U.S. Gunships Battle Pirates Who Seized Tanker Off Somali Coast

This is interesting because in the past nobody answered distress calls by ships that were being attacked by pirates, especially in the Indonesia areas where most security is being supplied by private security forces, at a high price of course.

It appears that things are changing now though and it seems that once again the US answers the call to assistance by "loaning" destroyers to an international task force.
It seems that a post I made in the past is proving correct, the world only wants the US to use its forces when THEY want them to. Like their own secret weapon that theyd like to lock up and only let out when needed for missions such as this.
Lets see how the anti-American crowds here on ATS spin this one


Source

NAIROBI, Kenya — A pair of American warships battled pirates Tuesday who had seized a tanker off the coast of Somalia, reportedly sinking two pirate vessels and pursuing a hijacked skiff carrying some of the fleeing hijhackers.

The crew of the tanker Golden Mori, which was hijacked Monday night, reportedly fought back and overpowered their attackers, regaining control of the vessel, maritime officials said.

On Sunday, the destroyer USS Porter responded to a distress call from the Golden Mori that it was under attack from two pirate skiffs in international waters off the coast of Somalia near the Socotra islands in the Indian Ocean. The destroyer, on loan to an international task force aimed at stopping piracy and terror in the region, responded with deadly force, sinking both vessels, officials said.

The Porter's sister ship, the USS Arleigh Burke, reportedly was pursuing the escaping hijackers and providing an escort for the Japanese-owned tanker.

There were conflicting reports regarding the Golden Mori's registry, with reports saying it was flying a Panamanian flag, while other reports saying it either was a North or South Korean registered ship.

Nearly two dozen of the Golden Mori's crew members reportedly were able to fight off the eight gunmen who had seized the vessel late Monday, and the crew was piloting the ship back to the war-battered city's port in Mogadishu, said Andrew Mwangura, program coordinator of the Seafarers Assistance Program, which independently monitors piracy in the region.

I am actually all for the U.S. taking out pirates. Pirates are scum of Earth.

Terrorists, a different story. You can't exactly wipe out terrorists. Pirates are easily destroyed.

Arrrrrrrrrgh! Shiver me timbers. Down with the landlubbin bilge rats that call themselves "nobles" and be slayin my mates. If I get me hands on them self righteous bilge rats, they'd be walkin the plank.

To Davey Jones' locker with ya!

Hey, I'm all for it too! The article itself left me wondering why this hasnt happened sooner.
Remember the cruise liner that was attacked a couple of years ago by Somali Pirates using RPG's and AK's.
That attack went on for quite a while and even after radioing there situation, nobody came to their aid.
The Captain of the ship eventually drove them away using some type of audio defense system, which was some type of device that actually was able to aim a very loud sound wave directly at the pirates. Worked very well but only after they sustained some damage to the ship.

reply to post by Kruel


That post contributed absolutely nothing to thread not one single thing...but funny it be...argh!

I would think being assigned to pirate patrol is pretty fulfilling work.

And I believe and this is just me mind you, that when you're a sailor on shore leave and you're bellying up to the bar...and a girl asks you if you've ever seen combat, being able to say "well we did do battle with some pirates off the coast of africa last monday." Well telling a pretty lady you're a pirate hunter, that's just cool.

As for people not liking america until they need us, well that's a given but we (and by we I mean they, them, those guys, that group of people in the white house) haven't done much to help spread a positive image.

As mentioned the destroyer was working with an international task force, so not strictly US intervention. If we weren't spread so thin right now we could probably do a lot more to help out around the globe.

Nice find interesting article.

Argh!

spiratej

That may be true and according to the wikipedia article the following contribute ships to the East Africa anti piracy patrol:

- French Navy
- German Navy
- Pakistani Navy
- Royal Canadian Navy
- Royal Navy (UK) and shipboard Royal Marines
- US Navy and shipboard US Marines

However I am willing to bet that the vast majority of the ships are US Navy, however I will try and find the total contributions for each nation.

I'd be interested in seeing those numbers chris, simply out of curiousity.

Though out of those countries I think the US has the biggest navy, could be wrong certainly not an expert.

I think when it comes to hunting pirates it's all about being in the right place at the right time.

