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Somali Pirates Seize $150M Saudi Supertanker, Oil
Guardian | Submitted by: Waste 'Em All—God'll Sort 'Em Out
"Sirius Star is three times the size of a US aircraft carrier and shows how they are successfully expanding their operations,'' Christensen said. He added the operation demonstrated a new level of sophistication as the attackers had to scale the 10-metre high sides of the vessel. Previous attacks have occurred within 200 nautical miles of land."
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From: screeb
[screeb]
Date: 17-Nov-2008 19:30
It's way past time to arm these commercial ships so they can blow the pirates out of the water. Then see how long these little enterprises last.
From: fr4th0
[Fr4th0]
Date: 17-Nov-2008 19:36
I'll take that a step farther, Screeb - wipe the whole fucking country off of the map. They're not only a drain on the world, but now they're fucking with my oil prices. Time to fuck'em all up and forgot they ever existed.
From: other [unclassified]
Date: 17-Nov-2008 19:37
turn the other cheek and give what they want. just like Massachusetts law.
From: selmore [dave]
Date: 17-Nov-2008 19:48
I call bullshit on the size of that tanker. NO WAY is it 3 times the size of a U.S. aircraft carrier.
From: gargoyle1
Date: 17-Nov-2008 20:10
When it becomes expensive to the owners, they'll arm their ships and this shit will stop in a hurry, until then, meh. Personally, they should arm all ships and just blow the little shitbags right out of the water. Of course, destroying Somalia wouldn't hurt either.
From: golem22 [Island]
Date: 17-Nov-2008 20:55
I dont agree with nuking somali, the land would be useless to us... it would take longer and be more expensive but its best to just take a page from hitler and round the fuckers up and kill em... Anyone have any other ideas to kill them without fucking up the environment?
From: gingerbrown [as in sh!t]
Date: 17-Nov-2008 21:20
You have to admit, the little brown bastards have got balls. Now, somebody send in a real navy and whack 'em off!
From: golem22 [Island]
Date: 17-Nov-2008 21:29
Now hold on i have a thought, if the somali navy (as if there is one) can do nothing to these pirates, why in the fuck do the private vessels that traverse those waters not arm themselves or better yet instead of paying the ransom just use that money to hire some mercenaries or put a bounty on pirates heads. The pirates can only exist because there operations produce revenue, if the cost of doing business becomes to great they will vanish...
From: inthebeginning [(It Was Real Good)]
Date: 17-Nov-2008 21:40
Screeb is right. The media statement about the relative sizes of the two classes of ships is based on weight in a loose fashion. The length of the Nimitz-class (largest) carriers and the Vela-class supertanker (largest and the type held by the pirates) is about the same, 1100 feet and 1082 feet, respectively. Length of ships is usually what landlubbers refer to when discussing ship sizes. Weight or displacement (weight of water displaced while ship floats) is quite different and also figured differently for the two classes. The Nimitz carrier's total weight (displacement) including crew, equipment, airplanes, fuel, everything is about 101,000 tons. The Dead Weight Tonnage (a measure only of the safe cargo capacity and not the total of everything) of a Vela-class supertanker is 318,000 Tons. The weight of the supertanker itself, because of its equivalent length, wider beam (width), and much larger draw (that part of the ship under water) is likely to be more than the carrier, but this information is not part of the published characteristics of the class, which considers only the cargo capacity. So the Sirius Star (the pirated supertanker) probably weighs more than a carrier and still safely holds a weight equivalent to the weight of 3 Nimitz-class aircraft carriers.
From: bedfart
[lurker in]
Date: 17-Nov-2008 21:54
ITB -thanks for the usefull info, to the point and I understand it. radio on all day and all I've heard is it's a stollen boat full of oil.
From: studgerbil
[Stud]
Date: 17-Nov-2008 22:06
You'd think with all our technology we would be able to track a vessel of any size in such an unstable region. Oh wait, we can. Maybe some day we can figure out why we are letting these pirates seize these ships. And we ARE letting them do that.
