Piracy Briefing

We had a briefing today from the Captain concerning piracy in the Gulf of Aden (GOA).

There are about 30,000 ships per year that travel through the GOA. Of these, during 2008, 200 have been attacked by pirates from the coast of Somalia, with 30 of these attacks being successful. Unfortunately, these successes have resulted in $30,000,000 in funds going to the pirates.

In the past two years only one cruise ship was attacked. It happened to be one of our ship’s sister ships…exactly our size. Most of the attacks have been on tankers and dry-bulk carriers. These ships travel at slow speeds, and only have total crews of 12-14 people, so they are easier for the pirates to board.

As a result of all this, there are military patrols in the areas for protection, and ships travel with pre-planned routes and in groups. We’ll also be going at near-maximum ship’s speed during this transit. If any suspicious boats are spotted, we are to go to our cabins away from the windows and sit on the floor. The ship would use a sound cannon and water hoses against the pirate ship, and would take evasive maneuvers that would make for a rough ride for us.

It will be about one week from now that we transit the GOA.