This is a four day posting and written off the southwest coast of India. Earlier this year, the Indian Coast Guard stopped an attack in this area on the CMA CGM Verdi. The pirates’ mother ship was destroyed and fifteen pirates arrested.
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Back in the Gulf of Oman, we were again in the high risk pirate zone. No going on the main deck, watches doubled and crew reacquainted with the 'safe room'. This happens as we learn of an attack in the Gulf of Aden through which we passed less than a week ago.
We descend into the ship.
In the engine room, Third Officer Frederick Villanueva waits to direct us.
Past the engine and down a very long passageway.
Finally, we crowd into the 'safe room' (which, as this is a public blog, I won't specify), our last, desperate refuge in an attack. With luck, there'll have been time to disable the engine; then we better pray for swift military intervention before the pirates find our hiding place (where I would not want to be for very long at the best of times).
The captain lectures us: absolutely no resistance once captured; if you don't understand pirates' orders, lie face down on the deck with hands clearly over your head; don't look them in the eye as this will be seen as a challenge; cooperate when possible. Hostages face psychological and, increasingly, physical torture. And remember, with little excuse, they will kill you.
Let's review the situation in the Red Sea, Gulf of Aden, Arabian Sea and Indian Ocean: much water - about two million square miles or ten times the size of Germany; many pirates; not enough naval vessels; insufficient global will to eradicate the problems in Somalia; mainly Third World seafarers are affected and some shipping companies accept an occasional ransom as the price of business.
I've found some pertinent 19th Century thoughts on pirates. In 1866, James Lawrence was aboard U.S. Navy ship in the Far East:
"Of late many of the merchantmen trading with this part of the world have begun to carry a few small pieces of cannon, and a supply of small arms with which to defend themselves; these, the pirates seldom molest, and whenever they do they are sure to get worsted." (China and Japan, and A Voyage Thither James B. Lawrence 1870)
Later in the century, Stanley Lane-Poole summed up the problem in the Mediterranean:
"(The pirates) were not likely to reform, especially as the choice lay between piracy and starvation." (The Barbary Corsairs Stanley Lane-Poole 1890)
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Where's a nice Force 6 or 7 when you want it? The Indian Ocean is calm and the horizon clear - pirate weather.
