Quickly, these modern-day pirates climb aboard their prey: cargo ships that contain food, machine parts and, most recently, oil or enough weaponry to supply a small army. Most of the time they meet no opposition — only frightened, unarmed crews who find themselves prisoners and held for ransoms that have exceeded $1 million.(LINK)
Not that it's my business to tell anyone else their business, but...if it were my business to haul tens of millions of dollars of cargo on a slow-moving conveyance through stateless waters, I'd like to think it would occur to me to arm the freakin' crew...
4 comments:
it doesnt happen ofetn enough to hire security.
and crews dont want the resposibility of having their blood shed for somebody else's valuables.
I suppose, but I can't help but wonder if even arming some ships wouldn't be a worthwhile investment. $100 million in crude is a hell of a lot to write off.
Much like concealed carry (theoretically, at least) has positive returns even for people that don't choose to arm themselves. It isn't the fact that everybody is armed that deters criminals, but rather the knowledge that anyone could be...
when it reaches a critical mass, where costs of A outweigh those of B, then something will be done.
we may be at that point now.
and then things will taper off to old levels, and the cycle will begin a new.
shipping is like anything else: dollars and cents.
an aside: i have a friend who was a merchant seaman. he was a romanian who 'jumped ship' in alabama back in the 80's and sought asylum.
he's got some cool seafaring stories.
I've got a better idea. Deck the whole boat out in a ridiculous amount of explosives. Then, when the pirates board, blow the whole thing to hell. That'll show those pirates.
Otherwise, add some sails to the boats so some bad ass can dive in to action using a knife or a scimitar and kick some pirate ass!
I told Disney that a movie glorifying the pirate life would end badly.
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