Thread: Pirates attack cruise ship [with pics]

As reported by the BBC:
http://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/4409662.stm

And CNN:
cnn reports: A luxury cruise line will re-evaluate whether to offer
future cruises off the coast of Somalia after pirates attempted to
attack one of its ships early Saturday.

The modern-day pirates were in two small boats and carrying machine
guns and a rocket-propelled grenade when they attempted the attack on
Seabourn Cruise Lines' "Spirit" about 5:35 a.m. local time Saturday,
Deborah Natansohn, president of the cruise line, told CNNRadio.

The ship was carrying 150 passengers and a crew of about 160.

The ship, she said, immediately instituted its emergency response
system. "The occupants of those boats did not succeed in boarding the
ship and eventually turned away ... our captain and crew did a
terrific job taking responsive action."

Passenger Mike Rogers of Vancouver, Canada, said the pirates were
shooting and sending rockets at the boat.

"The captain tried to run one of the boats over, but they were small
boats, about 25 feet long," he told CNNRadio affiliate CKNW in
Vancouver.

"Each one had four or five people on it, and (the captain) said he
was going to do anything to keep them from getting on board."

The captain, however, did not hit the alarm button to alert
passengers of the emergency, Rogers said.

"He announced it over the speakers, because he was scared people
would run up on deck, and he didn't want people on deck because they
would have been shot."

The cruise ship eventually outran the pirates' boats, Natansohn said.
One person suffered minor injuries, she said, but did not elaborate.

"There's some minor damage done to the ship," Rogers said. "There's
no water right now, for instance, in some places, and I believe one
of the grenades actually went off in one of the cabins, but everyone
on board is fine."

The boat is now en route to the Seychelles Islands, Natansohn said.

On Thursday, the United Nations' World Food Programme warned that
hijackings off the coast of Somalia were restricting the delivery of
needed food assistance to the country.

"The southern Somali coastline is one of the most dangerous in the
world," the WFP said on its Web site.

"In recent months, WFP's operations in Somalia have been sabotaged by
the hijackings of two vessels carrying relief food. Ship owners are
now demanding armed escorts to travel in these waters."

Natansohn said efforts were underway Saturday to locate the pirates.
"We have notified U.S., Canadian and Australian authorities, because
most of our passengers come from those three countries, as well as
local authorities in Africa."

"Seabourn 'Spirit' has offered itineraries in that part of the world
before, but we'll obviously be looking at the incident to determine
what to do in the future," she said.

Rogers said, "we're always looking for adventure, but this is
probably a little more than we would normally look for."

(Rex Edit)-putting the pics here also:

Holy cow Kyle!! "It used an on-board loud acoustic bang to deter the gunmen." I bet that scared the hell out of them, and the passengers!! I doubt that will be on the itinerary anymore!! Thanks for posting this!!!

Now why would they tell the world what they did? Now, the next pirates will know it is just a bang and that won't deter them. You must keep them guessing as to what your response will be!

Originally Posted by Cruise Cat

Now why would they tell the world what they did? Now, the next pirates will know it is just a bang and that won't deter them. You must keep them guessing as to what your response will be!

It'll deter them, no problem.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_range_acoustic_device

I just this and glad to see that CLF is always a step ahead! Thanks stowaway!!! Here's the news from Reuters:
Updated: 10:23 AM EST
Pirates Open Fire on Cruise Ship Off Somalia


NAIROBI, Kenya (Nov. 5) - Pirates in speed boats opened fire on a cruise liner carrying hundreds of tourists off the Somali coast on Saturday, but none of the vacationers were hurt, a shipping official and the ship's owners said.

Seabourn.com

Seabourn says on their Web Site that the Spirit and their other ships have "nearly the same number of staff as guests."

"Gunmen in two or three speed boats opened fire on the Seabourn Spirit while it was about 70 nautical miles off Somalia," said Andrew Mwangura, program coordinator for the Seafarers' Association in neighboring Kenya.

"The captain managed to change the course of the vessel and speed away. Most of the passengers are believed to be Americans or Western Europeans. No one was hurt," Mwangura said.

The Indian Ocean waters off the Somali coast are classed as among the most dangerous in the world.

The 10,000-ton Bahamas-registered Seabourn Spirit was believed to be carrying about 300 passengers and crew from Alexandria in Egypt to the Kenyan port of Mombasa.

Its owners, Miami-based Seabourn Cruise Line, said the vessel had been rerouted to the Seychelles after the attack.

"Early this morning an attempt was made to gain access to the Seabourn Spirit while it was at sea," the company said in a statement. "The approach was successfully repelled."

A company official contacted in Britain gave no more details, but said all on board were safe."

"It is heading for the Seychelles now," she said.

Piracy off Somalia threatens shipping and has sabotaged the delivery of food aid to more than half a million hungry people in the region, the United Nations said on Thursday.

Hijackers have commandeered two vessels used by the U.N. World Food Program this year and ship owners now demand armed escorts to travel in the waters, the agency said.

This week, the London-based International Maritime Bureau said it knew of 27 pirate attacks off Somalia since March.

The attacks have highlighted insecurity in Somalia, which has had no government to enforce law and order since warlords ousted dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991.



11-05-05 09:49 EST

Originally Posted by Cruise Cat

Now why would they tell the world what they did? Now, the next pirates will know it is just a bang and that won't deter them. You must keep them guessing as to what your response will be!

You are assuming these vermin can read.

It will only deter then once. The next time, they might spend $30 each for a good pair of ear plugs and a pair of ear muffs. The plugs will reduce the noise about 32 decibles and the ear muffs an additional 30. So, it reduces that 150 decibles below 100 or like listening to a belt sander or other power tool. That noise device works great on unsuspecting crowds, but will not deter the prepared.

Incredible ... just incredible.
Pirates - in 2005!
Vermin is the proper term, I think.

Originally Posted by Cruise Cat

It will only deter then once. The next time, they might spend $30 each for a good pair of ear plugs and a pair of ear muffs. The plugs will reduce the noise about 32 decibles and the ear muffs an additional 30. So, it reduces that 150 decibles below 100 or like listening to a belt sander or other power tool. That noise device works great on unsuspecting crowds, but will not deter the prepared.

How do you know everything Chuck??? You are so smart!! I know nothing about any of this stuff!!

I already knew in general about hearing protection from the plant I work at and one of my "jobs" during the outage. We have some jobs we do and some areas that required the double hearing protection (plugs and muffs). I got the numbers by going to various web sites that sell hearing protection, and looked at the average numbers. If you want to get even better protection, you can get it simply by spending a little more $$$.