Somali pirates strike again and seize one of the largest ships afloat.
“The shipping intelligence company Lloyd’s List said the Maran Centaurus is a “very large crude carrier, with a capacity of over 300,000 tons.” Officials could not immediately say how many barrels of oil were on board, but its value would be in the millions of dollars.”
And STILL shipping companies refuse to protect their cargo and crews.
I don’t know what a “chain gun” costs but not much when you consider the value of the cargo. It also does not cost much to train the crews to use them. This ship could have carried a dozen of them and the question would then be “what pirates”?
Instead we get this stupid response:
“You’re sitting on a huge ship filled with flammable liquid. You don’t want somebody with a gun on top of that,” Middleton said. “Financially it’s a very costly exercise because the value of oil is so volatile. If it is held for a long time and the price of oil drops, they could lost millions of dollars.”
I just shake my head. There’s no reasoning with people who think like this.
Jack, as a cyber pal I have to ask, are you all right. Protect yourself? Why that’s un-Progressive!! Besides, these are impoverished individuals that have to do something.
Turning the swine into chowder would cause the chattering classes to drop their Americano’s.
“Heh…
If the Pirates were smart, they would run it in close to shore, open it up and wait for greenpeace to show up, hold them hostage as it’s enviromentalists, not big oil who have the money now.
In my limited experience with freighters, concern for safety of the ship or cargo isn’t the reason why firearms aren’t accessible to the crew.
Typically, crew members get piss-poor wages, especially when compared to the captain and the command crew. If the ship’s owner added chain guns or any other form of armaments someplace where it could be used against pirates, the crew might be tempted to misuse them.
Strangely enough, the captain and the command crew typically have access to small arms on the bridge where they can barricade themselves in case of mutiny.
A chain gun manned by a bunch of nasty mercenaries separately paid and employed by Lloyds Insurance would solve a lot of problems.
The problem could be solved within 2 weeks. The powers that be either don’t want to or don’t care. The Arab oil merchants likely get their money before the loaded ship sails, so there is no incentive for them to reign these pirates in. No one wants to touch off a mid-east crisis and see the price of oil go up to $300-400 per barrel.
mid island mike
Mike is right, this could be solved in less than two week. Build a proper naval blockade that does not let the pirates out to the open sea. Problem solved.
If the Saudis have received their monies, it may be very convenient for the oil shipment to be held hostage as America can use the crisis to exploit raised prices again. These hijackings have been on for years and there may be no political will at all to deal with them. Saudi/American collusion for exploitation of the market??