MODERN PIRACY
Piracy is a crime most of us associate with romantic novels, children’s picture books and multi-million dollar movies. Certainly, in the West piracy is predominantly a thing of the past, the US navy and the US coastguard have eradicated it from US waters and in the Caribbean Sea. No more do seafaring vagabonds roam our oceans in search of ships to capture and loot. However, this is definitely not the case in some other parts of the world, and in those places where piracy is a problem, it appears to be on the increase.
Piracy Worldwide
Like other types of property crime, modern piracy tends to occur most in areas of major political unrest and lawlessness where poverty has driven a population to commit extreme criminal acts. It is a serious problem in places such as the Red Sea, in the waters off the Somalian coast and in the Strait of Malacca near Sumatra. These waters are some of the busiest in the world. Over 50,000 vessels pass through them annually, many carrying millions of dollars worth of goods. Consequently the crimes these pirates commit are expensive – piracy is currently estimated to cost the global economy between US $13 and $16 billion dollars a year.
Modern pirates tend to favour small powerful motorboats and dhows, which can be easily hidden or disguised, rather than the large cumbersome vessels of yesteryear. They require less man-power than their predecessors because the crews of most merchant vessels have been vastly reduced to the point where a huge oil tanker may be staffed by only 25 crew members – making them very easy to board and hijack using only a handful of hardened assailants. Weapons are also more sophisticated in the 21st century, today’s pirates routinely carry an array of terrifying and deadly weapons, including assault rifles, shotguns, pistols, mounted machine guns, even rocket-propelled grenades and grenade launchers – quite a departure from the cutlasses and cannons of the 18th century and more than enough to overwhelm the average tanker crew.
Piracy and Terrorism
Sea robbery and hijacking for ransom are key ways for global terrorists to make money whilst simultaneously drawing widespread attention, however negative, to their plight. These same methods have been utilized for as long as human beings have travelled by sea, they were in constant use by privateers during the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries, and so far the recent war on terror has not successfully combated it. Whilst the majority of pirates belong to organized crime syndicates comprising of corrupt officials, port workers, hired thugs and businessmen who dispose of the loot, the line has been blurred to include some international terrorists whose primary aim is terrorism. The Palestinian Liberation Front (PLF), the IRA and Jemaah Islamiyah – the al Qaeda-linked Indonesian terrorist group, are all known to have attacked shipping as part of their campaign of terror.
The Achille Lauro - Political Piracy
After a long period of relative silence, piracy once again resurfaced in international news in October 1985, with the high-profile hijacking of the MS Achille Lauro, an Italian cruise ship operating out of Naples. On 7 October 1985 she was attacked by four members of the Palestinian Liberation Front (PLF), as she sailed from Alexandria to Port Said, Egypt. The pirates quickly overwhelmed the vessel and took all 100 elderly passengers hostage before demanding the release of 50 Palestinian prisoners. At some point during the course of their occupation they shot and killed a disabled Jewish-American passenger, 69-year-old Leon Klinghoffer, before throwing his body and his wheelchair overboard. His corpse washed ashore weeks later.
Following a two-day standoff, the Egyptian government (who were apparently unaware of Klinghoffer’s murder) granted the hijackers safe passage in exchange for securing the freedom of the ship and her passengers. However, on discovering the murder, US Navy F-14 fighters intercepted the Egyptian airliner flying the terrorists to safety and forced it to land in Sicily, where they were arrested, tried, convicted and sentenced to 30 years behind bars. The group’s mastermind, Abu Abbas, was tried in absentia but never served any time in jail for the crime. He later claimed that Klinghoffer had provoked his killers into shooting him by inciting the other passengers. Abbas died in US custody having been captured in Iraq in 2004, following the US invasion.
The Strait of Malacca
The Strait of Malacca is a narrow, 550-mile (900km) long sea-lane between West Malaysia and the Indonesian island of Sumatra. From an economic and strategic point of view this relatively small stretch of water is the most important shipping lane in the world: It is the main channel between the Indian Ocean and the Pacific and the sole route for all Middle Eastern oil bound for China and Japan, and therefore it is a prime stretch of real estate for pirates, who regularly plunder the ships that attempt to pass through it. Piracy in this part of the world is not only a lucrative source of income, but also an important political tool. Historically, the region’s rulers have relied on piracy in the strait to help them maintain control, this route was vital to the spice trade during the 18th and 19th centuries, and today oil has simply replaced spice as the product that drives the world economy.
In addition to robbing merchant vessels of their valuable cargo, pirates in the Malacca Straits also tend to kidnap crew members for ransom. Most of the pirates in this region come from Indonesia, where the rule of law is extremely weak. Some of the pirates are sea robbers, but some are terrorists from the Free Aceh Movement, aiming to put pressure on their governments, or to make money to fund the movement by attacking shipping.
