"UK passengers attacked by pirates
5 November 2005

A luxury cruise liner carrying British passengers has been attacked by pirates firing a rocket propelled grenade and machine guns.

The Bahamas-registered Seabourn Spirit was 100 miles off the coast of Somalia in Africa when the attack took place.Terrified passengers were woken by the sound of gunfire as two 25 foot rigid inflatable boats came up to the liner and started shooting as their occupants tried to get on aboard.

The ship was carrying 302 passengers and crew, but there was only one casualty - a crew member suffered minor injuries from flying debris.

It is not believed that the bazooka fire struck the ship, but it was hit by small arms fire. The vessel escaped with only minor damage.

The crew used an on-board loud acoustic bang to repel the attackers who finally sped off without managing to board the liner. They did not return fire at the pirates.

The drama happened in an area notorious for pirate activity, leading to warnings to stay away from the coast where bandits board ships and demand ransoms.

David Dingle, a spokesman for the Miami-based company Seabourn Cruises, owned by US cruise giant Carnival, said Britons were aboard but he could not confirm the number.

He said the ship was en route to Mombasa in Kenya on a 16-day cruise out of Alexandria in Egypt.

The 10,000-ton liner offers the height of luxury, with huge suites, marble bathrooms and more than one crew member to each passenger on board. Most of the passengers are believed to be American."

Which is what all the other reports say except CNN, who elaborate by speaking to a passenger 'Rogers' who stated "I believe one of the grenades actually went off in one of the cabins, but everyone on board is fine.".. Hmmmmmm, He would 'know' if it had, not 'think'..

This does not bode well for cruise ships in the area

This is one more event that should persuade the governments of Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore to step up security in the Straits of Malacca. Too many lives are at stake here to be lax.

Regards,

Mike

[ 11-05-2005: Message edited by: Deck 9 001 ]

Pam, truly shocking report. A HUNDRED miles off the coast !!

Interesting, the article said the liner did not return fire. This seems to suggest that guns are carried.
Do cruise ships carry weapons I wonder ?

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PamM wrote:
This does not bode well for cruise ships in the area.

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The Somalis especially of late have been very active, and at 100 miles off the coast and at night this was a daring attempt. I am sure they were after not just money and valuables but also wealthy passengers to kidnap for ransoms. I think the best solution for now would be navy escorts. Expensive but effective.

******

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Deck 9 001 wrote:
This is one more event that should persuade the governments of Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore to step up security in the Straits of Malacca. Too many lives are at stake here to be lax.

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So far the ‘pirates’ in the Straits of Malacca haven’t tried attacking cruise ships...but I do agree the three governments need to work harder, especially the Indonesians who seem to be slack on many things.

******

I expect there is a gun under lock and key aboard? I thought water cannons were one of the best deterrants against pirates, not heard of the 'acoustic bang' way before.

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PamM wrote:
I am wondering if the Somalis had any idea of what the vessel actually was before attacking?...

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Either they didn’t know and guessed while they were sweeping the shipping lanes or they have schedules and are equipped with gear (probably stolen) to monitor shipping movements.

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...there are too many people aboard cruiseships for 2 small craft to take over easily, unless firearms/grenades are used [which they had], but they then run the risk of sinking the vessel instead, and probably themelves along with it. 100 miles is a long way off shore.

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The pirates would attack the ship while the guests would be asleep and only when a few of the crew would be on watch. They would also try to board the ship without having to fire. The firearms would obviously be used to injure and kill (if necessary), but the grenades and other explosive devices would be used to incapacitate the ship rather than to sink it, unless they are terrorists or they are stupid.

******

And Pam, remember that a relatively small bunch of terrorists managed to take over a relatively large ship once, the "Achile Lauro."

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And, as others have said, cruise ships definitely carry arms. They have impressive security details (frequently comprised of Nepalese)....

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Wow, a Special Boat Squadron version of the Gurkhas!

On Achille Lauro the guys were already aboard, with their weapons, and were prompted into early unplanned for action with their discovery by a crew member, or so I understood anyway? They didn't have to try and surprise, board from sea level and take over at the same time. In 1985 perhaps they still may have managed that, but I would hope not. Ship's crew are far more wary and astute these days. On QE2 they have extra lookouts on deck and man the water guns when passing through the South China Seas, maybe they have acoustic bangs too.

On freighters/tankers etc, there may only be a dozen or less crew aboard; 24 eyes as against a few hundred on cruiseships.

Unfortunately, the photo is not included in the online version of the story:

This I just saw on Fox at 1600 EST:
Beneath a slide of the ship, the title "Pirates attack ship packed with Americans"

Hmmmm.... I heard most of the pax were Bits.
Then, from the breathy female anchor:

"and I suppose most of the passengers were rich, with gambling money and jewels...all of those black tie dinners and such"

Party on other end,(I did not get an ID)
"We have no idea what their objectives are"

Female anchor:
" ..and you mean to say that they are just going on with their cruise, in spite of this?"

Response: "Certainly...."

Dialogue continued with CruiseLine respondent countering the dumbest and most uninformed questions I could imagine.

But, I must observe, CNN was not much better. Both seemed to be "astounded" that the cruise would continue.

What alternatives were considered will be left as an exercise for the reader.

