to the forces already in Pirate areas and the Gulf of Aden is only one of many throughout the world.
These guys know that Merchant ships are not armed and that is why they attack them.
The point I am trying to make here guys is that piracy is on an increase and unless drastic actions are taken to enable the crews to defend their ships and indeed their lives, the possibility of them being taken by pirates will almost certainly always be a high risk.
Many guys I have spoken to which serve in the MN do have their own reservations at the fact that they have water and these guys have bullets. I also believe that if some of you went out there to see what it is like you might change your mind.
(this is not meant to offend anyone I just cannot understand why it is that people do not see the fact that these pirates have guns and fire hoses do not stop bullets)

Darryl

[vadokunvot]

This piracy thing is realy awfull and as Daryll said, water does werry little agains guns.
Heard on the news that the Royal Swedish Navy is planning to send warships to the African east coast.
Dont know when or how many but I gues that they will send a couple of fast corvettes.
What other countrys have navyships in this areas? Think Denmark have some ships of the Somalian coast.

[Thomas_88]

I think that merchant navy should be armed. When pirates were raging in Caribbean the only thing to stop them was to attack pirates home ports and arm the merchants.

One thing to stop piracy could be convoys. Maybe 10-20 ships should be assigned to 1-3 warships and warships would escort them through piracy area...

I think that if the piracy would be stop completely someone should attack ports that supports pirates, though that would be war declaration to Somalia...

Something should be done..