[wisconsin_cur]

Link

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'T')he fighters from the Shabaab militia, a fundamentalist movement likened to an African Taliban, were reported to have turned up in the port of Haradheere in southern Somalia, close to where the tanker is currently anchored.
Some reports said the Islamists, who have tried to impose brutal law and order on Somalia's warring clans, had the pirates themselves in their sights.
Others in Haradheere, however, said it was thought that they had arrived in the hope of collecting a share of any ransom money.
The pirate group that hijacked the tanker, which is carrying $100 million worth of oil, have demanded a $25 million ransom for return of the vessel and its 25-strong crew, which includes two Britons.
"The Islamists arrived searching for the pirates and the whereabouts of the Saudi ship," said a clan elder in Haradheere.
"I saw four cars full of Islamists driving in the town from corner to corner. The Islamists say they will attack the pirates for hijacking a Muslim ship."

[Sixstrings]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'S')ign me up Captain! Whose flag shall we fly under?

[GoghGoner]

Disturbing, a so-called terrorist group is now hoping to hunt the pirates that stole Saudi oil? Oil that is meant for the U.S.(or more aptly to transfer wealth from the U.S. to terrorist organizations).

[ReverseEngineer]

The nice thing about Piracy is the theft is on the Up & Up. None of that sneaky flim flam Ponzi scheme crap they do on Wall Street, that is for Pansies. However, its still a nasty and dangerous business of course.

Problem with Piracy in the PPO world is that there will be so few ships around to Pirate. Nobody with Letters of Credit to fill big ships with Booty anymore

If you want to go with seafaring theft as your PPO model for existence, I think you have to go with the Vikings. Hole up in the north country and periodically sweep down to the south around harvest time and swipe all the crops from the local subsistence farmers.

One thing to be certain of is that having some sort of mobility makes you safer. A good sailboat is a great Bug Out machine in the near term. You can load one up with provisions for a year and head for a deserted island and do the Swiss Family Robinson thing.

Just watch out for those Pirates.

Reverse Engineer

[eXpat]

Islamic fighters agains pirates!!!!
Islamic fighters vow to rescue hijacked Saudi tanker
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'S')omali militants vowed to rescue a Saudi supertanker that was hijacked by pirates a week ago, according to residents of a town where the pirates are believed to be based.
Five armored vehicles loaded with al-Shabab fighters arrived in the central Somali coastal town of Harardhere this weekend, near where pirates are holding the massive oil tanker Sirius Star, said Ahmed Mohamed, a resident of the town.

The fighters told residents they would battle the pirates because the tanker, which is loaded with 2 million barrels of oil, is owned by a Muslim country and should not have been taken, Mohamed said.
...
The al-Shabab militia is an offshoot of an Islamic party that ruled much of Somalia in the second half of 2006 and aims to impose Islamic sharia law in Somalia. It was forced from power by Ethiopian troops but continues to fight for control.

Nor said he could see the Sirius Star anchored offshore from his town.

"The armed pirates have climbed on the top of the ship," Nor said. "They vowed that they will defend any attackers from the ship."

[eucalyptus]

Big show.

Iraq's defence minister warned on Saturday that the Gulf would be infested by pirates and Iraq left at risk of attack by its neighbours if US forces leave the country too soon.

Like, the american forces are there and we have this wave!

Tell me this isn't all a threat.

Stay in Iraq or our contracters, er, pirates will cause damage!

[eucalyptus]

AMERICAN MILITARY SAYS: We really can't do ANYTHING against pirates and don't plan to.
India sinks pirate boat.
Iraq leader says: IF AMERICA LEAVES IRAQ the pirates will overwhelm us!

Can any0ne see how stupid this is?

The pirates are a psy ops policy-funded just like the contras, reason: We need ANOTHER threat so Obama won't withdraw and so he will spend another trillion dollars to chainy and sons halliburton. c'mon. pirates are a joke.

[wisconsin_cur]

Link

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'A') bid by Somali pirates to hijack a luxury cruise ship was foiled by an international taskforce, officials said on Monday, as ransom negotiations for a Saudi super-tanker stretched into overtime.
A spokesman for the Danish navy, the current lead nation in the NATO taskforce, confirmed the operation had stopped a group of pirates from boarding a civilian vessel which reports said was carrying some 400 passengers and 200 crew.

"The (Danish) navy's tactical command on Sunday led a military operation, dispatching a vessel from the coalition to the aid of a civilian ship threatened by pirates, thereby preventing an act of piracy," Danish navy spokesman Jesper Lynge told AFP.

Lynge said it was up to the countries involved to give details of the cruise ship involved.

But according to Danish TV2 News, six to eight armed pirates on two speed boats were observed speeding toward the Nautica, a cruiseliner that had set sail from Florida.

[ColossalContrarian]

Bump....

Emboldening Pirates? This payoff certainly won’t deter this type of behavior. Expect it in other parts of the world, my bet is the Caribbean and GOM. We already know drug cartels roam those waters.

Somali pirates release ship after $3.2 million paid -CNN

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '
')"The release would've been impossible without the assistance from the Ukrainian government,"

[SeaGypsy]

This subject interests me because I am building my 'doomboat'.