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Originally posted by Cambodge:
I have just watched a most-uninformative coverage of this incident on Fox News. For the benefit of those outside the USA, Fox is a loud, right-wing, pretty-much "garbage" channel, sort of like the lower class Brit tabloids. But occasionally they are worth viewing.

This I just saw on Fox at 1600 EST:
Beneath a slide of the ship, the title "Pirates attack ship packed with Americans"

Hmmmm.... I heard most of the pax were Bits.
Then, from the breathy female anchor:

"and I suppose most of the passengers were rich, with gambling money and jewels...all of those black tie dinners and such"

Party on other end,(I did not get an ID)
"We have no idea what their objectives are"

Female anchor:
" ..and you mean to say that they are just going on with their cruise, in spite of this?"

Response: "Certainly...."

Dialogue continued with CruiseLine respondent countering the dumbest and most uninformed questions I could imagine.

But, I must observe, CNN was not much better. Both seemed to be "astounded" that the cruise would continue.

What alternatives were considered will be left as an exercise for the reader.

I am thinking of the old H.L. Menken quote. "No one ever lost money underestimating the intelligence of the American People"

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I have sailed on this ship on this positioning voyage on two occasions and it is usually a delightful cruise with a lot of sea days good and calm weather.

The call for passengers at Djibouti was stopped some years ago but it was planned to call for bunkers only so she may well have been tailed from there. One report suggested that the raiders may have come from a cargo ship which was seen nearby.

Usually the Spirit has a senior safety officer on board and has it the past had two gurkhas on this voyage as well. She also now has barred rails which hinge down on the lower working deck at the stern to make it more difficult to atempt to board her.

Slightly surprising that the ship could outrun two inflatables as her top speed is little more than 17.5 knots and I guess she would have been doing over 14 knots for the run to Mombasa anyway.

She now appears to be arriving in the Seychelles on Monday which is 4 days earlier than she would have arrived if she had gone to Mombasa first which was an embarkation port.

I suspect the outcome of this may well be she will not carry passengers through the Red Sea again and proceed on this sector without passenger as she has done before when there were troubles in the area.

I would expect that Americans and Britains on board would be equal in number on this sector as Americans tend to stay clear of this area and don't like on the whole a large number of days at sea.

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Frosty 4 wrote:
Maybe "Sea Marshals" similar to Air Marshals should be on board. I'm almost sure that since 9/11 the security personnel has plans to combat these events.

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The “Sea Marshals” would have to be on watch 24hours a day or at least on their job at night from sundown to sunrise. They would also have to be armed or have access to firearms or other weapons.

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The ships radar probably gave them some warning as to approaching vessels.

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Yes, they would have been picked up on radar, but unless the radar is manned or checked regularly while the ship is in open sea on less frequented shipping lanes it would make little difference. I also wonder whether any of these rigid inflatable boats are built so they aren’t visible on radar.

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A few RPGs on board would have probably sunk these rubber craft.

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I doubt very much that cruise ships now will have to carry such arms.

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And would you stop to pick up survivors?? I wouldn't think so!! Do cruise ships have Brigs???

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Cruise ships do have something you’d call a brig, and yes, they would be picked up. They’d be handed over to the authorities at the first port of call. Then they’d be interrogated or, if you prefer, tortured. They could also be executed and shown publicly on TV for the others to get a clear message.

******

Cheers

[ 11-05-2005: Message edited by: bulbousbow ]

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PeterUK wrote:
...One report suggested that the raiders may have come from a cargo ship which was seen nearby...Usually the Spirit has a senior safety officer on board and has it the past had two gurkhas on this voyage as well...

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Probably one of the several ships the Somali pirates hijacked these year. If they had the Gurkhas on board SPIRIT was obviously prepared, and I think they would have knowing the history of this place lately.

******

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Originally posted by Cambodge:
Hmmmm.... I heard most of the pax were Bits.

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The Bahamian-registered ship was carrying 302 passengers and crew, most of them are believed to be Americans as well as some Britons.

Here's the image of some of the pirates from FOX:

And if you go to www.foxnews.com, and then click on 'FREE VIDEO' (on the right), in the window that opens click on 'Pirates Strike' which is about a three-minute video and has a few more details on passenger numbers (Americans in the 40s, Brits in the 20s, if I recall correctly) and some passenger comments. Sorry, there's no way (that I can find) to directly link to the video.

And here's a story from CNN (there's also a video from CNN but you must go to their homepage to find it -- sorry, no direct link again):
http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/africa/11/05/somalia.pirates/index.html

Some interesting excerpts:
Passenger Mike Rogers of Vancouver, Canada, said the pirates were shooting and sending rockets at the boat.

"The captain tried to run one of the boats over, but they were small boats, about 25 feet long," he told CNNRadio affiliate CKNW in Vancouver.

"Each one had four or five people on it, and (the captain) said he was going to do anything to keep them from getting on board."

The captain, however, did not hit the alarm button to alert passengers of the emergency, Rogers said.

"He announced it over the speakers, because he was scared people would run up on deck, and he didn't want people on deck because they would have been shot."

The cruise ship eventually outran the pirates' boats, Natansohn said. One person suffered minor injuries, she said, but did not elaborate.

"There's some minor damage done to the ship," Rogers said. "There's no water right now, for instance, in some places, and I believe one of the grenades actually went off in one of the cabins, but everyone on board is fine."

[ 11-05-2005: Message edited by: jsea ]

It does not look 25' to me, and what was the guy with the stick going to do?