Posted on 01/15/2008 8:00:51 AM PST by Cecily
I don't get this - I see THREE (3) names, yet they say, "TWO crew members", and "after the pair". Weird.
Noooo, the Sea Shephard is: "The two crew members of the Sea Shepherd protest ship..."
Never mind - I re-read it. You are right.
I’ve seen a photo (have it buried somewhere) showing a Greenpeace ship clearly flying a Jolly Roger while pursuing a whaling ship. They lucky they didn’t get sunk.
And with that kind of history, these two clowns are luck to be above water.
Hang them from the yardarm.
Sea Shepherd Conservation Society is the name of the organization which owns the ship named MY Steve Irwin. It used to be named MY Robert Hunter and before that FPV Westra.
Here is a link to a page with a picture (I think Getty Images is picky about reposting their images): http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22111742/
A rational government would arm its country’s whalers and place Navy personnel on board and would deal with pirates tin the classical mode. ANd no mistake, the “protesters” are pirates.
Bingo.
Depends.
We have the right to board anything flying a US flag anywhere in the world. We get a ‘Statement of No Objection’ from the registered nation of a vessel flying a flag we suspect is in violation of international law, such as smuggling dope, or people, or whatever.
If its a fishing vessel in US waters, we can board anybody of any flag without an SNO, just to ensure that the vessel is complying with IMO and applicable treaties.
If we want to board, we’ll contact the master of the vessel in question, and request that he allow us to board.
If we don’t get the response we are looking for, we employ the minimum force required to compel compliance. If you were dealing with a real idiot, then they’d try to get away. That means you could use either the 20mm or the 50’s to disable the propulsion, after a shot across the bow, that is.
You had to be careful not to sink it if you did it, which is why you use the 50’s on the wood and FRP’s, and the 20mm if you had steel hulls.
Most of the time, people were happy to see us, so it was no big deal. We boarded a Canadian sailboat with a couple on board and found about a ton of weed. Ruined their entire vacation. With the case of Canada, I believe, we didn’t even need to ask, we just needed to notify that we were doing it, and the same went for Canada for US vessels.
It used to be the case with fishing boats that they were pretty happy to have the CG around. You’d help one of them out and they try to hand you a big halibut or something in thanks. We couldn’t and wouldn’t take it, so these freaks would nearly ram you trying to throw the fish on deck before speeding off. Crazy mothers, fisherman. I have a lot of respect for them.
lol
thank you....just the answer i was looking for....so these creeps on the greenpeace boat just went ahead and did whatever they pleased, and paid a price for it....
Krikey...don’t you just hate when this happens?
Right. Technically, you could call the boarding piracy, but it depends on whether they were armed when they did it. It’s an important distinction, because the crime of Piracy is a crime against humanity. As such, all nations have jurisdiction, and you don’t need to be military or law enforcement to bring a pirate to justice.
If they are unarmed, then what you have is probably something in the neighborhood of an unauthorized boarding, like trespassing, and it gets sort of gray there. With Piracy, if the pirates die, nobody really cares, so you can put them in a ‘brig’ of sorts, but you could also look at that as taking an unnecessary risk.
Would you apprehend an armed home intruder, or just shoot him? If you do the math on it, you pretty much HAVE to shoot the guy, because the risks borne in apprehending the guy, and the risk of him coming back and exacting revenge on you, your wife, your kids - why take it?
The guy was armed, and you shot him before he shot you.
There isn’t enough information in the story to make a call on whether you have a clear cut case of ‘piracy’.
Thing is, when you tie a guy to a mast in the Antarctic, you could construe that to cruel and unusual punishment. I stood on deck in the Antarctic for less than five minutes and the sweat in my pants froze to the point where frost formed on the creases in the back of the knee when I walked.
If you aren’t going to just kill them, you pretty much have to properly imprison them.
These guys are lucky to be alive.
Thank you, KarlInOhio. That helps a lot.
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