I saw a show on discovery (TLC?) about modern pirates, and they said that legit ships have no defense because they are not allowed to have weapons. I think it was because of the laws in all of the ports they stop in.
One high end cruise ship did have a dish that transmitted sound that was the right frequency to make people unable to function (or something like that), and they successfully used it to stop a pirate speedbooat that was chasing them.
Wow. Who knew Bea Arthur worked for the Canadian Navy?
I haven’t looked up the history on this, but my first thought is that the protests and violence engaged in by these groups may not meet the standard of acts committed for “private ends.” I would take that term to mean primarily the personal enrichment of the perpetrators. While there’s no doubt that the protesters are committing acts of aggression, my initial read is that it would be difficult to say they’re doing it for personal enrichment, which appears to be necessary under the terms of LOS.
Any of you nautical types able to say approximately when civilian ships stopped having arms lockers?