Monday, September 22, 2008

Pirates! No Kidding!

The swords have been replaced by automatic weapons and rocket-propelled grenades.

From an article in The American Shipper (click here for complete article)

"While the word "pirate" may still conjure up romantic images among the general public, he said Somali pirates plying the Gulf of Aden are dangerous criminals who are heavily armed with everything from automatic weapons to rocket-propelled grenades.
The International Maritime Bureau, the lead recording body for piracy, estimates that more than 1,200 Somalis and at least six major groups are involved.
Ten ships are currently being held and the industry fears for the seafarers on board. Hinchliffe said that as pirates have apparently met success in extorting ransom for vessels and seafarers, their numbers seem to be growing and they are investing in better weapons."


Apparently the Danes sent in a warship which captured some of the pirates. Of course, there is a pretty big Danish Shipping Company, Maersk Sea-Land (although I suspect they will be dropping the Sea-Land part very soon). Oopppss...my bad.
They already changed their name back to just Maersk.

I just hope no one expects the Americans to try and retake ships from pirates.
We tried that in 1975 just at the end of the Vietnam war. The Mayaguez incident. We didn't do a very good job, and lots of people were killed and injured. By the way, the Mayaguez was a Sea-Land vessel.


Shipping companies have a couple of options if their ships normally go through the Gulf of Aden.

1) They can go another route, which will add to the voyage time.

2) They can buy additional insurance coverage.


Either one will cost the carriers more money. If you ship to or from this part of the world, expect a new "pirate avoidance" surcharge. I suspect the official name will be security surcharge.

Update, Tuesday, 9/23

Todays Journal of Commerce reports the U.S. Navy confirms they cannot fight this piracy.

2 comments:

Lisa Olga said...

More insurance? Avoiding the dangerous lanes? I don't think that those are answers when say, it's a ship -full of WFP grain for a starving nation - delivering aid to an East African nation.

US Navy ships have been and will continue to be involved in saving lives and cargoes from piracy in alliance with navies of may other nations. More power to them all.

Check out a good blog about the whole situation here: http://piratebook.blogspot.com/

Whilst I am more than willing to take potshots and lob zingers at Maersk; it's helpful to understand that when it comes to piracy it is lives as well as assets and cargo in the balance.

Lynda Applegate said...

Jean
You make a very valid point regarding the food aid ships.

I was thinking of ships and yachts just passing by.

The food aid shipments have many problems, not just getting into the port, but also once the cargo is unloaded. I will try to write something about this in a later blog.

Thanks for reading my blog, and for your comments.

Lynda Applegate