Mercury Rising 鳯女

Politics, life, and other things that matter

«
»

Somali pirates nab supertanker with Iranian wheat/updated

Posted by Charles II on November 19, 2008

Xan Rice and Richard Norton-Taylor, The Guardian:

Somali pirates in the Gulf of Aden seized a Hong Kong-registered cargo ship carrying 36,000 tonnes of wheat to Iran yesterday in the latest of the near-daily attacks threatening one of the world’s busiest shipping routes.

The Delight, with 25 crew on board, was captured off Yemen, the seventh successful hijacking in the past 12 days. The US navy, whose patrols along Somalia’s coast appear to be having little effect on the pirates, said the ship belonged to Iran’s state shipping line.

A British tanker also came under attack yesterday, but the pirates were thwarted when the German frigate Karlsruhe launched a helicopter to intercept them. Eight or nine speedboats of heavily armed bandits attacked the British tanker Trafalgar, which radioed the German ship for help. It sent a Sea King and the pirates fled, the German navy said.

MEC reminds me to post another story, this one in The Independent, by Kim Sengupta:

The American security company Blackwater is planning to cash in on the rising threat of piracy on the high seas by launching a flotilla of gunboats for hire by the shipping companies….

Several security companies are rushing to the region despite the presence of British, American, Russian and Indian naval warships, among others, sent to protect ships. For fees ranging from £8,000 to £12,000 for transits of three and five days, companies are offering teams of unarmed guards, “non-lethal deck security personnel”.

About these ads

This entry was posted on November 19, 2008 at 1:03 am and is filed under Africa, terrorism. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

4 Responses to “Somali pirates nab supertanker with Iranian wheat/updated”

  1. Mahakal said

    November 19, 2008 at 12:30 pm

    Does congress need to issue letters of marque and reprisal?

  2. Stormcrow said

    November 19, 2008 at 6:35 pm

    That’s not a completely unreasonable idea, but it lacks efficiency.

    In the restricted waters where these hijackings are being committed, there’s an older and more appropriate model to follow.

    From the Wikipedia page on the Cilician pirates

    By the 1st Century BC, what began as a trickle was a plague on the Mediterranean commerce. The Cilician pirates roamed across the entire Mediterranean, and began to attack the towns of Italy itself. In fact, even Ostia was plundered.

    Eventually, Rome took action. In 75 BC, P. Servilius Isauricus led a campaign over land against the pirate bases in Cilicia and against their allies the Isauri. But this was only a temporary relief.

    Finally, after heated debate, Pompey was granted extraordinary powers to eliminate the Cilician pirates. Pompey divided the Mediterranean into thirteen districts, to each of which he assigned a fleet and a commander. Pompey then swept through the western Mediterranean with his own powerful fleet, driving the pirates out or into the paths of his other commanders. By keeping vigilance over all the sea at the same time (and at great cost), there was nowhere to run or hide. Those Cilician pirates that did escape fled to the eastern Mediterranean. Pompey completed this first part of his campaign in 40 days.

    Pompey then turned to the eastern Mediterranean. Pompey gave mild terms to those pirates who surrendered to him personally, as opposed to his other commanders. Some pirates surrendered their ships, and their families and themselves up to Pompey. From these, Pompey learned about where others were hiding. Many pirates retreated to their strongholds of Asia Minor. The pirates gathered and waited for Pompey to attack them at Coracesium. Pompey won a decisive victory and blockaded the town. The Cilician pirates surrendered all their harbors and fortified islands. The Romans took the wealth the pirates had collected, and released many of their prisoners, whom the pirates intended to ransom, other prisoners were sold into slavery. Strabo writes that Pompey destroyed 1300 pirate vessels of all sizes.

    Pompey spared numerous Cilician pirates who had been taken prisoner, realizing many had been driven to such recourse by desperation. Those who surrendered were settled into various parts of the southern coast of Asia Minor, where the population was sparse. Settlements were created at Mallus, Adana, and Epiphaneia in Cilicia. Many were settled at Soli, which was thereafter called Pompeiopolis.

    The eastern campaign lasted 49 days. In total, Pompey’s campaign removed the Cilician pirates, who had held a stranglehold on Mediterranean commerce and imperiled Rome with famine, in a mere 89 days, the summer of 66 BC.

  3. Charles II said

    November 19, 2008 at 6:54 pm

    The Somali pirates do seem to be a problem begging for a military solution.

    Or at least a very, very heavily-armed police solution.

  4. Phoenix Woman said

    November 19, 2008 at 8:55 pm

    A-yep.

Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.

«
»