If you're hired to protect a large cargo carrier from pirates how do you arm youself?

In My Humble Opinion
21

Simply, a weapon that can hit the pirates at a range farther than the maximum range of their weapons.

Using that criteria, a few strategically placed deck-mounted machine guns would be more than adequate. You’re on a stable firing platform, and you have the advantage of range. Furthermore, just one solid string of bullets would be decisive against many of the small craft today’s pirates use.

Finding weapons isn’t the problem, machine guns that would be suitable to this task are 50+ years old.

The problem is really, they’re worthless unless you know pirates are coming.

During the Age of Sail, merchant ships got taken by pirates because merchant ships couldn’t afford all the security measures necessary to deter pirates.

That tends to be true today, as well.

A traditional naval vessel in the Age of Sail was almost never taken by pirates because they had watches every hour of every day, and they were completely filled with armed men better trained and usually better equipped than the pirates.

To defeat pirates as a merchant vessel, your first line of defense is enough security personnel to keep a comprehensive watch. Freighters are big and low on staff. Many pirates get on board before the crew know it has happened because of this fact.

Even just adding five security guys to a large freighter would be a large % increase in labor cost for the vessel–and five may not even be enough to provide a comprehensive watch. They would also need to be people at least competently trained in using the deck guns. They would also probably need to be trained in using closer-range assault rifles or whatever small arms the ship decided to pack.

BUT, assuming you had a reasonable chance of spotting the pirates before they got close, then simple deck mounted machine guns could defeat almost any pirate, simply because you have a stable firing platform and several miles in which you can shoot them but they can’t shoot you.

22

Batman, prepared with a single hair from Chuck Norris’ beard (backed up by Jack Bauer, who is manning an orbital nuclear platform, just to be sure).

23

I am pretty sure persons actually attempting piracy on the high seas are open season, legally speaking. IANAL, but it’s a rather longstanding rule.

The technical answer to the question would be a couple of machine guns, fore and aft, and ordinary small arms. I’m not sure .50 calibre’s even necessary; a simple little M249 could rip up a small boat pretty badly, shoot through light armor, and kill anyone unfortunate enough to be in the way. You could buy half a dozen for a fraction of the cost of some ridiculously big chain gun.

I think both you and Martin Hyde have hit upon the really salient point, though, which is that the challenge is to detect the pirates before they’re climbing onto your ship. Even in the golden age of piracy, in the 17th century, it was almost never the case that pirates brought a lot of weaponry to bear; they usually just surprised merchant ships, coming board after intercepting them unnoticed in small, quick vessels. As matt hinted, firing at them at range will probably scare them away even if you don’t hit anyone or sink their boat. They’ll look for something easier than the ship that has a machine gun on it. But you can’t shoot at them unless you see them.

Big cargo ships would require at least several men on watch at all times. That’s expensive.

24

Oh, I agree completely. And my tears for any pirates are going to be measured using negative numbers. But, the devil is always in the details: Even your M249 is going to be best used against the putative pirates at some distance, say 500 meters. And while 500 meters is awfully close for ships on the high seas, I’m not sure that it’s close enough to support, in an Admiralty court, the charge that the interlopers were intending piracy.

And while for every 100 meters the distance drops, the legal defense of a presumption of intended piracy will go up, it will also drop the defensive value of hitting the bastards as far away from the ship as possible. (Personally, were I on the ship in question, I’d figure such a trade off completely unacceptable.)

But I like ridiculously big chain guns. Besides - if it’s good enough for the Navy’s anti gun/missile boat defenses, it’s good enough for me. :wink:

More seriously, considering that 4-6 foot swells are not uncommon on the open seas, and that these modern pirates are usually seen using what I’d call motor launches, I’m definitely against using the CIWS. It’s far too easy for such vessels to get lost to radar among the waves. Radar is a great tool, but for some missions it’s not the best choice. And I think this is one where the Mk 1 eyeball is going to be the better detection system - possibly aided by LI goggles.

25

weapons don’t help much if they board. I’d go with an infra-red system for day/night observation. Weapons would be 3 tier based on range starting with a high caliber sniper rifle, Then an AR-15 and then shotguns.

26

I know nothing about it, but if there are any legal questions that are probably pretty well answered, it would be ones about merchant vessels fending off pirates. It’s probably one of the oldest issues admiralty courts deal with, and I imagine (being totally ignorant of nautical affairs) that it’s probably not very realistic that you see a bunch of guys in small motor-boats coming towards a cargo freighter armed to board, where said cargo vessel would land in serious trouble for using violence.

