What are some steps that could be taken to end the hijacking of ships in 2008. Couldn't traps be set and just sink the hijackers as they came out? Couldn't cargo ships hide some "Special Armed" personnel to give the raiders a little surprise when the got close? This way only actual hijackers get hit and not just any groups of arm people driving around in boats. It's interesting that a Jordanian-flagged vessel was released. Why couldn't smart weapons just happen to fall on where this vessel was released from?

Are these ships making bad choices in the route there using? Maybe there doing things that others may not approve of and really shouldn't in the area in the first place. I guess what I'm saying badly am I missing anything here?


Dutch ship 'hijacked' off Somalia


A Dutch cargo ship is reported to have been hijacked by pirates off Somalia.
The MV Amiya Scan, with a crew of nine, was seized after leaving the Kenyan port of Mombasa on 19 May, reports say.
The ship is believed to have been bound for the Romanian port of Constanta, said Andrew Mwangura of the Seafarers' Assistance Programme in Kenya.
More than 25 ships were seized off the Somali coast last year, despite patrols by an international maritime force based in Djibouti.
"The ship was hijacked in international waters in the Gulf of Aden," the ship's owners, Dutch Reider Shipping, said in a statement sent to AFP news agency.
It said the crew were four Russian officers and five Filipino seamen.
Mr Mwangura said there had been no ransom demand as yet.
On Friday, Somali pirates released a Jordanian-flagged vessel they had hijacked a week before.


Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/h...ca/7420858.stm

Published: 2008/05/27 01:56:04 GMT

© BBC MMVIII

Link
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7420858.stm

Can't they get it? Just stay away from the Somali waters or give the trusty crews and captains to have a machine gun like .50 Browning or something.

One would think after 25 ships that avoiding this area would be a smart thing to so. And what about these patrols by an international maritime force based in Djibouti does anybody know about them? I would assume this international maritime force is small and ill equipped to cover hundreds and hundreds of miles of ocean. My point is lets deal with the source of these Somali pirates and setup bait ships as targets. Not only deal with them on the ocean where modern weapons might be brought to bare but also monitored where they come from and hit shore targets as well. Couldn't some eyes in the sky watch them all the way back and just as the boat or boats are docking hit them with nasty standoff weapons. This way you get the pirates on the boat, the boats used themselves, and the people throwing them the rope to tie up the boats after a good night works. Do this six or seven times and I would assume less people wanting to be pirates? 25 ships just seems like too much sort like if you don't turn on the light you might walk into a wall. I guess a lot is based on this international maritime force based in Djibouti which I know nothing about.

Perhaps the key to copy the the old WW2 commerce raider practice of disguising heavily armed ships as merchant ships and giving them free reign in the pirate infested areas.

Remote controlled ship strung with high explosives. Better yet, outside of hull lined with claymore.

I'll go with Monty's idea.

Originally Posted by rock45

Couldn't traps be set and just sink the hijackers as they came out? Couldn't cargo ships hide some "Special Armed" personnel to give the raiders a little surprise when the got close?

The nasty truth is that the ship's and cargoes are insured, and shipping companies see little or no benefit in paying for any form of protection as they already pay insurance.

I did a number of voyages through pirate infested waters, and no shipping company that I know of will do any more than advise skippers to rig firehoses, and have all but one outer doors welded shut from within. Only small amounts of cash are kept onboard and crews are advised to just sit it out, do as the pirates want and hope you aren't killed.

Biggest issue with arming the crew is in international waters it's good to go. In national waters the crew can be breaking so many laws that it's not even funny.

Best way would to protect the ships is arm and train the crew to repeal borders or have a number of patrol craft escorting the ships. Monty's idea would also work. Arm the Merchant Marine like when they were armed during WWI and WWII.

But as I said the main issue there is national waters. At least if it's done under the flag of a foreign government then it would be like a naval force and not a bunch of civilians armed.

senojekips - The way you described makes it sound like the problem isn't going away anytime soon. I guess just being a civilian I just can't understand how this happens on the worlds oceans in 2008. I know enough about aircraft, radar, eyes in the sky, and other assets to know that if a effort was made that these pirates could be tracked. In most cases if you can track something it becomes a target and targets can be taken out. I guess like you said the ship's and cargoes are insured so why bother. It just seems so wrong to me and it doesn't seem like enough is being done. I still like my bait idea.