I’m thinking that the “outran” part is somewhat misstated, and that instead they “ran towards military vessels”, at which time the pirates said “Hey, look at the time… gotta go.” The pirates may have been firing, but hitting the broad side of a cruise ship from the back of a bouncy speed boat is all they’re likely to do, and handgun bullets aren’t likely to bother a cruise ship much. So long as the people on the ship kept their heads down, they were probably fairly safe. It’s not like you can shoot out the tires, after all.
This is largely because cargo vessels are usually operated with reduced crews to keep costs down, so there aren’t usually enough hands to maintain anti-piracy watches. I’d be very unsurprised to find that the Nautica had watches that gave her enough warning to escape.
That is a remote throttle and it is limited to the max allowable turns as set by the governing authority.
That’s how I read the story. It woud be like trying to board a train moving at 27 mph with the addition of having to deal with waves.
I would love to see a well crewed vessel attack the pirates with small arms fire and molitov cocktails. given the height of ships it would be like trying to storm a castle. If you can tag a pirate boat with a flamable object their efforts would be diverted to survival.
I think it’s high time we update and revive the delightful concept of Q-ships: Q-ship - Wikipedia
Mwahahahahahahahaha…
[emphasis mine]
What’s with all this “was” stuff? She’s docked right down the road from me. Across from Ikea. She looks like shit. [/hijack]
They need to equip ships with those microwave thingies that seem like very effective deterrents.
Or in other words, what I said.
She is not sailing at present and she is no longer classified. Although I doubt the ABS would allow them to run wide open.