| Piracy Watch
* 23rd Jan 05, 3:40am at Panjang Port in Indonesia, 3 robbers armed with
long knives boarded a tanker at berth. Duty officer raised alarm and crew
mustered. Robbers jumped overboard and escaped empty handed in speedboat.
* 19th Jan 05, 1:35am at berth no.2, Rio Haina port in Dominican Republic, 2
robbers armed with long knives boarded a tanker during cargo operations.
Duty officer raised alarm and robbers jumped overboard and escaped.
* 16th Jan 05, 1am at Haiphong anchorage, Vietnam, several robbers boarded a
general cargo ship at forecastle and stole ship's stores and escaped in an
unlit boat.
* 14th Jan 05, 4:30am, Nanjing anchorage, China, 3 robbers
boarded a chemical tanker and broke padlock on a locker and stole safety
equipment. Alert crew raised alarm and robbers escaped in a speedboat.
* 13th Jan 05, 3:50pm, Pulau Laut anchorage, Indonesia, 4 robbers armed with
guns and long knives boarded a bulk carrier at forecastle. Alert duty
crewman raised alarm and crew mustered. Robbers stole a life raft and escaped
in a speedboat.
* 12th Jan 05, 10:45 am, off Oman, Arabian Sea, 4 masked
pirates in 4 white-hulled speedboats attempted to board a container ship
underway. Alert crewman raised alarm, crew mustered and activated fire hoses
and master took evasive maneuvers. Pirates aborted attempted boarding and
moved away.
Source - ICC - International Maritime Bureau |
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Pirates
Below are some questions I have been asked:
I enjoyed reading stories of
adventure on the high seas. Many of them were about pirates. Are there any
pirates nowadays?Piracy on the high seas
is not dead! According to recent report, the piracy menace has become so
bad that it may be a topic in the United Nations General Assembly.
From my experience, whenever a ship approaches a well known piracy area,
all the crew are put on the alert and extra surveillance watches may be
organized on the deck. Water is discharged at the anchor so that it
becomes slippery and so discourages pirates from climbing through the
anchor chain. All the fire-fighting hose lines will be pressurized ready
to shoot at anyone found climbing up the hull.
I am not sure whether this is effective, but I have not found any pirates
boarding the ship by doing these.
I should think that modern day
pirates have guns. What good is water against the guns?
Referring to the question of water against guns I
would agree that there is no match. It is therefore very important not to
let anyone board the ship in the first place. The lookouts play a very
important role here. The ships, which are higher, have the advantage here.
It is not like in the old days of sail, when the pirate ship will also
depend on the wind and is just as big. The modern day pirate comes in
high-speed boat, which is much faster than a cargo ship.
Incidentally, pirates like to attack in areas, which are narrow, when the
ships have to slow down. However the incidents of pirate attack has been
reported, and many of the areas have been identified as pirate prone.
It is just like the Bermuda Triangle or the Devil's Sea. I think they are
identified on the navigation charts as places to avoid.
Anyone out there knows anything about the Bermuda
Triangle and the missing ships and airplanes? Any Explanation?
I gathered that there were some supernatural forces at work there. It
seems that the area was a disaster area during the slave trade of negroes
from Africa. A lot of hardship and black magic. Recently do you hear any mysterious disappearance? I think not. I think
there were some exorcism being done.
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