January 12, 2005

World Wide Threats To Shipping
posted by Argh 19 years ago
  • The tug (CHRISTIAN) and barge (FLORA) are reported missing 30 Dec after failing to report since 14 Dec when they were underway in position 05 34N, 119 22E in the Sulu Sea on a voyage from the Philippines to Indonesia. Geez, no kidding when they say that there's a lot of piracy in the South China Sea area. Some big ships are missing and it's just routine.
  • ) Fine link!
  • My Dad (73 yrs) has sailed that way several times during the last few years in a small vessel. He travels armed. It's only prudent.
  • The reports coming out of the South China Sea area are the stuff that really keep me up at night. The pirated ships, the cloned transponders, the practice runs through shipping channels, I get a very bad 9/11 vibe from the whole thing. I know, it's a bit cliche to say such things, but I'm sincerely very upset that the US govt. has not at least taken a serious look at WTF is going on down there.
  • Fascinating link, Argh. And provocative comment, LarimdaME. Do you know where can I get a fuller picture of the stories you're talking about?
  • Piracy in rhe South China Sea has been going on a long time. Gets suppressed for a period and then crops back up again. Not a romantic business, Pirates of the Carribean to the contrary.
  • I wonder how hard it is to clamber aboard a big ship. Seems they could build the deck so high above the waterline (like 40 or 50 ft) that it would be impossible to use a grappling hook, and seal off all holes and handholds below. On the other hand, maybe there's so much shipping that it's like the odds of a lightning strike.
  • CargoLaw (linky not work) has a great Pirates database. Many ships have defended themselves with firehoses, which they shoot down on the suspected pirates, until they run away. The key is that you have to watch for them.
  • Fascinating stuff. Thanks, Argh.
  • William Langewiesche has an excellent section on piracy in his new(ish) book The Outlaw Sea : A World of Freedom, Chaos, and Crime , which I just finished reading this week (the section on the sinking of the Swedish-Latvian Ferry Estonia is the stuff of my darkest terrors).
  • My brother has been in the merchant marine for 30 years; over the last couple he's been taking container ships back and forth from Trinidad to Angola under a contract for the WHO. The piracy is amazing and really scary; ships are constantly boarded, and sometimes the guys with guns sink the ship, sometimes they just steal everything they can grab and leave. The crew stays locked belowdecks and doesn't attempt heroics. A lot of times as they come into harbor they will get armed guards along with harbor pilots. An excerpt from one of his emails (he is terse by nature): At Monrovia now. Five thousand natives on the dock when we came in. UN troops, UN cars, UN people. Liberian soldiers. Ship in front of us is sunk. Ship behind us is sunk. How sunk? No one knows. One o'clock in the morning now. One thousand natives on the dock. Watching. They have vendors selling peanuts and pop. Cargo operations very entertaining.
  • hey the US seventh fleet goes through the south china sea all the time! it's been happening for years.