Pirate attacks around the world rise by 20pc
Pastor Dale Morgan
Pirate attacks around the world rise by 20pc*
By Gethin Chamberlain
Last updated: 9:43 AM BST 25/05/2008
They may no longer dress like characters from the Disney film Pirates of
the Caribbean, but the buccaneers of the 21st century have lost none of
their taste for a bloodthirsty boarding.
Mariners are being warned of a growing threat from pirates around the
world after attacks on shipping rose by 20 per cent over the last year.
Gone are the cannon and cutlass, to be replaced by rocket propelled
grenades and automatic rifles, but according to new figures from the
organisation that collates reports of global piracy, the spirit of
Johnny Depp’s Captain Jack Sparrow is alive and terrorising the ocean waves.
The International Maritime Bureau’s latest report reveals the first rise
in pirate attacks since their previous peak in the mid 1990s. In one
particularly savage incident in the Philippines in March, pirates shot
dead the captain of a passenger boat and two of his crew before tying
them to their anchor and tossing it overboard. They then shot the two
remaining crew members and escaped in a motor boat.
The sharp rise in pirate attacks is blamed in large part on the collapse
of law and order in Somalia and political unrest in Nigeria. The seas
around the two African countries are now regarded as some of the most
dangerous in the world.
Cyrus Mody, the IMB’s manager, said the reality of piracy was far
removed from the glamorous image portrayed in films. “People have a
romantic illusion about pirates, but there is nothing romantic when they
stand in front of you with a gun to your head,” he said.
The IMB recorded 49 attacks in the first quarter of this year, up from
41 in the same period last year. The murderous attack in the Philippines
was the most serious but there were many other incidents in which ships
were attacked by gangs of heavily armed men.
In January, five men armed with guns boarded a French yacht off
Venezuela, shot one of the crew and demanded all their property. The
same month, four armed men used grappling hooks to try to board a bulk
carrier off the Nigerian coast.
The IMB’s records are a litany of brutality. Last year pirates who
attacked a Danish tanker off the coast of Nigeria tied up the bosun and
threatened to cut off his ears unless he told them the code for the
locks on the cargo control room. In another attack off the Nigerian
coast, a Panamanian tug boat was boarded by five men who approached in a
small fast boat. The pirates rounded up the crew on the bridge, smashed
a bottle over the master’s head and forced each crew member to hand over
their belongings.
A cargo ship attacked off the coast of Somalia launched parachute flares
at the pirates when the captain realised they were about to open fire
with a rocket propelled grenade. And a gang of pirates who boarded a
Canadian yacht at anchor off Madagascar slashed the skipper’s hand and
legs, tried to strangle his wife and made off with everything the couple
had.
Not that the pirates always have it their own way. The IMB’s report
reveals that in February this year a Maltese tanker successfully fought
off a pirate attack off the coast of Somalia by adopting a zig-zag
course and turning its fire hoses on the pirate boat until the would be
attackers, who were firing at the tanker, eventually gave up and sailed
away.
Earlier this month Guy Grieve, who writes the Telegraph’s All at Sea
column, reported having to outrun a suspected pirate pirogue off the
caost of Trinidad.
Yesterday Adrian Flanagan, the lone round-the-world yachtsman who
completed his two and a half year voyage last week, told The Sunday
Telegraph how he nearly collided with a pirate ship 400 miles off the
coast of Brazil.
Mr Flanagan, 46, the author of a novel about pirates, described how he
kept watch for 48 hours with a loaded shotgun in his lap as the pirates
tracked him across the ocean in a rusting 200-foot vessel, before
finally turning their attention elsewhere.
“I thought, 'I’m in trouble here - these guys have got to be pirates’,”
he said. “I broke out my pump action shotgun, loaded it with seven
rounds and cocked it.”
For 48 hours, they followed his sloop Barrabas while he kept watch and
used his satellite telephone to contact his former wife in Britain and
raise the alarm. “I called Louise and told her the situation. She was OK
about it but, I think she had an idea in her head of a guy with a wooden
leg and eyepatch - I don’t think she really realised the level of threat.
“These people are very, very vicious. I am staggered by the number of
attacks on small vessels, and the number of boats that disappear every
year is stunning. They take what they want and scuttle the vessel with
the bodies on board.”
Last week the IMB identified Nigeria as the world’s most dangerous
piracy hotspot, and warned that the country was ill equipped to combat
pirates who plied the seas in speed boats, modern machine guns and
radios, targeting tankers, trawlers, barges and oil industry support
vessels.
India and the Gulf of Aden rank second in the list of most dangerous
places, and last week nine countries in the region launched a concerted
effort to improve security. In response to the growing threat, the
French and American governments have drafted a UN resolution to allow
nations to pursue and arrest pirates.