There are a heck of a lot of idle boats of all shapes and sizes around the world; especially in rich countries ports.

I will admit here that in a survival situation I would be very tempted to take advantage of one of these boats. Given that social unrest will explode; I assume Governments will have to ration resources very carefully; I wonder if they will have time to keep track of the millions of small boat movements likely to occur at the point of collapse?

How dangerous is it likely to be at sea without functioning services like satnav or coastal resue, water police?

This thread won't be much use to those with no sailing or navigational skill; but may inspire some to invest in aquiring these skills.

[frankthetank]

Yes... I think its already began to some extent.

I wonder if radar could come in handy? Might give you a heads up if someone is coming... Might want some weapons...

Really don't know. When your out on the open ocean your on your own i guess.

[SeaGypsy]

Actually piracy at sea has reduced enormously over the last few years in terms of numbers of attacks; outside of the Aden, horn of Africa.

Of course there is the emergence of Somali warlord/ pirates taking super tanker etc. hostage for ransom.

Where I live in South East Asia there have been only a handfull of attacks outside of the Malacca Strait around Singapore; over the last 2 years.

I think this could change very quickly though.

[ReverseEngineer]

I considered a Doomboat as one of the more economical means of giving yourself some security and mobility when TSHTF. If I was going that route, I'd go with a 30-45' sailboat equipped with PV panels as well as wind powered generators to keep the batteries charged. Not too big a boat because it takes too many people to sail, no smaller than that because you just couldn't really keep enough Preps aboard. Also, larger and fancier boats would be more attractive to Pirates or plain old Burglary at the dock.

The upside of the Doomboat especially in your big cities like NYC or LA that have Ocean Access means even in a real quick SHTF scenario, you still could theoretically Bug Out in time. Also if you have enough experience in deep water, in theory you pretty much could head anywhere in the world you felt might give you a better survival possibility. When other people can't get on a plane no matter how much money they have in the bank, you still could raise the Mainsail, haul up the Anchor and head for that Secluded Cove on Gilligan's Island. Bring Ginger and Mary Ann along for the ride, Leave Mr and Mrs Howell behind

In addition to the romantic upsides to the Doomboat scenario, you have the realistic problems with it as well. First off, if its bad enough to need to sail away in your doomboat, I doubt anyplace where there is a real Marina and docks to tie up to would be very safe. If you left your boat for any length of time, it probably would be broken into and food preps and electronic gear stolen. I don't think a small yacht like this is in too much danger of piracy at sea, but its vulnerability to theft once near shore is tremendous.

So, what you would be looking at in a Bug Out with such a Doomboat would be heading to some low populated island where you might want to try to live off the land and fishing. I wouldn't try it on a Desert Island, but you might do OK if you are good at making friends with some local fishermen in Nuku Alofa maybe. While your chances might not be great, they would I think be better than hanging out in NYC waiting for the Food Bank to get a Delivery.

In terms of finances, it would be my bet that right now you could buy yourself a good seaworthy boat at auction for $20-$30K, and preps for a year to stock on board for another $10K. No other Doom Protection Scheme can be had as cheap and provide Shelter and Mobility on a World Wide level for so little cash. However, the dangers from theft and piracy are certainly real in any scenario where using such a boat is truly necessary.

Reverse Engineer

[Tanada]

Piracy can only suceed when you have enough international trade to provide targets for the Pirates but not enough naval power for the Targets to effectively fight back. Such era's historically are actually pretty rare.

[SeaGypsy]

Thanks for the posts!

I have thought over these issues& have come around to the ideas of a designer called Phil Bolger of the 'Bolger Box' those googling him will find lots of ideas for shallow draught easy to build boats ideal for when TSHTF. Check these links:
http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dtxqwqr_23grsfpp
http://www.ace.net.au/schooner/sites2.htm

As for pirates; the best advice I have is:
Blend in; pirates will not waste fuel chasing folk boats.
Tripod mounted (fake) machine gun with controls.
Napalm grenades.
Electrifiable deck rail.
Siren& light alarms.
Sniper rifle.
Shot gun.

I have friends who have relied on one or more of these and survived actual attack or persual at sea.

[Jotapay]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('SeaGypsy', '
')As for pirates; the best advice I have is:
Blend in; pirates will not waste fuel chasing folk boats.
Tripod mounted (fake) machine gun with controls.
Napalm grenades.
Electrifiable deck rail.
Siren& light alarms.
Sniper rifle.
Shot gun.

[SeaGypsy]

One mate of mine tried to outsail a Thai fishing boat doing some moonlighting at piracy. After 36 hours of pusuit, the wind died.
The captain finally went down to the gunsafe ant brought out a heavyish caliber sniper rifle and blew the bowsprit off with one shot.
They knew the next was in the waterline and turnes about forthrightly.

[Fishman]

Avoid chokepoints, like Cape Haterras, Straights of Mala., Horn of Africa. Keep to colder water, pirates traditionally are slackards. Prepare to fight to the death. Remember Blackbeard?

[SeaGypsy]

Yohoho& a bottle of rum!

[nobodypanic]

we need a thread on how to become a pirate.