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Pirate maps have long been the a source of intrigue but modern day treasure hunters more often use advance technology like remote operated vehicles and sonar systems than maps stamped with an X. Neverless, pirate maps have survived to modern day and are equally intriguing as those found in archives… but they have a different purpose. Here are a few modern day pirate maps but remember dead men tell no tales and there is no gold to be found on these maps… well unless your in blackwater.

LIVE PIRACY MAP - 2008

This map shows all the piracy and armed robbery incidents reported to the Piracy Reporting Centre during 2008. This division of the International Maritime Bureau (IMB) works to protect the integrity of international trade by seeking out fraud and malpractice. The organization combines traditional reporting tools like a piracy hotline with a wide variety of IT sources to keep member informed of dangerous situation in real time.

In adition to their live piracy map you can also find RSS information feeds as well as updates on the latest attcks worldwide.

UNOSAT Maps, etc…

This map by UNOSAT, the UN Institute for Training and Research’s (UNITAR) Operational Satellite Applications Programme, illustrates reported incidents of piracy in the Gulf of Aden from January to 30 September 2008. Satellite imagery has been used in this analysis for the identification of suspected hijacked vessel locations and UNOSAT has combined this imagery with public media reports. The result is the map above which highlights the most troublesome incidents with an intensity color scale. You can find the hi resolution version of the map HERE.

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In light of the recent piracy news gCaptain has recieved a number of media requests to answer basic questions about piracy. Below you will find just a few of the questions we have been asked along with my answers.

Why Somalia?

Pirates need a few things to prosper: weak national security of a host state or political unrest, access to weapons, ships transiting close to shore, cooperative weather and an abundance of high value ships.

Somalia certainly meets the first two requirements but, like in real estate, it’s Location, Location, Location. As seen in the diagram of shipping routes below, somalia lies in the direct path of traffic transiting between Asia and the Suez canal. The manner in which Somalia just coupled with the amount of shoreline in close proximity to shipping lanes gives the pirates easy access to ships. [Continue Reading →]

Besides using our Discoverer page of course, we use Google Alerts to stay on top of the news.  Well this week, gCaptain has had an influx of emails, phone calls, questions and visitors;) interested in what is going on with piracy in and around the Gulf of Aden.  So many in fact, we just can’t keep up.  So rather than regurgitating our Google alerts, we are just going to run through some key events that have happened in the past week and provide you with links to reputable news sources.

Things started off on Saturday with the hijacking of the Sirius Star that was loaded with $110M worth of crude.   With the US and British Navy’s saying that is to dangerous to storm the ship, the pirates are now demanding $25M for the Saudi VLCC.

While the US is urging merchant vessels to take steps to stop piracy, the Indian Navy took matters into their own hands and sunk a suspected pirate mothership.  Russia is also taking initiative by sending even more warships to battle Somali pirates.

Obviously, the world is struggling with the plague of pirates.  Ships are being diverted to avoid the pirate infested waters, but the head of the IMO warns of its negative repercussions.  Shipping companies are seeing a hike in insurance premiums due to the problem and it seems as though there is no end in sight.

Even though the UK is not paying ransom, other ship owners are with almost $30M paid this year.  As for the pirates, it is a highly profitable business that is sure to continue.

So that is this week’s headlines in a nutshell (small nutshell).  If anyone else knows of anything we might have missed, leave the links in the comments.

Following this weekends hijacking of the Saudi VLCC loaded with crude, gCaptain has been flooded with numerous emails and phone calls from different news organizations trying to lock down information on the surge of world wide pirate attacks.

Want the lowdown? Well here it is. The following is a review of last weeks international Pirate attacks posted by the ICC Commercial Crime Service

Weekly Piracy Report

11 - 17 November 2008

Suspicious crafts

None reported

Recently reported incidents

• 16.11.2008: 0430 UTC: Posn: 04:08N - 006:50E, Bonny outer road anchorage, Nigeria.

Six robbers armed with automatic weapons opened fire at a refrigerated cargo ship at anchor. Robbers in a speedboat circled 4 times around the ship and left. No injury to crew.

• 13.11.2008: 1000 UTC: Mamonal ‘A’ anchorage, Cartagena, Colombia.

Robbers armed with gun and knives boarded a cement carrier at anchor. They tied up one crewmember and stole ship’s stores. Coast guard boarded vessel for investigation.

• 31.10.2008: 0000 LT: Bakasi Peninsula, Kole oil terminal, Cameroon.

Heavily armed pirates boarded an off shore supply vessel and kidnapped some crewmembers. Further report awaited. [Continue Reading →]

Some pretty good discussion starting in the forum regarding this incident and we will be watching as it developes.  The forum discussion can be found HERE.

Via The Associated Press:

In a dramatic escalation of high seas crime, Somali pirates hijacked a Saudi supertanker loaded with crude hundreds of miles off the coast of East Africa — defeating the security web of warships trying to protect vital shipping lanes.

The takeover demonstrates the bandits’ heightened ambitions and capabilities: Never before have they seized such a giant ship so far out to sea. Maritime experts warned the broad daylight attack, reported by the U.S. Navy on Monday, was an alarming sign of the difficulty of patrolling a vast stretch of ocean key to oil and other cargo traffic.

The MV Sirius Star, a brand new tanker with a 25-member crew, was seized at about 10 a.m. Saturday more than 450 nautical miles southeast of Mombasa, Kenya, the Navy said. The area lies far south of the zone where warships have increased their patrols this year in the Gulf of Aden, one of the busiest channels in the world, leading to and from the Suez Canal, and the scene of most past attacks.

