April 26, 2009
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Goodness. I daresay those were some surprised pirates!
Who expects to be fired upon by a cruise ship?
That’s what happened, though, when a speedboat carrying six pirates attacked the MSC Melody (an Italian line’s ship) and tried to board it.
Turns out the ship had Israeli guards aboard for just such a contingency and they fired back with pistols and hit ‘em with streams from water hoses.
The pirates retreated but chased the ship for another twenty minutes, firing constantly, before giving up (doubtless in deep frustration).
Here’s a stock photo of the ship in question:
To be honest, ISTM cruise ships ought to try hard to stay out of those waters. I fear one of these days some pirates will manage to board (they were climbing up the side of the Melody) one and that’s going to be an ugly situation indeed.
Comments (3)
My heavens! Actually, the exclamation is more for the idea of pirates boarding a cruise ship, than for the fact that they got fired upon. I guess pirates should expect to be fired upon by anybody and everybody.
Cruise ships ought to stay out of the area until freight lines and governments find a way to deal effectively with the problem. But ultimately, entire parts of the planet shouldn’t be ceded to criminal bands. Long term, we can’t be content with it being impossible to for any kind of ship to get safely from the Mediterranean to the Indian Ocean.
I feel sorry for the pirates. They need other work! The captured pirate was said to weigh about 80 lb, and that they used to make a living catching fish. But farmed fisheries have put them out of business. He said they needed money, they were hungry and needed food.
Someone needs to go after the thugs who hire these poor souls to do their dirty work. My 2 cents.
The pirate in jail will get fattened up!