Pirates seize Saudi tanker in Arabian Sea

AFP ^ | 11/17/08

[SunkenCiv]

[singing] Yo, ho, yo, ho, the pirate’s life’s for me...

[Eaker]

Larger, but safer than a Ford Pinto?

[fella]

The crew of 25 includes citizens of Croatia, the U.K., the Philippines, Poland, and Saudi Arabia,

This brings to mind some questions that have crossed my mind off and on for years;

1: How many merchant seamen does the United States have?

2: How many merchant ships are fledged in the United states? (During WWII we had the largest merchant fleet and the largest number of merchant seamen in the world.) 3: What happened to make it what it is today?

[AFreeBird]

2: How many merchant ships are fledged in the United states? (During WWII we had the largest merchant fleet and the largest number of merchant seamen in the world.) 3: What happened to make it what it is today?

Very few. Reason: taxes fees, licenses etc, etc.

[El Gato]

What the heck are these “pirates” going to do with this huge ship? Take a joy ride? Or, more realistically, ask for ransom or threaten to sink it near a shore - major enviro disaster. They should be taken out...soon.

A few cells of B-52s could do to that "pirate port" what Stephen Decatur and company did to earlier Muslim pirates.

[Frantzie]

Isn’t that were our pretzeldent was born in MOmbassa?

[El Gato]

450 NM South East of Mobassa? That’s pretty far afield for Somalis.

In honor of the Mombassa born President Elect of the US?

[El Gato]

450 NM South East of Mobassa? That’s pretty far afield for Somalis.

While true, IIRC the "Somali" pirates are based out of the far southern region of Somalia, about 200 miles, or a bit less from Mombasa. That means the distance to the point of the seizure, from their home port would not be much greater than from Mombasa, maybe around 500 miles.

[ridesthemiles]

My first thought?

This is the one group of ship owners the pirates shouldn’t have pissed off.

[Abathar]

Have you ever stood next to a supertanker?? What I want to know is how the hell they climbed up the sides of the thing.

A little kid with a pocket knife could cut the ropes long before they could even see him.

[dervish]

Saudi ship, Saudi personel, Saudi problem.

[El Gato]

Could be there’s hostages in their home port which would complicate any attack.

Not one using precision munitions. Hit the docks and whatever is docked there. You'd at least put a heck of crimp in any future operations.

Then arm and/or escort every ship going withing 600 nm of the place.

[happinesswithoutpeace]

/mark

[gridlock]

They’re just sitting there, on Diego Garcia... 4200 mile round trip... Just a walk in the park!

[volslover]

They have a serious pirate problem in that area which is always in the news. Wasn’t that long ago when some got a Russian ship with Ukrainian tanks I think but don’t hold me to the specifics. Those pirates apparently don’t discriminate. But yea, there goes the price of oil again.

[nw_arizona_granny]

Pirates in the Arabian Sea <<<

I had to look at a map, appears there are several waterways off it, that could be shut down and wreck havoc with shipping.

How easy it is to take a ship for the pirates.

Next it will be our food delivery.

Grow your own food.

[nw_arizona_granny]

Ping.

[RichInOC]

Yeah, it’s all fun and games until the King starts deploying Bedouin boarding parties.

[justlurking]

the seven pirate-free seas have just been farther reduced.

More pirates means less global warming. I guess that's why temperatures are getting cooler:

[Company Man]

If fully laden, the deck could be much closer to the waterline.