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Pirates Attack Cruise Ship Off Somalia
Posted: Sat Nov 05, 2005 12:15 pm
by Martrae
Nov 5, 12:56 PM (ET)
MIAMI (AP) - Pirates fired a rocket-propelled grenade and machine guns Saturday in an attack on a luxury cruise liner off the east African coast, the vessel's owners said.
Two armed boats approached the Seabourn Spirit about 100 miles off the coast of Somalia and fired as the boats' occupants attempted to get onboard, said Bruce Good, a spokesman for Miami-based Seabourn Cruise Line, a subsidiary of Carnival Corp. (CCL)
The crew initiated a trained response and avoided being boarded, Good said. The ship outran them and changed its course.
"Our suspicion at this time is that the motive was theft," Good said.
One member of the 161-person crew was slightly injured before the attackers were repelled, according to a London-based Seabourn Cruises spokesman.
Press Association, the British news agency, said passengers awoke to the sound of gunfire as two 25-foot inflatable boats approached the liner. The injured crew member was reportedly hit by flying debris.
The vessel's 151 passengers, mostly Americans with some Australians and Europeans, were gathered in a lounge for their safety, Good said. None were injured.
The Spirit had been bound for Mombasa, Kenya, at the end of a 16-day voyage from Alexandria, Egypt. It was expected to reach the Seychelles in the Indian Ocean on Monday, and then continue on its previous schedule to Singapore, company officials said.
The 10,000-ton cruise ship, registered in the Bahamas, sustained minor damage, Good said. "They took some fire, but it's safe to sail," he said.
Piracy along the Somalia coast is common - several ships a month are attacked or hijacked, with valuables stolen and crews held for ransom.
Somalia's 1,880-mile coastline is Africa's longest, and the country has had no effective central government since opposition leaders ousted dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991. They then turned on each other, transforming this nation of 7 million into a patchwork of battling fiefdoms ruled by heavily armed militias.
Posted: Sat Nov 05, 2005 12:38 pm
by Goose_Man
YARRRRRR
Posted: Sat Nov 05, 2005 1:19 pm
by Harrison
Africans can't be pirates, note how they use RPG's like faggots.
Posted: Sat Nov 05, 2005 1:25 pm
by Phlegm
What do they have powering the inflatables, fucking lawn mower engines? How in the hell can a slow ass cruise ship outran them?
Posted: Sat Nov 05, 2005 1:30 pm
by araby
Piracy along the Somalia coast is common - several ships a month are attacked or hijacked, with valuables stolen and crews held for ransom.
Why take a cruise, or even have cruises at all that go through there?
Posted: Sat Nov 05, 2005 1:37 pm
by Phlegm
Ashly wrote:Piracy along the Somalia coast is common - several ships a month are attacked or hijacked, with valuables stolen and crews held for ransom.
Why take a cruise, or even have cruises at all that go through there?
So they can stand at the rail gorging on food from the buffets while the starving Somalians watch from shore. This may have pissed the Somalians enough that they sent pirates out to wipe the smirks off the faces of the people on the cruise ships.
Posted: Sat Nov 05, 2005 2:34 pm
by brinstar
haven't you guys ever seen the life aquatic with steve zissou?
all you have to do to whip ass on modern-day pirates is go sea crazy on them
Posted: Sat Nov 05, 2005 7:12 pm
by Captain Insano
BLACK PEOPLE CAN'T BE PIRATES! I'M OUTRAGIOUS THIS IS BLASFEMY
Posted: Sun Nov 06, 2005 2:41 pm
by Aatrex
My friends parents were on that cruise liner. True story.
Posted: Sun Nov 06, 2005 3:48 pm
by DESX
Phlegm wrote:What do they have powering the inflatables, fucking lawn mower engines? How in the hell can a slow ass cruise ship outran them?
Well the inflatables probably have like 1 200-300 horsepower engine the cruise ship probably had 3-4 28,000 horsepower engines.
Not to mention the inflatables cant travel in the open ocean.
Posted: Sun Nov 06, 2005 5:07 pm
by Kramer
that whole story and those involved is completely stupid.
also, if people are starving in Africa, why don't they just move to America?
Posted: Sun Nov 06, 2005 6:21 pm
by Tuggan
boybutter wrote:also, if people are starving in Africa, why don't they just move to America?
DURRRR
Posted: Mon Nov 07, 2005 2:05 am
by Durothil Skyreaver
Did anyone have an instant mental picture of a ship with cannons attacking when they first heard this?
Posted: Mon Nov 07, 2005 2:39 am
by Lueyen
Durothil Skyreaver wrote:Did anyone have an instant mental picture of a ship with cannons attacking when they first heard this?
complete with a skull and crossbones flag.
