Comments on: The Sunday Sermon – Pirates.

By: Gildas

Gildas — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 14:50:54 +0000

Thanks for the “heads up” Peter!
G the M

By: Peter

Peter — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 14:28:11 +0000

For an indepth look at the Somali pirates, see the forthcoming book, Pirate State: Inside Somalia’s Terrorism at Sea, available for preorder @ Amazon.com.

By: Chalcedon

Chalcedon — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 11:51:35 +0000

The captain should have taken action, then contacted the media, then contacted the MoD. At least that way, when he got the sack for acting like a Royal Navy Captain, public anger would have had him reinstated. Politicians should not be phoned up for a yes or no under such life or death circumstances. It is up to the captain or it damn well should be.

By: Tom

Tom — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 20:06:33 +0000

Caveat emptor indeed – I would hope they did a real risk assessment…

The real problem is lack of decisive action – prophylaxis (convoys) and intervention (the French/Russian model) must be ramped up.

Simply put it’s too easy. Take their toys away. These boys use technology – mobile phones, sat phones, SSB radio, VHF radio, the Internet – that’s supposed to be our game and we should be able to comprehensively stitch them up. They don’t stooge around randomly. Entrapment is a valid tool – go fishing, bait the hooks……

By: passat21

passat21 — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 06:53:28 +0000

I hold no brief for piracy whatsoever, but does anyone know why the Chandlers were sailing in waters that are clearly known to be populated with pirates, Caveat emptor anyone?

By: Tom

Tom — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 00:46:35 +0000

As somebody floating around with an escort vessel in a dodgy part of the world, doing my job I have some experience and , well, a vested interest in this issue so to speak…

Economic issues like the unprincipled and destructive fish mining alluded to in the comments and moribund agriculture are obvious contributory factors. Somalia is a hellhole with nutters running large parts of the asylum.

However, why do people do bad deeds? The rewards and the unlikelihood of being caught must be fairly high on the list of priorities?

Most of the “liberal” western gubmints have no stomach for confrontation- these sleazeballs know that – they are not total fools.

I agree with the commenter who said “flatten the villas” – I’d add destroy all their boats not fitted with tracker … every last one of them. Replace the boats with items with built in tracker devices (you’ll have to take my word that a very reliable tracker with a 5 year life is now cheap as chips ~$150)

Anybody found within 1000km (or over boundary medians) without a valid tracker can have their vessel seized and get themselves dumped unceremoniously on the nearest part of the Somali coast as a sop to humanitarian concerns…

The situation :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ships_attacked_by_Somali_pirates_in_2010
cannot continue.

No way

By: Hysteria

Hysteria — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 23:18:00 +0000

yip……would only have to happen once or twice and the bad guys would get the message

By: Ancient and Tattered Airman

Ancient and Tattered Airman — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 18:39:14 +0000

Why are we pussy-footing around? Exterminate the vermin whenever seen by whichever Navy finds them.

By: Brian

Brian — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 18:35:29 +0000

And how would the kidnappees be protected from the volley of armour-piercing or high explosive 30 mm rounds?
I’m in favour of paying the ransom to secure the Chandlers’ release and then decommissioning the breathing ability of the Somali pirates’ Mr Bigs. Then I would sink the foreign factory fishing ships that hoovered up all the fish off the Somali coast and made the long-established but niche business of piracy the only viable, albeit highly risky, career choice for many former Somali fishermen. A similar thing happened off West Africa (mainly Spanish boats) causing Africans to attempt to enter Europe for work.

By: Brian

Brian — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 18:12:11 +0000

Or not, as our ships have 4.5″ guns.

By: Fascist Hippy

Fascist Hippy — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 17:14:13 +0000

Take my hat off to the Russians on this one, all nations should do the same.

By: Hysteria

Hysteria — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 16:29:42 +0000

how does it go? “for evil to triumph , it is only necessary for good people to do nothing”

Does anyone seriously doubt that a guaranteed “robust” response from our armed forces would influence the pirates, not necessarily in a way that would make them more bold?

By: Subrosa

Subrosa — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 16:10:51 +0000

I’m not going to comment about the Navy because I have little or no understanding about their stance on this matter, but perhaps one of my readers will have time to explain. The rules will have been inflicted by the Righteous. These people who have no concept of liberty and freedom. Sadly, where the Chandlers are concerned, matters have been stalemate for some time now and I don’t see the coalition lifting a finger.

By: Spartan

Spartan — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 15:20:52 +0000

“However, not only did the Wave Knight track the Kaja Wajar (they were alongside for a time), it had sufficiently weaponry to make it reasonably clear that its presence was not welcome in the form of 30 and 50 mm cannons. Not enough to sink it, but enough to cause serious consternation.”

Slight under-statement there Here’s the Wave Knight herself … 30mm Cannon being fired.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uEClpu2tzgY

By: WitteringsfromWitney

WitteringsfromWitney — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 14:02:26 +0000

Never mind the pros and cons against a helicopter attack, etc etc – may I suggest a far simpler solution?

Blow the Somali ships out of the bloody water!

By: Joe Public

Joe Public — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 13:49:12 +0000

Storming a pirate ship from a helicopter is fraught with danger.

Look at the bloody-nose some Israelis received when boarding the Gaza-aid ships ‘protected’ by demonstrators armed with nothing more vicious than table legs & bottles.

Defenders armed with firearms would inflict far-greater damage.

By: Ed P

Ed P — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 13:39:02 +0000

The Somalian coast is now littered with expensive villas, bought with the ransom monies. They are inhabited solely by the pirates – ordinary (poor) Somalis are not nearby & hostages are kept inland.
The Royal Navy probably need some gunnery practise, so I suggest a few dozen 4″ shells after the next act of piracy should do the trick.

By: PT

PT — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 13:31:55 +0000

Sarbanes Oxley, I agree with you. What is the Royal Navy for? If it’s not allowed to protect lawful users of the sea against violent and armed criminals, and can’t or won’t protect even its own personnel, then the cuts in expenditure on the armed forces should fall there. It’s shameful that we have to rely on the Russians as an example of how armed forces should be used.

By: Brian

Brian — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 13:09:18 +0000

All the best British pirates were employed as privateers by the Crown in times of war. Same job, except it was no longer a crime for the duration.

By: Sarbanes Oxley

Sarbanes Oxley — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 12:52:32 +0000

Which all begs the question why do we bother to have a blue sea fleet at all if it is not prepared to deal with enemies of British trade and British National.

We may as well just have an ‘Irish Navy’ protecting the Straits of Dover.

The general pussy footing was up for the world to see when the Iranians took a boatload of our ‘sailors’

I had to deal with an incident thirty years ago when one of our Engineers was locked up in Sanaa. The FO were distinctly uninterested, and the delivery of used twenties in a brown paper bag eventual had the desired effect. (whoops of course we are not allowed to do this now of course, otherwise you get extradited to the US)

Hardly the Nelso touch these days when we have more Admirals than ships.