27

Yeah, how do you know your pirates are pirates so you can start blasting away? Is it safe to assume that they aren’t getting around in black ships under a pirate flag? Heaven forbid they might use subterfuge to get close to or alongside their prey. You can’t be chain-gunning every fishing boat that wanders within a mile or so (or breaks down in your path).

28

Did they really need to give it a name whose acronym was “AIDS?”

29

There is probably an inteligence angle that would stay the hand of naval security, once prisoners have been taken. I remember reading a Tom Clancy novel, where the coasties feign hanging a pirate, but notes that even back the days of blackbeard and such , pirates were returned to shore for trial and eventual hanging.

Piracy is the tip of the spear,but you want to find out who they are fencing their stolen goods to , what happened to the crew and all manner of law enforcement questions.

Declan

30

knockout gas in the cargo area, or in the hallway that leads to the cargo area. That’ll teach 'em!

31

If you are 200 miles off the nearest coast, and a speed boat or two of armed men shows up in your wake, I figure they aren’t out collecting for the Red Cross!

32

The problem with the legal question is that, depending where you go, anything might be illegal.

Google has been less helpful than usual, but I found this: http://www.mast-yacht.co.uk/firearms.asp It has some general advice, and a couple of hypothetical examples.

In the UK, you can’t bring any firearms into her territorial waters. Not the Barett, not the AR-14, not a .22 target pistol. A UK registered ship can buy firearms in countries where that is legal, and carry them on the high seas, but it can’t bring them into UK territorial waters. (Elsewhere, I found some exceptions where they can carry shotguns with a UK police permit, and handguns if they are registered as “humane killers” for animal cargo.)

In many places, you can bring firearms into port provided you declare them in advance, and the local authorities will remove them and keep them in secure storage until you go. (Not in the UK though. Declare your firearms and they’ll remove them all right, but they won’t give them back.)

From my cite above: “The best stance to take is to have shotguns onboard. These are not prohibited in the majority of countries providing you declare them to customs and they are secured in a suitable gun cabinet.”

So if you want to be legal, you’re basically talking shotguns, plus whatever else the ports you ply will let you carry. You can probably take rifles most places if you’re up front about it, but Bushmasters and Phalanx systems and such are unlikely to qualify.

Of course, a big cargo ship has a LOT of hiding places, and some of them can be welded shut. So if you want, you can pull the Barett and the M60 out the bottom of the oil tank when you go through the South China seas, and stow them again when you’re in safer waters.

33

Canons and a cutlass, of course!

34

I’m not sure what else, but a flame thrower for sure. I’ve always wanted a flame thrower.

35

How about the Javelin anti-tank missile? It’s man portable, fire and forget, soft launch, has top or direct attack modes, and with a max range of 2500m. The only thing I’m not sure about is if the missile can track a moving target once launched?

For countries that don’t allow weapons on board while in port, why not store them in a shipping container. Said container is for a port in another country, so it wouldn’t be inspected.

36

Tough break for the Mogadishu Powerboat & Skeet Shooting Club third annual deep sea regatta, wot? :wink:

37

I once read an article about modern pirates.

Apparently a favorite method is to have two small boats with a line attaching them. Since freighters take regular courses at regular times, all you do is get in front of one at night and streach out the rope between the two boats. The freighter catches the line and pulls the boats alongside. Then they climb aboard. Since you can basically click a point on a map and the boat will go there by itself, it isn’t that hard to do this.
So really, your fight is going to be onboard. You need shotguns and some hand guns, and probably have a portion of the crew in a hidden portion of the ship so that they won’t be suprised in their bunks by the pirates.

38

Maybe someone will remember what I want to suggest. There was show on History or Discovery about a badass new shotgun the US military has. Lots of special loads available, up to grenades. Capable of full automatic fire, with big drum magazines available. The great thing was that you could mount two of them on a frame thingy, and operate it remotely. Mount a few of those bad boys on your ship with IR or low-light optics, and operate them from a centrally located weapons room. Pirate problem greatly ameliorated.

39

They need zeppelin escorts with guided weaponry.

40

::: Wipes tears of laughter from my eyes:::
That is the funniest thing I have read all day. I am humbled.