November 5, 2005

• Sometimes it's easy to relegate piracy on the high seas to the past and
  "Talk Like A Pirate" Day, but in fact, it's still going on.  This
  very day pirates attacked the mucho-upscale Seabourn Spirit
  off the east African coast, using a grenade launcher and machine
  guns.  Fortunately the Seabourn's crew is trained to avoid such
  chicanery and managed to outrun the pirates, foiling their attempts to
  board the ship.  One crew member was slightly injured by flying
  debris, as the ship suffered a modest amount of damage.  According
  to the news article, Somalia's coastal waters are "notorious" for pirate attacks.

  The ship's passengers were woken about 5:30 am (their time) and herded
  into a common room for safety.  I can understand why, according to
  this bit of narrative from a British passenger:

  [P]assenger Norman Fisher, 55, from Hampstead Garden Suburb in London, said he had seen some of the attackers.
  

  "One of them clearly had a rifle. Later I realised that two of them had rifles and one had some kind of rocket launcher.
  

  "They were firing the rifle and then fired the rocket
  launcher twice. One of the rockets certainly hit the ship - it went
  through the side of the liner into a passenger's suite. The couple were
  in there at the time so it was a bit of an unpleasant experience."
  

  [faintly]  Yes, I daresay it was a bit of an unpleasant experience, having a rocket come zooming into one's cabin.

  • 3:21 pm
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