Somali Pirates hit a new high... er low

AntEater · 11-17-08, 02:11 PM

Actually the title should be:
"Pirates go to new (ship) lenghts"
:rotfl:

Re convoying, the problem with that is that international maritime trade is a merciless business. Some pilots of airlines complain about underfunded maintenace and low wages, in merchant traffic, these are standard.
Ships and crews are pretty much considered expendable, all the more because most of the ships are second hand and most of the crews are not from the same country as the owners.
Convoying would cost shipping companies more than losing the odd ship and crew to pirates.
Also, these ships are usually flagged under cheap flags. And as far as I know neither Liberia nor Cyprus are renowned naval powers.
Also, the great shipping companies like Maersk or HAPAG-Lloyd are not the ones to lose ships.
HAPAG ships give Somalia a wide berth and move quite fast, above 17 knots. At high seas, a Dhow or RHIB will have trouble catching them. Not to mention that for those companies, neither ships nor crew are expendable, some of them even register their ships under their national flag(!).
It is the bottom tier of maritime traffic that suffers, and those companies do not have the political leverage Maersk, P&O or HAPAG have.

11-17-08, 02:11 PM	#6
AntEater Grey Wolf Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: Germany Posts: 936 Downloads: 0 Uploads: 0	Actually the title should be: "Pirates go to new (ship) lenghts" :rotfl: Re convoying, the problem with that is that international maritime trade is a merciless business. Some pilots of airlines complain about underfunded maintenace and low wages, in merchant traffic, these are standard. Ships and crews are pretty much considered expendable, all the more because most of the ships are second hand and most of the crews are not from the same country as the owners. Convoying would cost shipping companies more than losing the odd ship and crew to pirates. Also, these ships are usually flagged under cheap flags. And as far as I know neither Liberia nor Cyprus are renowned naval powers. Also, the great shipping companies like Maersk or HAPAG-Lloyd are not the ones to lose ships. HAPAG ships give Somalia a wide berth and move quite fast, above 17 knots. At high seas, a Dhow or RHIB will have trouble catching them. Not to mention that for those companies, neither ships nor crew are expendable, some of them even register their ships under their national flag(!). It is the bottom tier of maritime traffic that suffers, and those companies do not have the political leverage Maersk, P&O or HAPAG have. __________________ Last edited by AntEater; 11-17-08 at 02:17 PM.