Posted on 04/06/2005 8:37:59 PM PDT by Straight Vermonter
A huge Japanese-owned crude oil tanker came under attack from a gang of pirates in the Singapore Strait but managed to shake them off through the captain's evasion tactics.
``Pirates in seven small fishing boats surrounded the tanker and attempted to board it late Tuesday,'' said Noel Choong, head of the International Maritime Bureau's Kuala Lumpur-based Piracy Reporting Center.
The 150,000-tonne Yohteisan, the length of a football field, was headed east just past the southern tip of the Malacca Strait in heavy rain and poor visibility when the incident occurred near Indonesia's Karimun islands.
Choong said the captain's tactics to shake off the pirates included increasing speed and added that all crew members are safe and the tanker has continued with its journey.
He said the tanker could have posed an environmental disaster if the pirates had succeeded in boarding the ship and taken over control.
``Anything could have happened,'' he said. ``Singapore, of course, will take this attack seriously.''
Another maritime official said tankers the size of the Yohteisan would be ideal for militants to use to block choke points in the narrow Malacca Strait or in the Singapore Strait.
That scenario has been advanced several times recently.
(Excerpt) Read more at thestandard.com.hk ...
Pirates take over a tanker that has sattelite watch dogs over it...
Militants (aka muslim terrorists) or pirates?
Heh--I suspect these ae NOT pirates.
Good idea.
Woo-HOO! We have a winner in 2!
Could be, actually...but a winner nonetheless
If the Strait were closed off by sinking one of these tankers in the worst possible place, how long would it take to clear the passage? Would three days strain the resources of the regions on the receiving end of the transport route? How about a week? A month? Tankers could go around, but service would be interrupted and would be much more expensive, driving the cost of oil up.
In this area of the world they are likely either one - depending on the needs of the day.
Argggggghhhh. An Oil Tanker. That cargo will fetch a pretty price!
This is one of those areas where this stuff has been going on for decades, and suddenly the MSM decided to start writing articles on it, making it look like a new problem.
From an economic and strategic perspective the Strait of Malacca is one of the most important shipping lanes in the world, an equivalent of the Suez Canal, or the Panama Canal. The Strait forms the main ship passageway between the Indian Ocean and the Pacific Ocean, linking three of the world's most populous nations: India, Indonesia and China. The Strait carries 50,000 vessels per year, carrying between one-fifth and one quarter of the world's sea trade. Half of all oil shipments carried by sea come through the Strait, in 2003, an estimated 11 million barrels a day, a trade that is expected to expand as oil consumption rises in China. As the Strait is only one-and-a-half nautical miles wide at its narrowest point, Phillips Channel in the Singapore Strait, it form sone of the world's significant traffic bottlenecks (see link).All these factors have caused the area to become a target for piracy and a perceived target for terrorism. Piracy has been a considerable problem in the Strait in recent years, rising from around 25 attacks in 1994 to a record 220 in 2000. Just over 150 attacks were carried out in 2003. This accounted for around one-third of all piracy in 2003.
The number of attacks rose again in the first half of 2004, and the total number is expected to top the 2000 record. In response to the rising crisis, the Malaysian, Indonesian and Singaporean navies stepped up their patrols of the area in July 2004.
Fears of terrorism rest on the possibility that a large ship could be pirated and sunk at a shallow point in the Strait (it is just 25m deep at its shallowest part), effectively blocking the Strait. If successfully achieved, the attack would have a devastating effect on world trade. Opinions amongst security specialists differ about the feasibility and likelihood of such an attack.
Strait of Malacca
Seven fishing boats vs an oil tanker? Couldn't the tanker simply disgorge fifty thousand gallons of payload and then light a match?
``Pirates in seven small fishing boats surrounded the tanker and attempted to board it late Tuesday,''
I would think that if it was a planned terrorist operation, it would have been immediately sunk. Something doesn't seem right with this version of events. JMO
I wonder why Lloyds does not required an armed crew/ship. I would think a Bofors system could be adapted to deal with these situations.
Standard policy is not to resist at all. Though I think water cannons have been used some.
Hell, you could man it with a bunch of squids from this site as a vacation cruise.
"Standard policy is not to resist at all. Though I think water cannons have been used some."
Personally I prefer a diesel cannon and the last remnants of a stogie.
I don't know if this is against maritime laws or not...but have some of these companies thought about arming the sailors aboard these ships?
Or how 'bout placing a small security detail aboard each ship?
Nothing says Hello (to a pirate) better than a blazing .50 caliber machine gun.
It seems like the cost of arming the sailors or having a security detail would be cheaper than losing an entire ship.
Opinions anyone?
In World War II they had a gun mounted on merchant ships and I think a military gunner aboard.
Probably wouldn't be a bad idea today.
How about a market based solution? Someone could start selling security escorts through the strait. Pick up the heavy hitters off the coast of Singapore then drop them off on the other side of the strait.
I think many cargo ships of various kinds do routinely carry weapons. I don't know about the big company supertankers and such, but it wouldn't surprise me at all.
The best weapon they have though, is the ship itself, and maneuvering. A three or four hundred foot tanker moving at full ahead is not something anybody will wanna come very close to, especially if they are trying to not be boarded.
Boarding a ship that big moving at speed is not a trivial problem. It's complex enough when the crew is trying to help you board, but if they are in a "repel boarders" mode... its gonna be tough to pull off. Somebody pulls close aboard and tosses a grapple up... they're pretty much going to die if they think they can climb that rope.
