Posted on 11/07/2005 7:54:58 PM PST by NormsRevenge
MAHE, Seychelles - Pirates who attacked a cruise ship off the coast of Somalia grinned as they aimed grenade-launchers and machine guns at the deck and staterooms, some passengers said Monday, recounting the ordeal after safely docking in this Indian Ocean archipelago.
The ship escaped by shifting to high speed and changing course, and the cruise line said Monday the crew also used a sonic weapon, which blasts earsplitting noise in a directed beam, as it tried to ward off the attack.
"I tell you, it was a very frightening experience," Charles Supple, of Fiddletown, Calif., said by phone.
The retired physician and World War II veteran said he started to take a photograph of a pirate craft, and "the man with the bazooka aimed it right at me and I saw a big flash.
"Needless to say, I dropped the camera and dived. The grenade struck two decks above and about four rooms further forward," he said. "I could tell the guy firing the bazooka was smiling."
The Seabourn Spirit had been bound for Kenya when it was attacked by pirates armed with grenade launchers and machine guns on Saturday about 100 miles off Somalia's lawless coast.
The sonic device that helped ward off the attack, known as a Long Range Acoustic Device, or LRAD, is a so-called "non-lethal weapon" developed for the military after the 2000 attack on the USS Cole in Yemen as a way to keep operators of small boats from approaching U.S. warships. Makers of the device compare its shrill tone to that of smoke detectors, only much louder.
The gunmen never got close enough to board the cruise ship, but one member of the 161-person crew was injured by shrapnel, according to the Miami-based Seabourn Cruise Line, a subsidiary of Carnival Corp.
Relieved holiday-makers praised the ship's captain for foiling the attack, but some said they were lucky to escape with their lives.
A woman survived an explosion in her stateroom simply because she was taking a bath at the time. Others flung themselves to the floor to avoid bullets that were zipping through the ship, Charles Forsdick, of Durban, South Africa, told Associated Press Television News.
Bob Meagher of Sydney, Australia, said he climbed out of bed and went to the door of his cabin shortly before 6 a.m. after hearing a commotion outside.
"I saw a white-hulled boat with men in it waving various things and shooting at the ship — at that stage it appeared to be rifle fire," he told Australian radio.
"My wife said, 'Look, they're loading a bazooka,' which we later discovered was called an RPG (rocket-propelled grenade) launcher."
"There was a flash of flame and then a huge boom — a terrible boom sound," he said, adding the grenade hit about 10 feet from where they were.
The liner had been at the end of a 16-day voyage from Alexandria, Egypt.
Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said Monday that the attackers might have been terrorists. Others said the attack bore the hallmarks of pirates who have become increasingly active off Somalia, which has no navy and has not had an effective central government since 1991.
___
AP Business Writer John Pain contributed to this report from Miami.
This photo provided by ABC News purports to show an unexploded rocket-propelled grenade on the deck of the cruise liner Seabourne Spirit after an attack by pirates. The Seabourn Spirit had been bound for Mombasa, Kenya, when it was attacked by pirates armed with grenade launchers and machine guns on Saturday Nov. 5, 2005 about 100 miles off Somalia's lawless coast. The ship escaped by shifting to high speed and changing course. (AP Photo/ABC News)
ABC News photo released on November 7, 2005, shows an unexploded rocket propelled grenade on the deck of the Seabourn Spirit, the passenger cruise ship attacked by pirates off the Somalian Coast on Saturday. Pirates in two small boats fired rocket-propelled grenades and machine guns at the Seabourn Spirit with 151 passengers and more than 160 crew members on board about 160 km (100 miles) off the coast of Somalia on Saturday, but the vessel escaped with two bullet holes in the front and back. NO ARCHIVES MUST BE USED OR PUBLISHED BEFORE NOVEMBER 9, 2005 MANDATORY CREDIT REUTERS/ABC NEWS
Port workers paint under a window of Seabourn Spirit in Port Victoria, Seychelles archipleago, November 7, 2005. (George Thande/Reuters)
Imagine the surprise of these pirates if, one day, one of these cruise ships suddenly sported some heavy firepower....
A Somali gunman guards a vessel from pirates. Passengers and crew of a cruise ship that came under fire by gunmen off the coast of Somalia described how they watched the drama unfold after the captain warned: 'Stay inside, we're under attack.'(AFP/File/Ali Musa)
The pirate are their Navy! We have been attacked by a foreign country...
I suppose its illegal to carry on a cruise ship?
but did they say "AAAAaaaaaargh" when they smiled?
I invite these bas^^rds to attack someone who is armed and ready for engagement. I don't think they would be grinning. But, of course, cowards shoot civilians. Ah, the religion of peace.
RPG motor?
Wiped the smiles clean off their faces, I suspect.
"Allah Aaaaaarrgh"!
Yep...just the motor...
PG7 series has a rocket motor that screws onto the PG. When fired ya see the fins deploy with a tube that has holes in it......
Most likely the "empty" rocket motor was left sticking out of the wall....let me find a pic for ya.....
Who the heck would want to cruise off the coast of Somalia anyway?
OK, who's going to be the first to try to pick that puppy up.
"According to one Marine, the driver was smiling as he sped past him. The suicide bomber detonated his truck, which contained 12,000 pounds (about 5,400kg) of TNT."
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