Yikes! I thought that after several high profile attacks patrol ships from many nations, including the US, were monitoring the area, looks like modern day pirates are raising the stakes.
So now we go from Ninja Pirates, to Tank Soldier Pirates!
How are they gonna fit the tanks on their ships?
And on a serious note. How can tanks be sent around the world without protection vessels?
I was thinking what a smart way to avoid them being used to kill you. Hijack them in the shipping boat.
I was wondering how pirates would use them, but there is good news and bad news:
The good news is that the pirates seem to not have equipment to unload the tanks.
The bad news is that the ship also was full of weapons:
33 T-72 tanks. That’s a lot of arrrrmor.
Where’s Tank Girl when you need her?
Am I the only one thinking that the pirates may have bitten off a bit more than they can swallow? My first thought process on waylaying 33 T-72s would probably be along the lines of:
[ol]
[li]Arr! That be some fine booty! Shiver me timbers![/li][li]This is enough weapons for a battalion![/li][li]These guys must be RICH. They can buy T-72s. I’ll be rolling in dough.[/li][li]Wait - they’re rich and they command an army.[/li][li]And they’re probably mad as hell.[/li][li]At me. Also, they command an army.[/li][li]Perhaps this isn’t a great idea.[/li][li]They’re commanding a fucking ARMY![/li][li]And I made them mad.[/li][li]Ohshitohshitohshitohshit. Perhaps they’ll let me live if I give them their tanks.[/li][li]Like, really quick.[/li][li]A fucking army. Whose idea was this, anyway…[/li][li]Screw it, I’m dead.[/li][/ol]
As Terry Pratchett says, when arguing with a general, you need to keep a few things in mind. Such as, not saying “You and which army?”.
In other pirate news, Her Danish Majesty’s ship HDMS Absalon (Good-looking ship, even if I say so as a Dane) recently boarded a pirate ship off Somalia’s coast and detained 10 crewmen/suspected pirates. Regrettably, no one knew what to do with them.
Hanging them from the yardarm was out of the question - no longer allowed and the ship has no yardarms, anyway. They couldn’t be handed over to local authorities, such as they are - Danish authorities can’t send prisoners to a foreign jurisdiction without a guarantee that no death penalty will be imposed.
Someone suggested sending them to Copenhagen to stand trial. Someone else pointed put that Danish courts would be ill-equipped to get witnesses etc., plus the pirates would have a good asylum case if convicted.
In the end, they were released. The Danish naval heroes of yore would spin in their graves, except they mostly were buried at sea.
ETA: An extra “t”
Ka-noodling with Tron…? 
I wonder what Kenya was planning to do with 33 tanks?
The current Google ads are for dating hot Somali women and buying Naval ships at Shopzilla dot com.
If I priced insurance policies for cargo on ships that were planning to go anywhere near Somalia, I’d charge them 110% of the value of the cargo just for calling me and wasting my time.
Also, if I were on a ship loaded with tanks and tons of weapons, there’s no damn way a pirate gets within boarding distance. Hmmm . . . inside job maybe?
Heh, I only get right now:
Anti-Piracy Solutions and Pirate Hats & Swords.According to the BBC, the pirates are demanding a ransom for ship and crew.
And in related news, an article about the Russians sending the ship mentioned in the first article. Unlike the Danish, I suspect that the Russians won’t be releasing any pirates they catch. Except possibly as chum . . .
Because you’d be using the cargo to fight them off? Hey, I like excitement as much as the next perpetual stay-at-home, but shipping like a thousand tons of things that go bang, all live and ready to rock and roll? Nu-uh! :eek:
Except that the actual risk is low (albeit that the headlines are splashy) and you will go out of business because your competitors will take the risk.
Why, what would you do? Drive the tanks up onto deck? I hear they go great up vertical steel surfaces. Know much about ships, do you?
Or would you be breaking out the small arms. Sure, they’re shipped ready for firing. Not. And the crew of Phillipino seafarers are all trained in the use of rocket launchers and so on. It’s in their basic. Same as yours and mine. Riiight.
Well, he could shoot them, but Danish Naval law apaprently no longer has a death penalty.
He could dump them off in the Hague, who might concievably have the same witness issue.
if they were taken in an act of piracy, or there was enough evidence of piracy, the international court in England is still set up to deal with piracy.
I do believe that under international maritime law was broken in this case and it should be addressed.
I would probably have shot them in the back of the head and dumped them if there was enough compelling evidence of piracy. The pirates would have had no compunction to capture and release the average common seaman on any vessel they took.
Interestingly enough, this subject is the topic of a debate case that I’ll be judging in November. Full case can be seen here:
It’s case number 4.
The issue surrounds what to do with the pirates.
The solution here is inherent in one of Spiny Norman’s posts: Send in Terry Pratchett to deal with them.
Or at least that’s what Milt Caniff said when I was a kid! 
Throw them over the side & sail away towing their vessel. Seems pretty easy to me.
Going back to Spiny Norman’s discussion, ISTR an incident back in the 1970s during the (previous) heyday of Middle East anarchy. Some terrorist / revolutionary group kidnapped a Soviet diplomat / KGB guy from an embassy staff. The Sovs solved that problem with their usual ruthlessness & nobody ever kidnapped another Soviet official. Europeans & Americans were seized at regular intervals, but no Soviets.
Now today’s Ukraine is not the old Soviet Union, but today’s Russia certainly seems to be itching to reclaim the Soviet rep for worldwide champion snarling badass. So my advice to pirates is to do whatever it takes to not be stopped / boarded by the Russian Navy.
If you’re on a ship loaded with tanks and tons of weapons, chances are the pirate ship chasing you is a lot faster.