Pirates in SEA
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I suddenly have an inspiration in posting something on pirates in SEA. This come after an exchange of views from Kenhor in the previous tread. Thought that you people might be interested. While I will post all I know, for those people in the Navy or Police Coast Guards, please add onto this tread about the experience with pirates in or around spore waters without compromising national security of course.
To start with, I will begin with pirates activities around spore waters. most pirates are actually indonesians fishermen or from the govt agencies (i.e. customs or marine police). Intrusions into spore waters by indonesians customs or marine police to conduct piracy is not unheard of. what they actually do is that they will come into spore waters, board a freighter anchored somewhere in spore waters, kidnapped the captain and demand a ransom from the EXO......they will bring the poor captain into intl waters. and any ransom paid will be recieved either in indonesian waters or intl waters. our police coast guard only action is to stop them from entering our waters. please note that the indonesians marine police do not have sophisicated radar as our PCG but their seamanship is superb especially in the dark. but once the indonesians see that our PCG is on an interception course, they will turn back. our PCG is under strict orders not to open fire unless being fire upon to prevent an intl incident. once the captain is kidnapped and brought outside spore waters, there is nothing much we can do abt it except to file a report.
i have mentioned earlier in my post with kenhor that the modus operandi of the pirates in SEA is actually very simple. they choose those ships with a low gunwhale and a cargo that they are disposed easily. the usual tactics is to position 2 boats, one on the port side and another on the starboard side. what they will do is that they will position themselves along the course of their intended target. btw the boats, they have a long bowline attached. so once the victim sail right into this 'trap', the bow of the victim will come into contact with the bowline and drag both the sampans, one on the port and one on the starboard along. since both the sampans are being drag along at the speed similar to the victim's ship, basically the sampans are piggy backing and the pirates need not maintain their sampans speed since the bowline is doing it for them. and the boarding begins...... the pirates are so skillful that once the hook with a line attached is thrown onboard, it will just take them 3-4 secs to climb from their sampans on board........ and they will go straight on the bridge and force the captain to open the safe......
now we must remember that the ship is not defenseless at all. even thought the merchant navy is not trained to fight they are still in with a shout. the only gun they carry is a flare gun....so they will only use it in time of distress...
usually lookouts will be posted on both sides of the ships. if a boarding is eminent, they have only a matter of 3-4 secs to fight them off before they come on board. so they have to prevent any boarding. to do that, they are either pry the hook off the gunwhale and use the waterhose onboard to spray at the pirates in preventing the boarding. according to my sea going friend, most pirates operating along straits of malacca are lightly armed....e.g. parangs..... so as long as the boarding is prevented, the crew, cargo and ship should be safe.
but the pirates along the southern philppines not heavily armed e.g. M-16s... so what most captains do when they sailed pass that area is to lock all doors, and gather everyone into the engine room where there is a 2nd steering wheel and lock themselves in and pray that the pirates after boarding, take the money and leave them alone.
well all these stories were told by my PCG friends and sea-going friends. if anyone has anything to add, please feel free to share the experiences with all in this forum. -
I believe sometimes they go for petty cash in the ship's safe and also the valubles of passengers and crew.
You might be surprised but some cargo carrying ships actually have passengers.Mostly people going to small islands along the way and cant afford to charter a sea-plane or ferry.They also sometimes strip the ships communications gear and TV's to sell back home....those cheapos!!
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Sometime in the mid-1990Â’s, there was a report of an Australian couple who made an attempt to sail back from Singapore to Darwin.
Passing through some Indonesian waters, they were stopped by a naval craft that had all appearance of belonging to the military, but with some efforts made to conceal its identification.
The Australian man was shot dead, and the woman was raped and left for dead, their belongings were robbed.
Single handedly, the Australian woman managed to sail the Yatch to the nearest island port, and when arriving at the jetty, she thought that the shape and outline of a naval craft looked quite familiar.
So too, were some of the personnel on board the vessel.
She was too scared to inform the local authorities of her finding, and did not speak out while being attended at the local Indonesian hospital until she was flown back home to Darwin, Australia.
During the 1960Â’s and until the mid-1980Â’s rumors abound about the pirate roles played by the poorly paid personnel from the Indonesian Navy.
The same was said of the piracy situation, during the Boat PeopleÂ’s crisis in the aftermath of the Vietnam War in 1974, when the Vietnamese refugees were robbed, raped and murdered by the hundreds, with most the pirates being Thai fishermen operating in the South-China Sea to intercept those rich Vietnamese escaping Vietnam with gold items.
Some of the Vietnamese girls and women were kidnapped and forced into prostitution in Thailand, or sold to the Japanese Yakuza “meat market”.
One famous sea piracy happened around 2000 – 2001, when a Singapore registered vessel was hijacked by a PRC Naval Patrol Boat, in the middle of the South-China Sea, under the pretext of the Singapore vessel of smuggling.
The vessel was subsequently traced to a sea port in Southern China, with its name changed, crews were detained, and the cargo sold. -
talk about the mid-90s, i remember coming across a news article about how the pirates boarded a russian warship in straits of malacca. usually pirates keep clear of warships....... but due to the design of the russian warships where its guns and missile are tactically concealed, from far, it looks like just another merchantman. apparently the captain of the russian warship detected the pirates. so he MOB his men fully armed with AKs and set up a 'reception committee' for these pirates. the pirates unknowingly climb onboard thinking that they are going to land a fat catch and the next thing these pirates knew, they were begin surrounded by the ship's crew all pointing their AKs at them. the pirate were all rounded up and brought on shore to the local authorities in i think msia. with typical russian arrogance, the captain chided the govts in the region for not doing enough to fight piracy and suggested that they should thank them (the russians) for capturing those pirates.
as well, most of these pirates are either para-military or part-timers. for those part-timers, most of them are fisherman. due to inclement weather especially during the monsoon season, their cannot go out to fish as often as they like. but they still need to survive. with little or no jobs found on land, they have no choice but to turn to piracy to upkeep their family......the same goes to the paramilitary......low pay......and not enough to bring home to feed the kids....... have to resort to piracy to supplement their income..........