Posted: Mon Nov 07, 2005 8:06 am
by kaharthemad
ARRRRRG
Posted: Mon Nov 07, 2005 9:30 am
by 10sun
DESX wrote:Phlegm wrote:What do they have powering the inflatables, fucking lawn mower engines? How in the hell can a slow ass cruise ship outran them?
Well the inflatables probably have like 1 200-300 horsepower engine the cruise ship probably had 3-4 28,000 horsepower engines.
Not to mention the inflatables cant travel in the open ocean.
Inflatables probably only had like 100 gallons of gas max as well. Not to mention the whole open ocean bit where the inflatables will have to travel up and down the waves, whereas the cruiseship's displacement hull just goes right through them for the most part.
Posted: Tue Nov 08, 2005 7:55 am
by Eziekial
Most modern cruiseships can make 30+ knots and at that speed, no little RHIB is going to get near it.
Posted: Tue Nov 08, 2005 12:11 pm
by Phlegm
From Associated Press:
MAHE, Seychelles (AP) -- The crew of a cruise ship attacked by pirates off the coast of Somalia used a sonic weapon to help ward off the attackers, the Miami-based Seabourn Cruise Line said Monday.
The device blasts earsplitting noise in a directed beam.
The Seabourn Spirit escaped Saturday's attack also by shifting to high speed and changing course, the cruise line said.
The sonic device, known as a Long Range Acoustic Device, or LRAD, is a so-called "non-lethal weapon" developed for the military after the 2000 attack on the USS Cole in Yemen as a way to keep operators of small boats from approaching U.S. warships.
Makers of the device compare its shrill tone to that of smoke detectors, only much louder.
The pirates who attacked the Seabourn Spirit grinned as they aimed grenade-launchers and machine guns at the deck and staterooms, some passengers said Monday, recounting the ordeal after safely docking in this Indian Ocean archipelago.
"I tell you, it was a very frightening experience," Charles Supple, of Fiddletown, California, said by phone.
The retired physician and World War II veteran said he started to take a photograph of a pirate craft, and "the man with the bazooka aimed it right at me and I saw a big flash.
"Needless to say, I dropped the camera and dived. The grenade struck two decks above and about four rooms further forward," he said. "I could tell the guy firing the bazooka was smiling."
The Seabourn Spirit had been bound for Kenya when it was attacked by pirates armed with grenade launchers and machine guns on Saturday about 100 miles (160 km) off Somalia's lawless coast.
The gunmen never got close enough to board the cruise ship, but one member of the 161-person crew was injured by shrapnel, according to Seabourn Cruise Line, which is a subsidiary of Carnival Corp.
Relieved holiday-makers praised the ship's captain for foiling the attack, but some said they were lucky to escape with their lives.
A woman survived an explosion in her stateroom simply because she was taking a bath at the time. Others flung themselves to the floor to avoid bullets that were zipping through the ship, Charles Forsdick, of Durban, South Africa, told Associated Press Television News.
Bob Meagher of Sydney, Australia, said he climbed out of bed and went to the door of his cabin shortly before 6 a.m. after hearing a commotion outside.
"I saw a white-hulled boat with men in it waving various things and shooting at the ship -- at that stage it appeared to be rifle fire," he told Australian radio.
"My wife said, 'Look, they're loading a bazooka,' which we later discovered was called an RPG (rocket-propelled grenade) launcher."
"There was a flash of flame and then a huge boom -- a terrible boom sound," he said, adding the grenade hit about 10 feet from where they were.
The liner had been at the end of a 16-day voyage from Alexandria, Egypt.
Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said Monday that the attackers might have been terrorists. Others said the attack bore the hallmarks of pirates who have become increasingly active off Somalia, which has no navy and has not had an effective central government since 1991.
Posted: Tue Nov 08, 2005 4:19 pm
by DESX
Phlegm wrote:From Associated Press:
MAHE, Seychelles (AP) -- The crew of a cruise ship attacked by pirates off the coast of Somalia used a sonic weapon to help ward off the attackers, the Miami-based Seabourn Cruise Line said Monday.
The device blasts earsplitting noise in a directed beam.
The Seabourn Spirit escaped Saturday's attack also by shifting to high speed and changing course, the cruise line said.
The sonic device, known as a Long Range Acoustic Device, or LRAD, is a so-called "non-lethal weapon" developed for the military after the 2000 attack on the USS Cole in Yemen as a way to keep operators of small boats from approaching U.S. warships.
Damn didn't even know they had this shit, I knew they were working on shit like this except with microwave beams and shit but didnt know they actually had developed this yet.
Posted: Tue Nov 08, 2005 9:00 pm
by Captain Insano
WHAT a fucking waste of money...
They should have a fried chicken catapult that would launch a floating buckets of extra crispy about 1000 yards off the port bow... and then when the pirates take the bait they unleash a flurry of half starved sharks to attack them and the chicken.
black pirates would be PWNED. Not to mention it would make for a nice break from the usual cruiseship festivities like shuffleboard.
Posted: Sat Nov 12, 2005 4:28 am
by Arlos
Update on this whole story:
NAIROBI, Kenya (Reuters) -- Somali pirates attacked five ships in the past week in a sharp rise of banditry apparently orchestrated by a mysterious "mothership" prowling the busy Indian Ocean corridor, shipping experts said Friday.
Most vessels escaped, but one was commandeered, bringing to seven the total vessels and crews now being held captive by pirates plundering the coastline, the International Maritime Bureau said.
"Insecurity off the Somali coast has escalated sharply -- it is very worrying," Andrew Mwangura, program coordinator at the Kenyan Seafarers' Association, told Reuters. He said nine ships have been seized.
Mwangura said five vessels were attacked in the past week alone including the attempt last Saturday to board the Bahamas-registered Seabourn Spirit, which was carrying 151 Western tourists. (Watch passengers recall their encounter with ocean marauders -- 2:34)
Rocket-propelled grenades and assault rifles were fired at the U.S.-owned Spirit by gunmen in two small speedboats, but the ship's captain managed to change course and speed away. (Full story)
The northern and southern coastline of Somalia -- Africa's longest -- links trade routes for key commodities like oil, grains and iron ore from the Gulf and Red Sea region down to the Mozambique Channel. Thousands of merchant ships snake down the Somali coast to the Cape of Good Hope every year.
Some of the world's leading shipping bodies called on the U.N. International Maritime Organization and the U.N. Security Council to urgently address the issue.
"We think it most important that this clearly growing threat to the safety of ships on the high seas is taken up at the highest diplomatic level," a joint letter to IMO's Secretary General read.
"The attacks against shipping off Somalia have direct implications for the security of the world's transport supply chain."
Reports of 'mothership'
At the center of the wave of recent attacks is a mysterious, so-called mothership that has been spotted three times since late July drifting off the northeast coast of Somalia.
"We understand that this is the vessel that is launching the speedboats that go to attack the victims," Mwangura said. "We are still trying to discover the name of this ship, its owner, its nationality and the identity of the crew on board."
The IMB, which called the situation completely out of control, confirmed a mothership had been involved in the attacks, which took place well off the coast.
The piracy watchdog has warned merchant ships to stay at least 200 nautical miles away from the Somali coast -- an admonition that has gone unheeded.
After two years of relative calm, 32 pirate attacks have been recorded since mid-March, including raids on ships carrying supplies for the U.N. World Food Program, according to the IMB.
Mwangura said among the ships being held hostage by pirates were vessels registered in Thailand, Taiwan, Malta and Ukraine. More than 100 crew members were being held for ransom.
Somalia has been ruled by rival warlords since dictator Mohammed Siad Barre was overthrown in 1991. Many of the warlords are believed to run gangs who smuggle drugs, weapons and people by road, sea and air around the region.
Piracy is a lucrative and growing offshoot of this trade.
On Wednesday, the U.N. Security Council scolded Somalia's squabbling government and urged rival factions to come together to confront the chaos and piracy plaguing the lawless nation.
The council expressed "serious concern" about the recent wave of pirate attacks off the coast, and called on regional powers and international bodies to address the problem urgently.
Not every day you get to hear the news media talking about "Pirate Motherships". rofl
-Arlos
Posted: Sun Nov 13, 2005 12:50 am
by Captain Insano
Stupid term. Everyone knows real pirates don't have mothers; they are spawned by the gods for the sheer purpose of ruling the seas, space and zombies.
therfore, they cannot have "motherships". More like Pirate Consortium Vessel of Wrath.
Posted: Sun Nov 13, 2005 1:02 am
by Ouchyfish
captain_insano wrote:WHAT a fucking waste of money...
They should have a fried chicken catapult that would launch a floating buckets of extra crispy about 1000 yards off the port bow... and then when the pirates take the bait they unleash a flurry of half starved sharks to attack them and the chicken.
black pirates would be PWNED. Not to mention it would make for a nice break from the usual cruiseship festivities like shuffleboard.
No way man--the Romans had it right--terra cotta pots filled with BEES!!!!!
Posted: Sun Nov 13, 2005 12:24 pm
by DESX
I think they should load a good 100 soldiers on a cargo ship and just wait for them to attack then pwnz them.
Posted: Sun Nov 13, 2005 3:43 pm
by Captain Insano
i don't know why they don't send contingents of marines to places like this in the world just so they can actuallly kill people. It is what they were born to do.