From: inthebeginning [(It Was Real Good)]
Date: 17-Nov-2008 22:28
From: gargoyle1 Date: 17-Nov-2008 20:10 When it becomes expensive to the owners, they'll arm their ships and this shit will stop in a hurry, until then, meh. Personally, they should arm all ships and just blow the little shitbags right out of the water. --------------------------------------------------------------- GG, Most large ships already carry a small locked armory containing pistols, automatic rifles, and shotguns. I have a friend who owns a medium-size commercial fishing boat who carries two machine guns aboard and several pistols. He has used them more than once to "repel boarders" and enforce his perceived fishing rights on the high seas. Commercial ships like the Sirius Star would be expensive to arm with appropriate weapons such as 75mm deckguns, as was done in WWII on merchant vessels. The extra training for crew members, the maintenance of weapons, storing ammunition, and the attendant risk of death and injury, even the possibility of fire and explosion, and sinking of the ship, would increase expenses and insurance premiums to the point that shipping would cost too much for the traffic. The crew of commercial ships are just ordinary guys like you and me who want nothing more than to finish the voyage and collect their paycheck. They don't want to have to fight, kill, and die for it. That's what a military organisation is for. The intercession of the Royal Navy and the Red Navy in the area is a fact. Just last week, the Royal Navy killed 3 pirates on a dhow who resisted boarding for inspection. And soon, I expect that the US Navy will also make an appearance. I suspect that subsequent adequate use of legal force and cooperation between the respective navies will make piracy impractical in Somalian waters...as the United States Marines Corps made Muslim piracy impractical on the Barbary Coast in the beginning of the 19th Century. GingerBrown is right.
From: thesickthsense
[iseewhitepeople!]
Date: 17-Nov-2008 22:40
africa is the hood of the world the more violent and criminal they are the more money we hand them to deal with the problem. soon enough, instead of doing what we should do.. which is obliterate their monkey asses, we'll fund healthcare projects, educational programs, dietary campaigns... and they'll multiply while we pat our ignorant backs for being so 'nice'. that sounds awful familiar, dont it? now, because we're letting these terrorist fucks con us into helping them, their numbers will go beyond what nature would have given them (which is why we have the problem in the first place), and they'll have massive starvation, rampant crime, rapes, murder.. blah fucking blah the next thing you know their so 'desperate' their hijacking our fucking ships again. rewind, repeat. *shakes head* pat yourselves indeed. let go of the heart and grab on to the mind don't breed or empower your problem END IT. SOLVE IT. FIX IT.
From: thesickthsense
[iseewhitepeople!]
Date: 17-Nov-2008 22:49
I can see it now... No Pirate Left Behind A Lucrative Action, Evil Rights, Bladodity... United Pirate College Fund "Because a mine is a terrible thing to waste." It's cuz I black! (lol, no change needed) It's not the eye patch, it's the poverty! Everybody knows pirates have bigger swords. fucking on and on energizer fuck you blah About 1000 neutron nukes (after a nice rounding up), and the problem is solved with no lasting radiation or waste ('cept ashes). FOREVER. And we don't because...?
From: evildave
[Evil Dave]
Date: 17-Nov-2008 23:05
But those pirates are so USEFUL! I mean, here it is, the election is over, the holidays are coming right up, so we need an excuse to boost fuel prices back up! So, call up your Al-Qaeda buddies and tell them to send their pirates over and snag a carrier. Now the simplest solution, and the one the ships will use, is put more distance between themselves and Africa. This will make their journies longer. This will have the net effect of ships spending more time en-route, and less time delivering petroleum. Hence, a new artificial shortage. Not enough ships to keep the supply pouring in at the same rate over that distance. And, oh dear... it takes TIME to build more ships. Somalia was actually nearly back to an orderly state of affairs a few years back. They had courts and justice. The technicals were all gone. People were walking in the streets safely. Unfortunately, it was Islamic, so Dubya in his infinite retardedness got Christian Ethiopia to invade and overthrow that government and install an unpopular puppet regime, and send the whole place back into anarchy. Now instead of an orderly nation, it's chock full of Al-Qaeda, a million more have fled, 10,000 more have died, etc. But it conveniently blocks access to the Suez canal to Europe, and now makes shipping go longer distances, consuming more fuel, delaying fuel deliveries, and making it a very merry Christmas indeed if you're an the oil business, because the commodity you control just got more expensive, and will keep getting more expensive as the 'threat' grows.
