Send Them To Davy Jones... Maybe Not

Why don't we just arm up commercial ships and fight back? I've been reading several blogs associated with the maritime blogger community thinking maybe opinions are changing with all the piracy, but all indications are the idea of arming commercial ships remains unpopular despite all the piracy. For those armchair gunners who think putting force on ships is the answer, this is an interesting read.

Also interesting, Kennebec Captain notes that the incident the other day where the British security professionals abandoned ship when the Biscaglia was being taken by pirates has an interesting twist, the security folks were unarmed, but were using a LRAD. I guess it was not effective? LRAD is not a new system, it could be that pirates have adapted and it is losing its effectiveness

That really is part of the issue here. Firearms are not on commercial ships, and most captains don't want them on the ship because it can create more problems than it can solve. What happens when a ship fights back, kills someone, and pirates still hijack the ship? Will they seek revenge on a crew member? Think about all the legality issues here, if ships start fighting back, what happens when a Japanese whaler shoots someone from the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society during a TV scene? If I owned the Japanese Whaling Company under assault in that show, I'd sue both the organization and the Discovery channel itself for funding piracy, because the Discovery channel is clearly funding acts on that show that can be accurately described in Article 101 (PDF).

If pirates are now overcoming non-lethal means of piracy deterrence like LRAD, is arming up commercial shipping the next step? It is going to be very interesting to see what the EU does when their ships deploy, particularly with the Germans deploying so many troops, and it sure would be nice if we could get someone in the media to actually ask one of our elected officials about piracy.

It amazes me how so many political pundits in this country will spill ink discussing piracy, often without the slightest clue what the hell they are talking about, but these same folks don't seem to care our nations elected leaders have still not been required to answer a single question on the piracy issue, despite all the media attention. Am I the only person who thinks that is odd?