Landing the Big One

Landing the Big One

Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Somali Piates: Some you win . . .

A gathering of reports:

Russian destroyer captures 29 Somali pirates:
A Russian naval destroyer on Tuesday seized 29 suspected pirates off the coast of Somalia, the defence ministry said, according to Russian news agencies. "The Admiral Panteleev (destroyer) captured Tuesday at 1412 GMT a boat carrying pirates. In total, 29 people were arrested," the ministry said in a statement. "Seven Kalachnikov machine-guns, handguns of different calibres, equipment including satellite navigation devices and a large number of empty shells were discovered on board the boat," the ministry said, adding that an investigation has been opened.
I don't think being "armed at sea" is a surprise in the area off Somalia, most arrests are made after observing or preventing an attack . . .

Somali "vigilantes" take on pirates? Yes, according to this:
Somalis are fed up with pirates clogging up their ports – and they’re not taking it anymore. At least some of them.

Somali vigilantes captured 12 armed pirates in two boats after regional leaders in the coastal towns of Alula and Bargaal in Somalia’s northern Puntland region told the BBC that they have formed a militia of fishermen to catch the modern-day swashbucklers.
More on the vigilante forces here. Hope the Russians are not picking up the "vigilantes."

A lawsuit filed against the Maersk shipping owner by a crew member from the pirate attacked Maersk Alabama here for ... unsafe working conditions or something . . . I guess he's not like the cook in Under Siege. "Nah. I'm just a cook. " UPDATE: gCaptain has more.

Self-defense by passengers on MSC Melody? Reported here:
An orchestra on the top deck continued to play, until a woman burst in and said pirates were attacking the ship.

"We heard pop-pop-pop-pop-pop again and this woman came screaming through the deck," Ms Murtagh said.

"She was out on the back deck and saw the Somalians try to get their ropes up onto the ship, so she was throwing the plastic deck tables at them. And then another man raced onto the deck and he was throwing the plastic chairs at them to keep them off the ship.

"(The pirates) tried to get their ropes, or their hooks, onto the boat, and they did start to climb up, but this woman threw the tables onto them and pushed them back."
Now, let the lawsuits begin . . .

No comments:

Post a Comment