From: sp00k
Date: 17-Nov-2008 23:31
Commercial ships like the Sirius Star would be expensive to arm with appropriate weapons such as 75mm deckguns, as was done in WWII on merchant vessels. The extra training for crew members, the maintenance of weapons, storing ammunition, and the attendant risk of death and injury, even the possibility of fire and explosion, and sinking of the ship, would increase expenses and insurance premiums to the point that shipping would cost too much for the traffic. ======  75mm deckguns? Who uses deckguns? Just station a couple marines on board with shoulder launched missiles for the passage thru the area. A bunch of Somalis with an rpg and a rubber raft wouldn't have a chance.
From: oltoothless
[yes, toothless]
Date: 18-Nov-2008 00:08
send out a couple of 'decoy' ships, loaded with anthrax or ebola, and let these fuckers exterminate themselves.. Best bet would be something with about a 2 week incubation; then wait for the bodies to start showing up, and bomb the hell out of the place that has the most casualties. Problem solved!
From: inthebeginning [(It Was Real Good)]
Date: 18-Nov-2008 00:45
From: sp00k Date: 17-Nov-2008 23:31 Just station a couple marines on board with shoulder launched missiles for the passage thru the area. -------------------------------------------------------------- Most of the commercial through sea traffic off the Somalian Coast is headed from or to the Suez Canal, which handles at least a hundred large ships (and many smaller ones) every day. Stationing "a couple of Marines" on each would require hundreds of combat personnel, not to mention the difficulties of getting those men aboard each ship and off after passing through the area. The expense of such a scheme makes it impractical. Much better is the stationing of a small warship or two in the area with authority to stop, inspect, arrest, and destroy suspects and miscreants. This policy has now been implemented by both the Royal Navy and the Red Navy. It is only a matter of time before the pirates get the message. After all, they're Muslims. You have to kill them before they start to understand.
From: rev [meupnpopmyclutch]
Date: 18-Nov-2008 01:47
Fuck 'em. It's a Saudi ship. It's a Saudi problem. They've got enough money to make it go away - if they want it to.
From: gargoyle1
Date: 18-Nov-2008 05:34
inthebeginning, what's more expensive, putting a few seawhizz mounts on your ship or having it pirated and possibly sunk? I'm going for the guns being cheap insurance.
From: skyeyez9
[Marie]
Date: 18-Nov-2008 06:25
My view is the ship owners' hands are tied. I assume since it is a commercial ship that it would be illegal to arm it with several .50 cal and cannons. The owners are stuck in a stupid law that favors pirates.......which usually happens (laws favoring criminals). Common sense does not prevail.
From: skyeyez9
[Marie]
Date: 18-Nov-2008 06:44
Certain parts of Africa are absolutely amazing, I would travel there if I could: Mt Kilimanjaro, Kruger park, Cape Town (which is actually very pretty, and civilized with english, dutch and french influences), Victoria Falls......too bad a cluster of ignorant savage nigs ruin the rest of their country.
From: mike2039 [mike]
Date: 18-Nov-2008 07:16
This is a problem that the bleeding hearts of the United States created. In the 1980's, there was much ado made of the starving nig nogs in sub Sahara Africa. Dumb Americans made financial contributions to such organizations as U.S.A. for Africa. Now, 20 years later, the baby boom of thugs has the be dealt with.
From: sp00k
Date: 18-Nov-2008 08:18
Most of the commercial through sea traffic off the Somalian Coast is headed from or to the Suez Canal, which handles at least a hundred large ships (and many smaller ones) every day. Stationing "a couple of Marines" on each would require hundreds of combat personnel, not to mention the difficulties of getting those men aboard each ship and off after passing through the area. The expense of such a scheme makes it impractical. ======= they board ships at sea all the time. if a bunch of half starved somali pirates can do it, I'm pretty sure trained soldiers can. Besides, even a couple hundred marines would be cheaper than keeping warships on station. As far as expense, paying $150M for ransom is expensive too. Interesting article about possibly using mercenaries to guard tankers - http://www.gulfnews.com/News/Gulf/bahrain/10251253.html
From: sp00k
Date: 18-Nov-2008 08:20
From: skyeyez9 [Marie] Date: 18-Nov-2008 06:44 Certain parts of Africa are absolutely amazing, I would travel there if I could: Mt Kilimanjaro, Kruger park, Cape Town (which is actually very pretty, and civilized with english, dutch and french influences), Victoria Falls......too bad a cluster of ignorant savage nigs ruin the rest of their country ==== I dunno skyeyez, watching the news it sounds more like small clusters of civilization among ignorant savage nigs.
