Maersk Virginia escapes pirate attack

[tocqueville]

Source: Marine Log

May 22, 2009
Maersk Virginia escapes pirate attack

Another Maersk Line Limited U.S.-flag ship--the Maersk Virginia--has had a brush with Somali pirates. Media reports say that an attack on the ship was foiled this morning by Canadian and Italian naval helicopters.

The incident occurred after naval helicopters thwarted an attack on the St. Vincent and Grenadines registered Maria K. The pirates then turned their attention to the Maersk Virginia. That attack, too, was interrupted by naval helicopters.

Media reports differ on which helicopters from HMCS Winnipeg and which from the Italian frigate Maestrale did what, but the upshot is that the Maestrale arrived on scene and nine pirate suspects are now in detention on board the Italian warship.

Read more: http://www.marinelog.com/DOCS/NEWSMMIX/2009may00221.html

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here is another account

Friday morning suspected pirates attacked two different merchant vessels in the Gulf of Aden. A distress call was picked up by the Italian EU NAVFOR warship MAESTRALE that immediately sent a helicopter to the area. The pirates however turned their interest towards another merchant vessel being in the area, a Danish owned ship. By a boarding team thereafter sent out from the MAESTRALE, after arriving at the scene, the nine pirates were captured. They are at present being detained at the MAESTRALE for further investigation.

http://bruxelles2.over-blog.com/article-31741184.html

somewhat conflicting account :

As the helicopters made for the vessel, the pirates broke off the attack on the Maria K towards the Maersk Virginia.

The Canadian helicopters were then joined by an Italian helicopter.

When confronted by the helicopters, the pirates gave up their attack and threw their weapons overboard. The pirate vessel was later boarded by Italian navy forces.

The Maersk Virginia is part of the US Maritime Security Programme, the same fleet as the Maersk Alabama, which was hijacked in April. Its master was held captive on a lifeboat for four days before being rescued by US forces.

http://www.lloydslist.com/ll/news/maersk-virginia-escapes-pirate-attack/20017654310.htm;jsessionid=E6DAE7A2A18A3885F69C969E36AA0ABD

the 19 Americans aboard are safe



the italian frigate "Maestrale"

[kestrel91316]

1. Maybe word needs to get back to Somalia that pirates, when caught,

will get the old-fashioned perp walk down the plank. Maybe they would think twice if it were done, and done 100% of the time.

[tocqueville]

2. the standard sentence is now seven years in a Kenyan jail

Kenya has now proposed to create an international (UN-ratified) anti-piracy tribunal. They are only asking for money (got already 1.7 million Euros from EU), and it would be a good solution. NATO, EU and Russia are for. It would be prestigious for an African country to have such a tribunal and it's better if the prisoners are detained under decent forms in Africa and not in the "attacked countries". Kenya has ratified the Montego Bay treaty and its anti-piracy clause long ago.

deterrence by "extraordinary justice" is always a bad solution and creates more problems than it solves. Besides isn't there a clause against "cruel and unusual punishment" in US law ?

[kestrel91316]

3. We have the death penalty in the US, if you're wondering.

Who says the US needs to be involved. Frankly, if the neighboring countries decided to step up to the plate and deal with it aggressively enough to scare hell out of the Somali pirates, I wouldn't give a tinker's damn.

This nonsense needs to stop.

[tocqueville]

4. you don't sentence people to death for robbing a bank

or taking hostages, unless someone is murdered on purpose. Why should different standards be applied to Somalians ?

If death penalty had been an efficient deterrent against armed robberies, it would be known.

And the US is automatically involved since it's a target. It can choose to prosecute at home or abroad, or both. What are you going to do with the teen who was captured during the previous Maersk intervention ? Try him then fry him ? Besides creating international outrage, it would make only things worse by escalating the situation.

[ohio2007]

7. you sound like a congressman that votes YEA to bail outs

nice to see you promoting people take such liberties as to rob banks as long as "they are cool" about it

[tocqueville]

9. there is no death penalty for theft in the civilized world

nearest you can come is Iran or China.

I am not "promoting" anything. I only say that the penalty for a crime must be proportionate. Executing a pirate who has not killed anybody in a premeditated way is a denial of justice.

and wtf does it have to do with bailouts ?

sometimes when I read some posts on DU I wonder where is the difference from RW mentality.

Do you know that the US has the highest prison rate in the world and the highest violent crime rate in comparable countries, despite death penalty.

Something must be deadly wrong

[The Croquist]

6. You're doing better then I did on a previous thread

I suggested hanging and was told that, that was a bad idea in less then a polite way.

This really is a tough situation. If the US captures and holds them as in the case of the kid from the Maersk Alabama hijacking you risk other US citizens being held for exchange. If you execute them either summarily or after a trial (I have no qualms with either) you risk other US citizens being killed in retribution. Neither is appealing.

One thing I don't understand is the logistics of all this. These ships are not sailing right off the coast of Somalia so the pirates aren't using just a speedboat but "Mother Ships". These ships are relatively big and I would think easy to identify. Can't we monitor the coastline of Somalia to find them and then watch them by either satellite or plane/drone? Maybe we can plant a GPS transponder on them and just monitor them? We're talking about Somalia here. How much legitimate shipping can be going on? What ship in their right mind is going to pull into a harbor in Somalia without an armed escort? If you see a ship that is docked there, leaves towing a few speedboats and returns a day or two later it's probably a mother ship. Maybe they also double as fishing vessels which would make them harder to spot but how many fishing ships tow speedboats behind them? If they carry the speedboats internally then they probably don't have room to carry fishing gear or to store the fish.

Now obviously I don't know what I'm talking about. I am just throwing out ideas.

[Blue_Tires]

8. from what i understand the mother ships mingle with real fishing ships

and they know how to 'act' legitimate and harmless when they need to...

[tocqueville]

10. would you support summarily execution

if the person was American ?

I guess not

Besides some technicalities :

- the motherships are not "big". They are in most case an open boat that can carry 12 people + gear. THe smaller skiffs are just towed.

- the coasts of Somalia, Kenya, Seychellses, Aden are monitored by maybe up to 40 warships currently, few of them being American. The aerial reconnaissance is made by two planes (land based) and drones all belonging to the EU or NATO. This number is going to increase, but there is still an area of the size of maybe one fifth of the US to monitor.

- using satellites to monitor such vast areas with accuracy exists only in movies. Even if a small boat like that was identified by a satellite, you'll have anyway to send a patrol to verify to avoid collateral damage. MOST of the small boats in the area are innocent fishing boats.

All this discussion is symptomatic of the fundamental error that the US military has done since WWII. One cannot fight "gerillas" with WWII methods. The lessons of Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan haven't been learned. The methods only cause huge collateral damage and the situation worsens.

The US Navy is ageing rapidly and has to rely on Allied forces to do that kind of job. So far the Allies have been quite successfull, since 80% of the arrested attacking pirates have been captured, tried and sentenced. This is the result of a campaign that started last fall. Before there was practically nothing.

"How much legitimate shipping can be going on? What ship in their right mind is going to pull into a harbor in Somalia without an armed escort?"

most do (all do) if you mean besides the navies escorts to the harbours. Most of what is shipped is food aid. The locals are not very keen of attacking the food, the potential ransom value is lost when the ship gets into the harbour.

[Lasher]

5. What happens to the pirate mother ships in these cases?

I hope they're not sent back to Somalia.