Terrorists will simply use a mine.
Those guys were pirates.
According to the article they have not killed anyone despite all the piracy they have done. I'd think they would be more ruthless if they were terrorists, they could just be locals with little or no options to provide for their village. Is this an area where the infrastructure was wiped out by the tsunami?
I'm not sure this straight is even small enough water to have one sunk ship seriously impair navigation. I haven't been through there, but from the diagram it looks like a pretty big crick.
No. The Strait of Malacca was unaffected by the Tsunami.
Oh, they're pirates alright. That whole corner of the world, from Indonesia around to Yemen... is just lousy with them.
It does sound a little odd that they'd go after an oil tanker... just 'cause if they're after stealing the cargo and pocketing the money, not many ports can handle that sort of clandestine offload.
It's wider than the English Channel.
http://www.factmonster.com/ce6/world/A0831307.html
But if worse case, if it's floating it could be pulled away from the scene. If it's not the USAF could bomb it into tiny bits within a few hours (Diego Garcia is pretty close). And the SEALs could destroy any protruding metal that interferes with ships.
Any info on the Methane Tanker that was hijacked last month?
Yes, merchant ships wer armed.
Nice shot of somebody sitting on a Liberty Ship's deck gun.
http://ontour.blogs.com/photos/san_francisco/david_on_liberty_ship_at_san_fran2.html
And
http://ontour.blogs.com/photos/san_francisco/jonathan_trying_to_remember_boy_scout_tr.html
http://www.usmm.org/libertyships.html
Libertys carried a crew of about 44 and 12 to 25 Naval Armed Guard. Some were armed with:
One 4 inch stern gun
Two 37 mm bow guns
Six 20 mm machine guns
http://www.cr.nps.gov/nr/twhp/wwwlps/lessons/116liberty_victory_ships/116facts2.htm
Victory ships typically carried a crew of 62 civilian merchant sailors and 28 naval personnel to operate defensive guns and communications equipment. The crew quarters were located amidships. The Victory ships were different from the Liberty ships primarily in propulsion, the steam engine of the Liberty giving way to the more modern, faster steam turbine.
That last link was really interesting....thanks.
Sure, the speed boats can catch the tanker... but boarding is not a simple thing. There's a pretty massive bow wave combined with whatever seas are there at the time... and if the captain is doing some snaky curves, rocking the ship and twisting left and right... trying to board would be something more than a small adventure.
right about the armed ships of ww2---they called the gun crews US Navy 'armed guard'--the merchant marine crews got the high risk pay and the 'swabbies' had to settle for 21-30 bucks a month even tho' the risks were equal but no one wants to talk about that--ww2 naval service vet
Sorry, I was going by the posted article, which stated - ``Pirates in seven small fishing boats surrounded the tanker and attempted to board it late Tuesday,''
Amen--lots of fun climbing a rope ladder up the side of a ship, especially in rain or snow and ice---even if the ship is moving 'dead slow' you have to contend with the bow wave riding back along the side and the sea height of waves as well---brings back memories of the months I spent on "Security Boarding Detail" for New York harbor with the US Coast Guard after war was declared in Dec '41--eating and sleeping (when off duty) was an experience on some of the filthy foriegn freighters that came into port (Americans never know how good we really have it)---most of them did not want us on board anyway and did nothing to make life pleasant at the time---however, it was a wee bit better than Atlantic Sea Frontier patrols on an 83 ft wood hulled cutter and D-Day at Normandy with CG Resflo 1 (and to think that it took years before I learned the Coast Guard never was a Normandy, according to my local veterans service officer)--God Bless and keep our troops
Roger that, Shipmate.
CGC Polar Sea, and CGC Resolute here. Was a QM2. Did many boardings.
CMoMM here from those wonderful, clean lined ,bouncing little cutters--hey, we had a refrigerator in the galley and you could dry your clothes in the engineroom--in those days, it was a luxury---memories, memories, how they flow thru' the mind--Semper Paratus
8^)
Nam Vet
I have heard of them getting successfully aboard freighters, but agree it would be damned difficult under the circumstances you describe. I always keep a good distance from freighters and tankers off Miami, anyway it makes the skippers nervous if you come close.
That's a rather small tanker actually.
Glad they got away.
Not if it isn't the O'Brien at San Francisco, I don't.
But, since you are a Nam Vet (Thanks!) I may very well have shipped you some ammo, grenades, bombs, or other goodies, mainly via Victory Ships. I worked the Naval Weapons Station, Port Chicago (Calif) docks in the late 60's.
We also had a few old scows owned by States Lines, as well as some 'independents' to load, and I do believe we had a wheezy, creaky, Liberty come in once or twice.
The Navy docks for Navy ammunition ships (IIRC, USS Pyro, and one or two others) were downstream from us. We loaded the DOD shipments to Cam Rahn, Da Nang, Subic Bay, etc.
Then, rob the crew of their personals and cash, and hat up!
Somebody sinks a big ship out in the straits these fellows are out of business.
"This is one of those areas where this stuff has been going on for decades, and suddenly the MSM decided to start writing articles on it, making it look like a new problem."
It's been happening about once or twice a week for years now and thats just the cases that are reported.
4/7/05: 'Pirate' Forces Run-Off Election At N.C. State
Earlier thread on FR:
'Pirate' On Ballot For Student Body President At N.C. State
I think running into them and sinking them would be a good choice too...
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