Saturday - May 14, 2011

A Good Week

14.05.2011: 0638 UTC: Posn: 19:13N – 060:19E, around 190nm SxE of Ras al Had, Oman (Off Somalia).
Pirates in a dhow and a skiff chased a chemical tanker underway. Master raised alarm, increased speed and took evasive manoeuvres resulting in the pirates aborting the attempted attack. There were 4-5 pirates in the skiff with ladders sighted.

14.05.2011: 0434 UTC: Posn: 08:32N – 067:53E, around 304nm west of Minicoy island, India (Off Somalia).
About five pirates in a skiff chased and fired upon a LPG tanker underway. Ship raised alarm, increased speed and took evasive manoeuvres resulting in the pirates aborting the attempted attack.

14.05.2011: 0340 UTC: Posn: 13:54.7N – 057:56.2E, around 220nm ENE of Socotra island, Yemen (Off Somalia)
A general cargo ship underway spotted a mother vessel launch a skiff which approached the ship at 25 knots. D/O raised alarm, increased speed, altered course, SSAS activated, security team onboard alerted and crew went to the citadel. The security team fired rocket flare when the skiff was at a distance of 1.5 nm but the skiff continued to approach the ship. When the skiff closed to 600 metres, the security team fired warning shots, the skiff continued its approach and the next warning shots were fired when the skiffs were at a distance of 400meters from the vessel. This resulted in the pirates aborting the attempted attack and moving towards their mother vessel.

13.05.2011: 2110 UTC: Posn: 13:10.7N – 048:37.0E, Gulf of Aden.
A small fast contact was noticed on radar approaching a container ship underway at 4nm. D/O monitored the contact and at a distance of 1.6 nm it was observed as a skiff and alarm was raised. When the skiff approached at a distance of 50 metres, the bridge team noticed 4-5 pirates onboard with a hook ladder. The onboard security team fired two shots into the skiff when the skiff close in to 30 metres resulting in the pirates aborted the attempted attack. Authorities informed.

11.05.2011: 0925 UTC: Posn: 18:42N – 059:32E: around 220nm south of Ras al Had, Oman (Off Somalia)
Pirates in a skiff armed with RPG and guns chased and fired upon a product tanker underway. Master raised alarm, took evasive manoeuvres and instructed crew to proceed into citadel. Armed security team took measures to deter boarding of pirates resulting in the pirates aborting the attack. Crew and ship are safe.

10.05.2011: 1425 LT: Posn: 25:17.8N – 058:06.8E: (Off Somalia)
Two skiffs approached a container ship. The vessel altered course, increased speed, raised alarm, crew went into citadel. There were four persons in each boat. Long rods attached with hooks and ladders were noticed on the skiffs. The skiffs followed the vessel at a distance of 1-3 cables astern. [ Drew: a cable is 100 fathoms long: 200 yards ] Later the skiffs aborted the attempt and moved away.

10.05.2011: 1100 UTC: Posn: 17:34N - 058:00E, around 235nm east of Salalah, oman (Off Somalia).
Pirates in two skiffs armed with RPG and guns chased and fired upon a bulk carrier underway. Master raised alarm, SSAS activated, increased speed, took evasive manoeuvres and contacted warship for assistance. Due to the aggressive manoeuvres, the pirates aborted the attempted attack. The ship and crewmembers are safe.

08.05.2011: 0800 UTC: Posn: 12:09.0N – 059:20.3E: around 280nm east of Socotra island, Yemen (Off Somalia).
Two skiffs with five pirates in each armed with RPG and automatic weapons chased and fired upon a bulk carrier underway. Ship sent distress message, raised alarm, increased speed, made evasive manoeuvres and deployed security team onboard and contacted authorities for help. A military aircraft was deployed. Onboard armed security team fired warning shots resulting in the pirates aborting the attack.

Unfortunately, none of them are dead or captured. But it does show that “active countermeasures” - some kind of resistance - seems to work rather well. This isn’t me cherry picking the data; this is the whole week’s worth of piracy reports, minus the two in-port burglaries, one of which was in Ecuador.

If a bit of evasion and a few warning shots are enough, just think how fast the whole damn menace would dissolve if they were actually hunted. 3 weeks, tops.

PS - if you think the following is a good approach,

Personally, with all the naval power rafting around the Indian Ocean right now, I think it’s perfect time for a UN sanctioned action. Everybody gets to shoot off some military stuff, everybody gets to watch all the other country’s navies shoot off their stuff so they judge whether it’s any good or not, lots and lots and lots of pirates get killed and sunk, and then a nice multi-national airstrike can set the entire coast of Somali ablaze, while the Russians and the Chinese run a rescue the hostages op. Which accidentally kills all those pirates just minutes afterwards. Ooopsie! Oh, and all the various navies get to see how well they can coordinate and communicate, just in case various global alliances were to shift in the near future. And then there would be no more pirates.

Posted by Drew458     on 05/14/2011 at 05:04 PM   
Filed Under: • planes, trains, tanks, ships, machines, automobiles •  
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