From: simonjester [Bill Vojtech]
Date: 18-Nov-2008 09:33
"The crew of commercial ships are just ordinary guys like you and me who want nothing more than to finish the voyage and collect their paycheck. They don't want to have to fight, kill, and die for it. That's what a military organisation is for." ------------- Would I rather blast them out of the water than be taken hostage? You bet. I'd say most sane people would rather defend themselves than be held for ransom. When you start thinking that your well being is someone else's responsibility, you're in trouble.
From: sp00k
Date: 18-Nov-2008 11:17
There are other non-lethal ways to take care of the problem  Toss a couple of these overboard to distract the pirates.
From: ascott
Date: 18-Nov-2008 12:37
According to the last news that I saw, our pirates have just taken a Chinese ship. Personally I don't think that was a very clever move as the Chinese government will not place a very high value on the lives of the crew and may retaliate somewhat violently.
From: sp00k
Date: 18-Nov-2008 12:45
From: jaybegood [Sir Robin of D'Hood] Date: 18-Nov-2008 12:22 Instead of tossing watermellons overboard to distract the priates, toss a copuple of freshly oiled and sweet smelling nekkid cabin boys in and see what happens! ==== Butt Pirates?
From: cunnilinguist [cazzodurissimo]
Date: 18-Nov-2008 12:49
Sailing the seven seas,spending most of your free time sunbathing on deck. With the very real possibility of KILLING SOMALI PIRATES? I'd venture to say this would be an ABSOLUTE FUCKING DREAM JOB, for any EX Delta Force(remember blackhawk down?) Navy Seals, Marines or Army Rangers. I'd say 5 or 6 per ship, some shoulder fired missiles and high caliber machine guns, would do the trick.
From: guitarded [Jimi Vaughan]
Date: 18-Nov-2008 13:11
A pirate walks into a bar, he's got a ships steering wheel sticking out of the front of his pants. The bartenter says, "Hey, you know you have a big ships steering wheel in your pants?" The pirate says, "Arrgh, yes, it's drivin' me nuts!"
From: inthebeginning [(It Was Real Good)]
Date: 18-Nov-2008 13:32
sp00k, Thanx for the Gulfwebsite. It was very informative and I now understand your reluctance to agree with my suggestions. It is now clear that the "authorities" have been brought to full attention and will, and are now, dealing with the situation with due dispatch.
From: stinkdyr
Date: 18-Nov-2008 13:42
How about one of those sound cannons that that cruise ship used to fend off the pirates a couple of years ago? Seemed to do the trick. And then, of course, don't forget to blow them into shark bait bits after you disorient them. http://www.spiegel.de/international/spiegel/0,1518,385048,00.html
From: sp00k
Date: 18-Nov-2008 13:51
From: inthebeginning [(It Was Real Good)] Date: 18-Nov-2008 13:32 sp00k, Thanx for the Gulfwebsite. It was very informative and I now understand your reluctance to agree with my suggestions. It is now clear that the "authorities" have been brought to full attention and will, and are now, dealing with the situation with due dispatch. ==== The shipping companies will probably do something as soon as the insurance costs more than the guards. The ships and crews....just product.
From: sp00k
Date: 18-Nov-2008 14:08
http://www.mgn.com/news/dailystorydetails.cfm?storyid=9283 well, maybe not just cost alone.... Two weeks ago, soon after a senior UK officer was quoted as apparently suggesting merchant ships should have private armed security, a senior UK security official assured Anderimar Shipping News that the officer's quoted advice was directly contrary to UK policy. The UK's very strict gun laws, banning private ownership of handguns and limiting possession of other firearms to shotguns and sporting rifles, apply on UK-flag ships.
