[nikimcbee]

These include:

• Convoys. Already done in the case of aid ships going into Kenyan and Somali ports
• Arming the crews. The crews might not want this, though in the latest case the American crew of cargo ship Maersk Alabama did fight back
• Arming merchant ships with heavy guns. Ship owners might not want to risk an engagement at sea
• luring pirates into attacking apparently unarmed ships which then declared themselves as warships. Would this be in "accordance with international law"?

Other ideas suggested would appeal to officers Denman and Decatur.
(Update: I have had a flood of further e-mails, for which many thanks. The plans proposed range from having submarines on stand-by to surface when needed, to 'Q-ships' (armed, disguised merchantmen), to immediate sinking, to blockades, to invasion. The general feeling is that governments and navies are too weak. There have been a few writers, though, who say that the real problem is in Somalia itself and that the pirates take to their trade because they cannot make a living in other ways.)

I see the author has been tapping subsim's knowledge base!