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Are Pirates Still Around?
Talk of pirates today and most folks think of intellectual property rights or downloading music illegally. But in fact, these "enemies of the human race" are rampant, especially in the more unstable regions of the world. Of particular threat in shipping in the twenty-first century are the pirates of the Indonesian and African coasts. And believe it or not, there are still places in the Bahamian Islands where it is unsafe to travel alone in a small boat! Fishermen and yachtsmen beware: pirates are still around!
And their tactics haven't changed all that much from those swashbuckling cut throats that plagued Europe and the Americas in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Pirates today still rely on small, fast, maneuverable craft such as "cigarette boats" (or even inflatable dingies) that can easily be positioned beneath the fantail (stern) of ocean-going cargo transports. Boarding an intended target is as simple as tossing a grapnel with a rope attached. Within minutes, a handful [of] men brandishing "small arms," usually semi- or fully-automatic weapons, can easily commandeer a 600-foot long oil tanker!
To counter such measures, shipping companies have employed a number of "anti-piracy" tactics, including sonic blasters, high-powered rotating water cannon that sweet the fantail of the ship, and even plywood cutouts of guards hoisting AK-47s that are posted at their "stations" at the stern of the ship. |