From: hateful [Hate forever]
Date: 18-Nov-2008 16:28
From: golem22 [Island] Date: 17-Nov-2008 20:55 I dont agree with nuking somali, the land would be useless to us... it would take longer and be more expensive but its best to just take a page from hitler and round the fuckers up and kill em... Anyone have any other ideas to kill them without fucking up the environment? ------------ How about giving everyone hunting license to hunt Somalis. The one who bags the most gets $10 million. Their corpses could be feed to wild animals and used for fertilizer.
From: thepundit [America: the lost cause]
Date: 18-Nov-2008 16:36
End solution? Nuke Somalia It's as simple as that
From: thepundit [America: the lost cause]
Date: 18-Nov-2008 16:41
Q Ships are the answer
From: reader57 [Rotten Reader]
Date: 18-Nov-2008 17:39
Checking ebay for great deal on crude oil now.
From: roaddog [pclynn]
Date: 18-Nov-2008 18:44
Why the hell don't they arm the ships? Then the charred little stinkin parasites will back off.
From: sharkman69 [Me]
Date: 18-Nov-2008 19:12
You'd think with all our technology we would be able to track a vessel of any size in such an unstable region. Oh wait, we can. Maybe some day we can figure out why we are letting these pirates seize these ships. And we ARE letting them do that. *************************************************************************** Stud, exactly who is this WE that you are referring to? The United States military? The same US military that gets criticized all over the world, yet whenever there's a problem everybody wants us to risk our soldiers and sailors lives to save somebody that doesn't give a dead rats ass about us? The Saudis have plenty of money to hire someone to fight their battles for them.
From: thesickthsense
[iseewhitepeople!]
Date: 18-Nov-2008 19:59
It can all be fixed, and easily. Think of subs. Now think of subs with no humans.. self-automated subs. They'd be hollow tubes.. tubes that would be used for storage. Be it oil, Nike's, or anal lubricant. Storage. It would take some seriously high tech to locate these vessels due to their cruising depth, and once you locate them it would take even more tech to get to it, to stop it, to control it (remember, it can't be boarded.. their is no crew, no space). All that tech would be impossible in cost for pirates. There is no fucking way tribal shitbags from aferka could ever afford the equipment, let alone have the knowledge to use it! Problem solved. Costs vs present-methods (above water + crew), accidents/collisions (automated, and the 'lanes' available would be exponentially more than a single plane (the surface) would allow), the cargo would be approx. twelve times less.. so less is lost, less is lusted by pirates.. Fucking hell, if I had money I'd start up an underwater shipping firm like, to-fucking-now.
From: thesickthsense
[iseewhitepeople!]
Date: 18-Nov-2008 20:13
Ports will become massive walls against the shore.. walls that extend perhaps 500ft to the ocean bottom and are dotted with a matrice of docking tubes. The shipping subs would be powered by nuclear, like all subs (fuck diesel, tomorrow is here) from the rear. The power plant, control comp, radar, gps, etc would all be arranged as a block on the ass end.. pushing the vessel forward. It would dock into tubes in the wall that would seal, and crews on the dry-side would enter to remove/store cargo or service the vessel. Solid fucking idea there. They'd last for-fucking- -ever with nuclear powered cores that didn't need energy for oxygen/atmosphere cleansing, water purification, in most cases no heating.. they'd hardly ever need service for anything but the front seals.
From: beavis4000
[Who?]
Date: 18-Nov-2008 20:17
From: roaddog [pclynn] Date: 18-Nov-2008 18:44 Why the hell don't they arm the ships? Then the charred little stinkin parasites will back off. A: International law prohibits civilian ships from being armed. There's massive piracy going on in the Panama Canal also. Fucked, but go figure. On a brighter note (no pun intended), the RIAA can't bitch about this piracy incident. To think, on the massive federal bail-outs, why don't they bail out the RIAA and MPAA? In return, no more harassing/sueing normal people, and they would have to realign their business model to become a public services. I'm starting to like this socialism bullshit already! NOT!
From: beavis4000
[Who?]
Date: 18-Nov-2008 20:20
There's nearly no reason why most of these sea vessels even need humans on board. They could be guided by GPS and remote satellite.
