While I’ve been blogging about pirates for four years now and have sailed through pirate waters during my time in the Navy, my pirate expertise pales in comparison to the merchant mariners who sail these waters every day.
Below is an email I read last night on one of my email lists. Take it from Captain Bill Doherty, an actual merchant marine captain: this problem won’t be solved easily.
I am an active Merchant Mariner.
Last year I spent the entire year out in those waters on the Maersk Vermont, Maersk Ohio and the President Truman.
It’s very difficult for those who dont have first hand Merchant Marine experience in those waters to get a full appreciation of the situation.
Pirates aren’t new, just their tactics and equipment are. They have better boats, better guns and much more sophisticated electronic guidance systems.
Perhaps the worst piece of equipment the USCG/IMO has mandated ships to not only carry but remain in operational service is the “AIS” or Automated Information Systems. For those unfamiliar with the system, here is an informational link:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automatic_Identification_SystemApparently, the pirates aren’t complying with these mandates, because, I have yet to see a “Pirate ship” identified on AIS, and I have sailed in pirate waters for a long time.
In spite of all the ISPS Security measures, the USCG mandates that we broadcast all the information about our ships to the whole world in real time. The AIS, as a minimum broadcasts our position (accurate to GPS standards) our, course, speed, destination and number of crew aboard. as well of course as our flag. Its like a “menu” for pirates and terrorists (there both the same in my view) to plan attacks on us when and where we are most vulnerable.
It’s ironic that you can be steaming along in the middle of the ocean, run across a US Navy ship all armed with guns, SEALS, and helicopters, and they are in full EMCOM (Electronic Emmision and Communications Contfrol) and we are out there, slow, under manned, and unarmed being required to broadcast all the vital statistics of our ship to any pirate who can buy them on line from the WEST Marine catalog, although they usually dont have to buy them. They just take them off the ships they highjack.
Now the armchair Admirals, who havnt got a clue as to what we are up against have this “knee jerk” reaction is to arm the crews. That looks real good on front pages of newspapers, but is idiotic in the real Merchant Marine. I want the cook to put a meal out, not play Rambo.
What we dont need, right now is an escalation in the crisis, using garden hoses to extinguish a raging forest fire. But then again, those who can do; those who cant, teach.
The key to this problem is far more complicated and need to be resolved at the very highest levels of government, and even the United Nations.
Alfred Thayer Mahan wrote in his “Sea Power” thesis, that the primary role of the US NAvy must be to protect the US Merchant Marine. That doctrine is still the basis of Naval Seapower lessons taught at both the US Naval Academy and the Navy War College. Are these Admirals now sluffing off that responsibility to twenty one sailors , already undermanned, rather than stepping up to the plate, as they certainly did, in the case of the USS Bainbridge.
If our over 250 capital ship US Navy, cant defend our 189 (10,000gt and over) US Merchant fleet, with all their sophisticated weapons, and trained warriors, how can we, the Merchant seafarers have any hope whatsoever?
These havens of refuge and support, where pirates can stage their attacks must be eliminated. Hopefully, through political (speak softly and carry a big stick) means, but if not ultimately, through whatever means are appropriate.
In Somalia, we are dealing with a place where there is no central government, and an economy with absolutely no gross national product. Lawless and useless. As Captain of the USNS Harkness, I spent several years operation off the coast of Somalia, and dealt directly with the ragged and disorganised Somali government of that time. Mogudishu was my base of operation, but I also had to call on many of the other ports along the Somali Coast, both in the Indian Ocean and the Gulf of Aden.
What struck me most, was the difficulty in identifying organized goverment officials from the rest of the population. Everyone wore the same sarrappi (affectionately referred to as Man Dresses), and everyone had an AK-47 strapped over their shoulders. It was like the African “Wild West”.
Waiting for the pirate to get alongside the unarmed or armed merchant ship means that we have already lost the battle.
We can only win the War against pirates, by closing down their bases of operation, ashore, and making sure, there are no safe havens for pirates, anywhere in the world.
Captain Bill Doherty, master mariner, MMA-67
CDR-USNR Ret
Arrr