[bradclark1]

Originally Posted by Tribesman

The French operating out of Djibouti are already doing it .
But your ship has to be able to maintain the required speed .
You have to book 10 days in advance .
Only one convoy operates so its a case of waiting if you are going up the gulf but the convoy is coming down .
Only 2 civilian ships in the convoy are allowed armed military personel on board as there are only 2 military vessels escorting and it isn't a state of war .
Extra ships that are not booked on the convoy are allowed to tag along , but get no guarantee of protection or assistance .

However , the French are providing the service free of charge .

Unfortunately not .
Leaving aside the legal/insurance issues the fact remains that in the main the first the crew know about the attack is when the pirates have already boarded and either siezed control of the ship or taken hostages .
The recent incident in the Gulf of Aden where a shipping company had hired armed guards illustrates this well , the two British guards jumped overboard as the pirates had already taken control before they had noticed it happening and they were powerless in a hostage situation .
As for the possible "rightious" problems you only have to look at the Indian Navy sinking the pirates "mothership" last month .
It wasn't a "mothership" it was a newly captured fishing boat with all its crew on board , the pirates escaped in their speed boats and all the fishermen (except one who was left drifting for six days) were killed by the Indian frigate .
Slightly embarrasing on the "righteous" front eh ?

The obvious thing would be to have a force larger then two people. Kind of half arsed stupid. You have enough men for 360 degree observation while in the danger zone. Considering the security is there for security and not engaged in mothership attacking it's a none issue. Leave attacking to national navies.
I don't know what you mean by legal/insurance issues. I would assume insurance wouldn't like to pay out a ransom or loss of a ship and I would also assume that the pirates wouldn't sue for not being allowed to pirate a ship or file assult charges for getting shot.