From: sp00k
Date: 18-Nov-2008 22:34
From: beavis4000 [Who?] Date: 18-Nov-2008 20:20 They could be guided by GPS and remote satellite. ==== They are. The crew is mostly there for emergencies.
From: kuj0 [john kujawksi]
Date: 18-Nov-2008 23:31
hey! traveling to Africa sounds COOL! how about we all wind up in another fucking war in another fucked-up part of the world to protect commercial interests? how's THAT sound you buncha little fuckheads? sound nice? i'm 52. FUCK YOU.!.
From: sp00k
Date: 18-Nov-2008 23:38
Yup. Hope some Somali tribe doesn't delcare war on us. They're already pissed at the Obama tribe over in Kenya. Something about a goat.
From: kuj0 [john kujawksi]
Date: 18-Nov-2008 23:40
something about the Chinese and oil i heard
From: sp00k
Date: 18-Nov-2008 23:53
So far they have 33 russian tanks, some merchant ships and a supertanker with two million gallons of oil - I think they're up to something.
From: kuj0 [john kujawksi]
Date: 19-Nov-2008 00:02
maybe they blow up the oil tanker and it make a big BOOM
From: thesickthsense
[iseewhitepeople!]
Date: 19-Nov-2008 05:17
Load a ship with a couple of nukes and some dummy decoys. Let the little monkeys pirate that ship and dock it to their port. Boom. A few booms and their own people will stop them from pirating. Fucking hell, sub shipping vessels and nukified ships.. I'm on a roll!
From: kuj0 [john kujawksi]
Date: 19-Nov-2008 07:38
how about a shipping vessel thats built like an iceberg? it could hold a lot and would be naturally stable
From: kuj0 [john kujawksi]
Date: 19-Nov-2008 07:45
and you could propel it by heating one side and cooling the other side thermal drive
From: thesickthsense
[iseewhitepeople!]
Date: 19-Nov-2008 10:21
** how about a shipping vessel thats built like an iceberg? That's a pretty interesting idea.. big ass cones drifting across the ocean loaded with goods and only their tops are visible. How would they dock for load/unload though? And isn't it funny that those terrorist bastard Saudi sheiks are getting their asses smacked around by.. terrorists? HAHA!
From: pighunter [Tripod]
Date: 19-Nov-2008 12:43
How about a trojan horse, i mean boat. No oil, no goods, no crew. Only about 3000 armed marines from many different countries with many different types of weapons on several ships! Bam! Pirate heads rollin everywhere Kill them all, feed em to the sharks. Somalia is a shit hole anyhow, fuckem all.
From: technodestructo [technodestructo]
Date: 19-Nov-2008 13:06
Studgerbil: It's all well and good to know where a ship is, but it really helps if you have forces nearby to protect it. For the most part we don't. Also, this is mostly other countries' problem. Most shipping to or from the US doesn't go through the worst piracy areas. (Otherwise, yeah, it'd probably be a bigger deal for us)
From: golem22 [Island]
Date: 19-Nov-2008 19:05
Here is a thought, i wonder why private enterprise has not stepped in on this. For a mercenary group this could be easy money. Just offer armed escort services to large vessels passing through the area. I am pretty sure that it is cheaper to pay for an escort vessel than the ransom for the ship. Another option is getting fake but vary real looking guns and selling them to the vessels passing through these areas. If you have the sailors patrol the deck looking like they are armed to the teeth the pirates will likely go on in search of easier targets. (i say fake weapons because we would not want to violate any laws..., though if occasionaly some of those fake weapons were real it would be a big surprise for the pirates ;))
From: beavis4000
[Who?]
Date: 19-Nov-2008 20:27
From: golem22 [Island] Date: 19-Nov-2008 19:05 Here is a thought, i wonder why private enterprise has not stepped in on this. For a mercenary group this could be easy money. Just offer armed escort services to large vessels passing through the area. I am pretty sure that it is cheaper to pay for an escort vessel than the ransom for the ship. =========== Funny you should say so. Blackwater just announced a fleet of gunboats just for such an occassion. http://www.infowars.com/?p=6074
Updated: 20-Nov-2008 17:55
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