Posted on 04/22/2017 5:06:08 PM PDT by blam
Why dont these merchant-sailors have their own guns? Why do they have to spend money hiring mercenaries?
They are merchant marines, not military. Their training is for their nautical and technical skills - and they need to keep doing their jobs for the several days through the pirate areas, rather than trying to pull 24 hour sentry duty. Also, many ports don’t allow them to have guns, even simple rifles or pistols.
They seldom have real danger, as the ports are usually protected (by the governments, or local mafia). Where there are concerns (like the Horn of Africa or Straits of Malacca), those concerns usually effect enough ships, that local security services can make a good living serving as escorts through those waters.
What they typically do, is pick up security teams coming through the Suez Canal or Red Sea, or around Salalah Oman coming from the other direction. There is a range of options, from high-priced Israeli, American or British former commandos, to low cost third world roustabouts.
Also, ships typically bunch together in groups like convoys, and stay in touch with the anti-piracy Naval Task Forces in the area. The Egyptian Government makes commercial ships convoy through the Suez.
Tracers won’t reliably light off gasoline. They use incendiaries for that.
Muhammad was a two bit, highway thief.
Allah is his criminal thug.
Pirates are the Islamic descendents of extortion.
All wrapped in lies.
I declare a fat fatwa on their sorry, cowardly behinds that face up to god.
John Moses Browning. (Doffs hat). That thing is coming up on 100 years old and we’re talking about it as the best alternative (which it is) to a 21st-century problem. Oh, yeah, and I shot a 1911 today. 106 years on that design. Kalashnikov was a baby by comparison. Glad I’m not a firearms designer...
Or, a well scoped 300 blackout with thermite tracers. Play hell with a boat or god willing a fuel tank.
At :26 seconds, the guy with the camera shoots the steel rail in front of him.
At around 0:35s in, you can see barb wire / razor wire run down the side railing the length of the ship.
Yep. Same difference...
3 points, 1. if this is the same one that is now going around on FB it is old old . 2. these guys are lousy shots , some missing that boat by 30/50 feet. and 3. throw away those toys and get some Barrett 50cal. autos. Okay, carry on.
Moving target muzzie plinkin’! In water!!! How fun is that! Allah Ackbar
Why dont these merchant-sailors have their own guns? Why do they have to spend money hiring mercenaries?
Why didnt Captain Phillips and his crew have their own guns? They could have defended themselves against these thugs.>>> I thnk it is company rules and insurance... from a site
Vessels can carry weapons if the company allows it, most don’t due to insurance issues. I worked on a ship that did most of its work off of east and west Africa and we carried firearms. We had all the necessary paperwork(Arms Declaration, etc) to go along with the weapons so it was never an issue when entering foreign ports.
“Oh. Well Im told these rules have since changed. Is that true to your knowledge?”
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I haven’t a clue.
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I don’t know. Didn’t look at all to me they were firing warning shots there at all.
If you watch the film carefully, it looks like the shooting is extremely inaccurate, but when you take into account the target and elevation of the shooters, you realize that the splashes on the other side of the speedboat are not off target, but pretty close to where a round would hit after missing someone in the boat.
And you also see they have them in a crossfire, because the two guys back on the starboard quarter are firing from a dramatically different angle and elevation.
I thought it was a remarkable display, they chopped those guys in that boat up, and weren’t using auto to do it. I was impressed.
I think the guys up top were on the starboard wing of the bridge.
Looked like they did a good job with the sandbags, too.
I don’t know how old it is, but after I watched it a few times, I don’t think it is as inaccurate as it looks on initial viewing!
I didn’t notice the razor wire festooning the starboard railing until I watched it again.
Leni
I admit I could be seeing this all wrong, I can't shoot worth a damn because of my eyes, but...the angles looked this way to me. (I know, not the same kind of ship, but the general layout, and the middle shooters looked like they were at the same elevation as the 1st shooters forward of them)
The video wasn’t sharp, but that vessel was drifting astern, and I almost thought I saw someone trying to jump over the side, so I think they got hammered pretty well.
Interestingly in the movie "Captain Phillips" his ship is all by itself and not with the pack. Any idea why they did that? I would think that would be a big mistake in those waters.
I didn’t think they did travel in convoys through there in the past, but I am thinking up until last 5-10 years? Maybe since then they do, it seems like that would be smart.
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