The Nagasaki Spirit
At 23.20pm on 19 September 1992, the hijacked tanker Nagasaki Spirit collided with a container ship named the Ocean Blessing. Pirates had boarded the Nagasaki Spirit at the northern end of the Malacca Strait and removed its captain from command before setting the ship on autopilot and leaving with their hostage, the ship’s master, who they intended to ransom. The Nagasaki Spirit, having been left with nobody at the wheel, careered into the Ocean Blessing, taking the lives of everyone aboard the Blessing and all but two sailors aboard the hijacked ship. The fire on the Blessing burned for an incredible six weeks.
The Port of Eyl - a Modern Pirate Haven
The port of Eyl, in the lawless region of Puntland, Somalia, has become a global centre for piracy in recent years. More than 100 ships were attacked in 2008, over 40 were successfully hijacked and approximately 200 crew members were held for ransom. During their incarceration the majority of these hostages were cared for by the inhabitants of Eyl, indeed the entire town’s economy is built around it, and although the actual number of pirates who take part in attacks is relatively small, the townspeople all rely on this booming industry in order to feed their families. Visitors to the town have reported that, as soon as a ship is captured and boarded, people arrive in Eyl wearing smart suits and ties and carrying laptops, each claiming to be the pirates’ accountant, or their negotiator etc. It is in this way that the town manages to survive, and even prosper, in an area that is so lawless, corrupt and destitute that the people have few other options besides crime.
Puntland Privateers?
It has been suggested that some members of the Puntland administration maintain secret links with the pirates of Eyl and sanction their behaviour on the high seas, thus echoing the relationships forged between British monarchs and privateers of the 16th and 17th centuries. Ultimately men like Sir Francis Drake had the same aims as these Somali pirates, to get rich quick and bring back a portion of the spoils for their fellow countrymen. These Somali pirates may not be as whimsically dressed as Drake, Newport or Modyford, they sail upon speedboats rather than sloops and carry Kalashnikovs, not cutlasses. But their methods are, on the whole, less violent than their British predecessors, many of whom have gone down in history as gentlemen explorers, and even heroes of their age.
The Eyl Method
The pirates of Eyl are exceptionally good at what they do. Their sophisticated operations use cutting-edge technology such as GPS and satellite phones, not to mention highly efficient weapons including rocket-propelled grenades and AK47s. The pirates are known to receive tip-offs from contacts in the Gulf of Aden, in the Arabian Sea, but it is not known exactly who these mysterious contacts are, or who they work for. They travel on speedboats with highly powerful outboard motors to reach their targets, and are sometimes launched from much larger vessels, or ‘mother ships’ further out to sea.
As the speedboat approaches the victim vessel the pirates sometimes fire at the ship in order to scare it into stopping, making it easier to board. Next, they use grappling hooks and irons, some of which are rocket-propelled, to get a hold on the ship before climbing aboard using ropes and ladders. The ship is hijacked and taken into port, the crew become hostages and a ransom message is posted. In contrast with captives of the 16th and 17th centuries, they will be relatively well treated until the ransom has been paid. The going rate for ransom payments is somewhere between US $300,000 and $1.5 million (GBP £168,000 and £838,000), though this clearly depends on the value of the ship, the cargo and the crew. Sometimes, as with the case of the Sirius Star, they command a much higher price.
Sirius Star - The Biggest Hijack in History
The Sirius Star is a super tanker owned by Vela International Marine, a Dubai-based company that also owns another 22 oil tankers, each worth somewhere in the region of US$150 million (GBP£100 million). The Sirius Star is a massive 1090ft (332m) long, three times the size of a US navy aircraft carrier and has a capacity of 2.2 million barrels of crude oil, worth an estimated $100 million (£67 million). This number of barrels equates to over 25 per cent of Saudi Arabia’s daily output of oil. But, crucially, she is staffed by a crew of just 25 men.
On 15 November 2008, this fully loaded tanker was making its way from Saudi Arabia to the United States, via the Cape of Good Hope, when it became the largest and most valuable vessel ever to be captured by pirates. On 17 November the US navy announced to the world’s media that the Sirius Star had been captured by pirates about 450 nautical miles (520 miles, or 830 km) south-east of Mombasa, Kenya. For the Pirates of Eyl to have reached the Sirius Star from such a distance away, they must have been travelling south at high-speed for three or even four days.
The pirates took the ship nearer to port, and on 19 November a man identified as one of the heist’s masterminds, Farah Abd Jameh, made a statement on an audio tape, broadcast by al-Jazeera television, demanding that an undisclosed sum of money be delivered to the oil tanker, where it would be counted by a machine that could detect counterfeit notes. He also remarked that the crew, which consisted of 19 Filipinos, two Britons, two Poles, one Croat and one Saudi Arabian, were being well-treated in accordance with rules governing the treatment of prisoners of war, that they had been allowed to contact their families, that they slept in their usual beds and that the only thing they were missing was their freedom. Marek Nishky, the ship’s captain, was able to confirm this for the BBC, albeit under the scrutiny of his guards. He said the crew were safe and in good shape – if a little bored. He also said that he was not aware of any ransom negotiations taking place. It seemed as if the pirates and their hostages could be in for a wait.