The massive supertanker would seem to present a daunting target for the pirates, who usually operate in small speedboats. At 1,080 feet, it is the length of an aircraft carrier and can carry about 2 million barrels of oil.

But experts said its crew may have felt a false sense of security so far from shore, even though pirates have repeatedly demonstrated their skill in taking down big prizes.

Details of Saturday’s attack were not known, but in past seizures, pirates have used ropes and ladders to climb the hull — and on large ships, the crew often doesn’t notice them until it’s too late. On the Sirius Star, the attackers likely would have had to scale about 30 feet from the water to the deck.

Keep Reading…

These days, it is impossible to watch or read any news publication, maritime or not, and not know about pirates operating in the Gulf of Aden.  The hijacking of the M/V Faina last month carrying 33 Ukranian tanks and other military equipment, has sparked worldwide interest in the staggering growth of incidents.  Just today Bloomberg reported a pirate attacks have climbed five-fold in the Gulf of Aden for first nine months of this year with 51 boardings or attempts to board.  Yesterday, it was announced that NATO is sending 7 warships to the area to assist with escorts and patrols.

The problem has lead to increased insurance premiums, a sense of unease when navigating the area and cries for help from ship owners.  Well to answer those cries, one US company is taking matters into its own hands and has deployed a ship to the area to help with efforts.

Blackwater USA, the private military organization known as either a private security firm or a mercenary organization (depending on your political beliefs) plans to send its 183-ft. M/V McArthur to the Gulf of Aden. As we reported in a previous gCaptian post, the vessel boasts “state of the art navigation systems, full GMDDSS communications, SEATEL Broadband, dedicated command and control bas, helicopter decks, hospital and multiple support vessel capabilities.” [Continue Reading →]

Read the full story at CNN.com | LINK

Also, see just how close the US Navy is monitoring the situation | LINK

In related news the NY Times finally got an interview with the Pirate Spokesman.

Q. Tell us how you discovered the weapons on board.
A. As soon as we get on a ship, we normally do what is called a control. We search everything. That’s how we found the weapons. Tanks, anti-aircraft, artillery. That’s all we will say right now.

Q. Were you surprised?
A. No, we weren’t surprised. We know everything goes through the sea. We see people who dump waste in our waters. We see people who illegally fish in our waters. We see people doing all sorts of things in our waters.

Q. Are you going to sell the weapons to insurgents?
A. No. We don’t want these weapons to go to anyone in Somalia. Somalia has suffered from many years of destruction because of all these weapons. We don’t want that suffering and chaos to continue. We are not going to offload the weapons. We just want the money.

Q. How much?
A. $20 million, in cash. We don’t use any other system than cash.

Q. Will you negotiate?
A. That’s deal making. Common sense says human beings can make deals.

Q. Right now, the American Navy has you surrounded. Are you scared?
A. No, we’re not scared. We are prepared. We are not afraid because we know you only die once.

You can read the full interview HERE.

In light of the recent piracy news from Somalia we thought it best to bring you up-to-date on the latest technology being considered for use in deterring pirates. Listed in order of likely effectiveness:

10. Fire Hose

The most common means of deterring pirates is with the use of firehoses. A ships crew will line up on deck, activate the large firepumps in the engine room and use the pressurized sea water to knock pirates off of boarding ladders. While this is effective it’s of little use when the boarding craft approaches with it’s 50 caliber machine gun armed.

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9. Automated Fire Monitor

The next step is a remote controlled fire monitor which can be aimed from a remote location. The only pitfall here is knowing where to place the monitors.

While Unitor’s Force Monitor is impressive most shipboard fire monitors are manual and operate with less force (Video Demonstration)

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8. Crowd Control Munition

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BURUM OCEAN

BURUM OCEAN

ARENA or ATHENA

Our friend Mark Schneider of InOneDay blog tipped us to this IMB Alert revealing photos of the Somali Pirate “Motherships”. Details can be found HERE.

M/V Faina - Photo By FEHMI ULGENER

It seems the Somali pirates are either getting overly ambitious in their recent choice of targets or they’re experiencing bad luck as yesterday they seized the RoRo vessel M/V Faina. The ship was en route to Kenya with 33 Russian-built T-72 tanks and a substantial quantity of ammunition and spare parts. The New York Times writes:

Pirates in a hijacked ship carrying more than 30 battle tanks were anchored off the coast of Somalia near a notorious pirate den on Saturday, and they vowed not to release the ship until a $35 million ransom was paid, Somali and Kenyan officials said.

Meanwhile, a United States Navy destroyer, the Howard, was closing in on the hijacked ship.

“We’ve got a constant stare on it,” said Rear Adm. Gregory Smith, an American military spokesman. He would not say how far away the destroyer was from the hijacked vessel, but he acknowledged that the American ship was close enough to maintain visual contact. He also said there were no imminent operations planned against the hijacked ship. Continue Reading….

The pirate spokesman (yes they now do press interviews) is not the only official likely embarrassed by the incident… soon after announcing the first military show of force in what Wired Magazine and The Miami Herald are calling “Cold War II” one of their anti-submarine ships suffered from a tragic engine room fire, killing two sailors (details). Now with the loss of 33 Russian tanks aboard a Ukrainian vessel manned with Russian and Ukrainian crew the country’s Navy is sending the frigate Neustrashimy to rendezvous with a US Navy Destroyer following the Faina.

This hijacking is the latest in a recent upsurge likely the result of millions of dollars in ransom demands being met by shipowners and brings the number of attacks off Somalia to 61 this year. The pirates are now holding a total of 14 ships and more than 300 crew members according to Noel Choong who heads the International Maritime Bureau’s piracy reporting center based in Malaysia. (You can view a chart of the piracy statistic HERE).

The following video report comes from Russia Today: