Pirates force technology onboard
USUALLY WHEN THE INQ mentions pirates you all know which kind we are referring to – yet although these aren’t strictly the beardy swashbuckling kind, they are causing havoc on the high seas of Somalia.
Giant tanker, The Sirius Star is the biggest ever to be hijacked, with a cargo of two million barrels of oil worth more than $100 million.
However, although the cases of pirate attacks have increased by 100 percent off the coast of Somalia in the last couple of years, the authorities refuse to arm the crews.
Understandably crew members don’t want to be lugging weapons around like on some sort of military ship – so this is where technology comes in as a pirate deterrent.
Many ships are beginning to deploy something known as L-RAD which stands for Long-Range Audio Device and the Magnetic Acoustic Device (MAD) – these are classed as non-lethal weapons but can knock an unsuspecting pirate of his feet (or foot if he is of the Long John Silver persuasion) with a loud blast of sound.
The developer of MAD, Vahan Simidian, explains,"We create our sound through what we call a plane sound source of information, which means a message can be heard a long way away.
"If the captain had concerns about a vessel, they would activate siren mode on the MAD. That will definitely get their attention. You would then tell them that you know that they are there, and that they do not have the element of surprise.”
If this isn’t enough to scare them off, the captain would activate the “tone” which is a piercing sound which irritates and disorientates the listener.
At present these devices are used to let an attacker know that they have been spotted, yet Simidian strongly alludes to the fact that on full power this device could knock someone off their feet.
Nick Davis, a former pilot who runs Anti-Piracy Maritime Security Solutions says, "For vulnerable vessels, the usual measures employed when a ship leaves port is to hang barbed wire all the way round it, flood the ballast tanks, keep the fire hoses on full power and maintain a permanent deck watch.
"If any [small] ship comes within a mile, you sound the general alarm and crank up the Long-Range Audio Device (L-RAD) and get all the crew on deck."
His team recently stopped an attack on an 8,500 tonne chemical tanker.
Although these are good ways of stopping someone getting too close to the ship, the next step is to repel boarders - who are traditionally blasted with a hose to try and knock them off.
This of course sounds like a highly amusing game, and is not always a success – which as encouraged a company in the Netherlands to come up with a 9000 volt electric fence named Secure Ship.
Although this seems like another good idea, it’s not lethal and is obviously not safe on ships with flammable cargo.
The final step in pirate attack deterrent measures is of course spotting them – this job is usually allocated to radar, yet pirate ships are often small, and therefore are rarely spotted.
However, Gordon Oswald, technology director with Cambridge Consultants is developing a holographic radar.
"The holographic radar looks all round a ship, rather than seating a beam in a 360 degree circuit. Which means you can continually observe the target and get more information on what it's doing, rather than having to plot a course," he said.
This device will be used in conjunction with radar and is unique as it can form an image of its target meaning the crew can get a good old gander at the approaching vessel.
So, while you might think that we should leave the pirate stories to Peter Pan, modern-day versions are out there and at large meaning all this new prevention technology is having to improve all the time.
At present at least 12 vessels remain captive and under negotiation, with around 250 crew being held hostage. µ
L'Inq
Beeb
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Am I missing something or does a 9000 Volt Electric Fence around a boat sound like a bad idea!
It's time to start blowing Pirate ships out of the water. It won't take but the sinking of more than a half dozen Pirate ships for the scum to get the message. 

Now that worldwide military ships are moving into the area, they should just bomb these Pirate ships one after another and kill every single Pirate onboard. Take no prisoners. These scumbags are attacking innocent, defenseless mariners. There is no place in the world for these scumbag Pirates, so take them out now.
...considering that salt water conducts electricity quite well.

Surface-to-surface missles will do the job nicely however.
After bombing the Pirate ships, tie a rope around any surviving Pirates throat. Tie the rope to the stern and toss him over board for shark bait. It won't take long for the other Pirates to get the message. Shark bait is a universal international language.
these pirates need to be killed on the spot the ships should have serface to air missiles to blow up thir ship
I assume Paul is a Ninja.
Actually Paul, what's needed is a gunboat -- a warship designed to protect commerce from lightly-armed threats such as piracy. These haven't been built for many decades, mainly because navies had so many ships they could always detail some overkill platform to do the job.

Updating the gun boat gives a low draft, turbine-driven possibly fibreglass boat armed with miniguns, small missiles (adaptations of land anti-tank weapons, since a naval small missile is currently an oxymoron), and a few wire-guided torpedoes. Enough space for a stick or two of boarding party, with larger craft providing the helicopter warehousing.
Let's put this crisis in some perspective. Only a fraction of 1% of the ships going through that area are captured. The crews that are captured are treated as valuable commodities not slaughtered whimsically.

While this is piracy, those calling for death sentences must be the same sorts that make bombing runs over Iraq and Afghanistan. The poor are already dying from starvation and disease killing more of them doesn't really discourage them form trying to get enough to live on. It makes them more desparate and the lives of their kidnapees more at risk. 

While their is a need for a solution it lies in reasonable diplomacy and policing not simple minded answers from simple f***s.
The bleeding hearts of the world are deeply appreciated by all Pirates. I'm sure when they fire their RPGs at ships, they have no intentions of injuring anyone. These poor Pirates are just looking to EXTORT money through kidnapping and threats of blowing up the ship and crew - as they have stated in their extortion DEMANDS.

Time to get in touch with reality. The only good Pirate is a very dead Pirate. If these scumbags really wanted to change their lot in life they'd work like everyone else or move to a place where life is easier and get a frigging job. Piracy is not the answer, it's a despicable crime against innocent people and these criminals should die for their crimes. You don't negotiate with terroriists including Pirate terrorists. You vaporize their worthless asses.

Reasonable dipomacy with pirates? Ya, sure. Sounds great Neville. Where do we sign up to give away our stuff to these poor starving pirates? Because its clearly our success thats causing them to starve. We should pay.

The only thing that will stop this is to increase the risk for the pirates. One or two warnings from the ship then the rifles come out. Something like a sea marshall squad to ride on ships passing through the worst areas would seem prudent as well.
There is a 9000V electric fence especially for the maritime market made by a company in The Netherlands. I am regulary surfing the net to find information about these kind of systems but it's seems to be a too small market for company's to serve at the moment anyway.. As a captain/owner i am looking into this system to install on my new to built 12000dwt cargovessel. Offcourse this will not completely solve the problem if the attackers use a RPG which can blow the cables to bits and a free entry is then garanteed. But i think this system is usefull to stretch time when a attack is underway and i hope it might withhold the attackers to come on board. 
Weapons on board is not an option and will only cause more bloodshed. Although me and my crew have had discusions about weapons on board, in the end we all agree that this is not the solution as the attackers will become more violant.