On 20 November the pirates issued another demand, this time stipulating a ransom of US$25 million (GBP£16.7 million), and giving Vela just 10 days to pay up or face disastrous consequences. When this was not paid, rather than begin killing the hostages, a crime rarely committed in these waters, the pirates simply reduced their asking price to US$15 million (GBP£10 million).
In an interesting twist, the hostage-takers found themselves the target of a small faction of Somali Islamic militants, who planned to attack the vessel in retaliation for their seizure of a ‘Muslim’ vessel. Locals in the port reported that this threat forced the pirates to remain offshore whilst negotiations were taking place, and may even have played a part in bringing proceedings to an eventual halt.
On 9 January 2009, after a long and agonizing wait, the Sirius Star was freed by the pirates following receipt of a US$3 million (GBP£1.97 million) ransom payment, which was dropped in by parachute. The BBC later reported that five of the fleeing pirates drowned with their share of the loot when their small boat capsized in a storm off the coast of Somalia. The body of one of the pirates later washed ashore, along with US$153,000 (GBP£100,000) in cash, which had been hastily stashed in a plastic bag. Later, one of the pirates, calling himself Deybad, told reporters that they had no intention of harming the crew. He blamed the recent spate of pirate attacks on the lack of peace in Somalia, and the plunder of its waters by foreign fishing trawlers.
Unstoppable?
Warships from several countries now patrol the Indian Ocean in an attempt to protect what are, after all, some of the world’s busiest shipping lanes. Unfortunately though, this form of intervention does not seem to have deterred the pirates at all, in fact they seem prepared to venture further and further out into open water in order to capture and hijack ships, and their targets seem to be growing ever more ambitious. The area targeted by pirates now totals over 25 per cent of the Indian Ocean, making it impossible to police effectively. Most merchant vessels and tankers choose to traverse these waters via a guarded corridor, and there have been no hijackings within these boundaries since it was set up in August 2008, but those ships that venture out of these waters are extremely vulnerable to attack.
Piracy and Tourism - Linda and Malcolm Robertson
It is not only super tankers and large merchant vessels that fall victim to modern-day pirate attacks. Occasionally unsuspecting tourists wander into the hands of violent sea-robbers, hell-bent on taking whatever they can find, no matter what the consequences.
Linda and Malcolm Robertson, a semi-retired couple from Hastings on the south coast of England, were both qualified yachtmasters who had sailed around the world. In March 2009 they were on an exotic sailing holiday when their yacht was attacked by pirates off the coast of Koh Dong, an island in the south of Thailand. A group of three Burmese fishermen carrying machetes and hammers seized the 44ft (13m) long vessel, named Mr Bean, after swimming to its moorings. They tied up and gagged Linda Robertson, before pushing her below deck where she remained for much of her terrifying 10-hour ordeal. Mr Robertson was killed as he attempted to fight off the attackers. One of the armed men battered him with a hammer before slitting his throat, covering the deck with his blood.
Linda realized her husband had been killed when she was forced on deck to help find the yacht’s fuel switches. ‘As I walked through the blood I realised I was walking through the blood of my husband’ she later told reporters, ‘from that moment on I knew I was just fending for my life, and might have to fight for it or take my chance in the ocean’. By 6am the next morning it had grown light and the boat had been sailing north for a number of hours. The gang enjoyed a picnic of food and drink from the ships galley and ransacked the yacht, grabbing mobile phones, computers, electronic equipment, even donning Mr Robertson’s clothes. It was then that Linda heard a noise, which she later identified as the sound of her husband’s body being deposited onto another boat.
Shortly afterwards Linda was able to make a bid for freedom when she heard the pirates trying to escape in the couple’s small Yamaha dinghy, which she knew had an unreliable engine. She managed to free herself and get out onto deck, where she switched on the ship’s distress system, alerting the authorities to her position; she then ran and pulled up the anchor, which was luckily played out to only 30ft (9.1m). When the dinghy engine started to experience difficulty, Linda feared that they may try to return to the yacht but, incredibly, the pirates made their way to the shore instead, so she hastily started the yacht’s engine and headed out towards a group of fishing boats where she was eventually rescued by police.
The pirates, who were all teenage migrant workers and spoke little English, were caught shortly afterwards. Linda was able to identify them because, unbelievably, they were still wearing her husband’s clothes. They claimed to have escaped from a Thai fishing boat where they were being kept as slaves. After seven days of searching, Mr Robertson’s body was eventually discovered by fishermen, not far from where the yacht was hijacked, in Tarutao National Marine Park, enabling the authorities to charge the three young men with murder. Piracy has not been a common problem in this part of Thailand since WWII – are we likely to experience a resurgence of the kind seen in Somalian waters? Most experts think it unlikely, but only time will tell.