The Beluga Fortune, one of the three ships we reported taken by pirates over the weekend, has been retaken as a result of the crews use of recommended countermeasures.
The US Naval Institute Blog has more details on the recapture, facilitated by HMS Montrose (a 4300 ton British Type 23 frigate–same size as the NSC). They also discuss the latest information on best practices for mariners to avoid being taken by pirates, now published as a 78 page pamphlet entitled “BMP3, Best Management Practice 3, Piracy off the Coast of Somalia and Arabian Sea Area.” A pdf copy of the manual is available here: http://www.mschoa.org/bmp3/Documents/BMP3%20Final_low.pdf
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The BMP mentions several times about not using arms. Could someone explain this to me. I’ve spent a lot of time on small craft at sea, and a wee bit on ships at sea. It seems to me a couple of guys armed with scoped 30-06’s would have a relatively easy time dissuading these folks from coming to visit. You are on a relatively stable platform, they are bouncing around.. Appears to be a very cost effective solution.
Certainly not everyone agrees. The last paragraph in the USNI article, “The guide is negative on the use of defensive force such as weapons and pyrotechnics, which I disagree with (As noted here ‘Armed Merchant Ship Crews Will Not Escalate The Pirate Problem‘ http://blog.usni.org/2009/07/17/armed-merchant-ship-crews-will-not-escalate-the-pirate-problem/and here ‘On Defending Unarmed Merchant Ships Against Pirates‘ http://fredfryinternational.blogspot.com/2008/12/on-defending-unarmed-merchant-ships.html), but otherwise it is a good guide and resource for vessels transiting the area to reduce their risk of being taken over by pirates.”
In fact the US government encourages contracting security companies that provide armed guards. I previously recommended assigning a squad of marines to the few US flag ships that transit the area.
Even so there are difficulties in having weapons on merchant ships, though it has been done before so there have to be ways around it.
Merchant ships can and do carry weapons, in particular Zim Lines ships are almost always in possesion of small arms. They typical have them secured in an armory with restricted access when in US ports.