IMO or course and as always.

spiderj

reply to post by Spiderj


If im not mistaken, the US has the largest navy in the world.
I would be willing to bet that it is larger than all of those countries combined.
Im not bragging or being biased, I just believe that to be the case.
If im wrong then that is ok to, i havent bothered to look up the info, im just going by what I believe.

Anyway, like I said, I think it's great that something is finally being done about this.
There are a lot of cruise ships that come from tourist areas in Northern Africa and others in the gulf have been frequently targeted by these idiots out of Somalia.
Luckily, as far as I know, nobody has died yet which makes it even more surprising that this task force has been created. Usually someone has to die before people get off their asses to do something.
I seriously doubt that there will be any further challenges to a Navy destroyer , lol that in itself shows how much brains that they have, or dont have.

Of course this area is pretty big and these Naval Vessels cant be everywhere at once, so Im sure that at least initially there will be more incidents.

Another thing is that according to what I've heard, the boats they use usually arent taken beyond a certain point in the sea, like 150 miles or so.
So, long ago they advise any ships to move as far out as possible from the shoreline.

reply to post by sweatmonicaIdo


Pirates are easily destroyed?

Wonder why they weren't extinct.

Originally posted by Kr0n0s
If im not mistaken, the US has the largest navy in the world.

Indeed. 279 active ships. It's not even really close, I don't think. I mean, just for comparison, we have something like 15 aircraft carriers, while the UK's Royal Navy, which is the second largest in the world, has 3 (last time I checked).

So yeah, it's not biased or arrogance, it's just plain fact that the United States has the most dominant navy in the world.

I can't imagine that fight going well for the pirates

I'm not really up on my pirate weaponry, but have pirates upgraded their weaponry from what most people typically associate with pirates, such as swords and those old hand guns?

reply to post by NovusOrdoMundi


From what I've heard/read, some of them have been known to equip their boats with mounted machine guns and carry RPG's and of course AK's.
I saw a special on the History Channel not to long ago about pirates.
There was a re-enactment of an ship being taken over by Chinese Pirates in the waters off of Indonesia, the entire crew were executed.
Apparently the worse two areas for Pirate activity are where i just mentioned and the other is off of the Somalian Coast obviously.

Anyway, apparently these Pirates are able to scrounge up a fairly nice and reasonably fast boat, they turn it into a floating technical.
You remember what a technical is right?
The Toyota Trucks with a heavy weapon mounted in the bed, most of the Somalian Warlords have several of them in their gangs.

I still cant imagine one or even 10 of them squaring off with a US Destroyer
When I read that, the first thing that came to mind was that old time saying,
"Poop for Brains" haha

Originally posted by sweatmonicaIdo

Terrorists, a different story. You can't exactly wipe out terrorists. Pirates are easily destroyed.

Actually, America's very first foreign military adventure involved both at once.

Like in the marine hymn, "from the halls of montezu-uma, to the shores of Tripoli . . .

It was the First Barbary War that pitted the nascent American Navy versus the pirate-princes of Morocco, Algiers, and Tunis.

The Americans had originally paid a ransom for the safe passage of their vessels. Jefferson objected, giving the stiring American rallying cry, "millions for defense, but not one cent in tribute." But congress paid. The Wikipedia article I linked claimed that ransom payment approached 20% of the federal budget by the time war broke out.

Basically, the European states just paid off the pirates, rather than risk a military confrontation. The Americans, who were much poorer, couldn't afford to pay off the pirates.

you can read about the war in the wikipedia article I linked. Funny that mercenaries were the solution to an over-taxed American military
.

reply to post by dr_strangecraft


Haha, yea I've actually done a little bit of reading into this small war that the Marines were involved in.
Actually it was a small contingent of Marines that was joined by quite a few local, Arabic type fighters. There was apparently little bit of infighting during their long march to the fortification where the battle was to take place but their leader, whos name escapes me, kept them somewhat together.

The Marines and local fighters actually prevailed but then they were ordered to stand down, for a reason that I cant remember..

Jeez, I wish that I remembered more of the details and I just really dont feel like looking it up just right now, I had surgery last week and the pain pills tend to make me tired a little earlier than normal.

omg, see! i didnt even see the link that you posted to the info.. this hydrocodone is pretty good

[edit on 10/30/2007 by Kr0n0s]