Great News on Pirates
The news (21/1/11) that a South Korean commando unit has recovered a South Korean hi-jacked cargo ship, Samho Jewelry, killed 5 hi-jackers and rescued all 21 crew members with only a non-life-threatening injury to the captain, is both good news for the crew and the ship-owners, and striking repudiation of NATO’s pusillanimous response to the pestilential pirate menace.
What needs to be done? In the Nelsonian tradition: “Engage the enemy more closely”.
The very first thing is to make pirates fear for their own lives. This can be done by wiping out the pirate nests in Somalia – a lawless region of the world – using the SAS and special forces from other NATO countries, if they are up to the job. Secondly track ships in the vicinity of convoys of cargo and passenger vessels in the Arabian Sea and the Western Indian Ocean, and by means of clearly publicised markers warn any vessel not identifying itself that it risks attack if approaching within half a mile of convoy ships. Thirdly establish defined lanes for private yachts and other small vessels in the Western Indian Ocean and Arabian Sea and require them to inform by radio a NATO-led sea traffic authority of their course (as air traffic has to do). Fourthly don’t wait for the UN to do anything. If the UN had been in existence in 1807, the Royal Navy would never have established its anti-slavery patrols which lasted for 107 years.
April 18th, 2012 at 12:10 pm
The Russians do precisely the same – fight fire with fire. Result: pirates avoid Russian ships. I imagine too that the superb marksmanship of the US Navy Seals has made pirates think again where American vessels are concerned. Even though the Americans put the remaining pirate on trial, a lengthy jail sentence in a US prison followed by deportation (there is no way the US will be giving him asylum) is the sort of justice this country is incapable of dispensing.
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