The cruise lines aren't the ones with the problem, it's the cargo ships. The pirates only want to rob the crew and empty the ships' safe. The shipping companies won't spend the money for proper protection, so the crew is often left vulnerable to piracy. The varying international gun laws also play a huge part, in favor of the pirates. The shipping companies don't want to run afoul of local law and risk having one of their vessels, along with it's cargo, impounded, so they're not armed.

So far, it looks like the Russians have been the only ones to take a stand against piracy. A few years ago, several bodies were found floating off the coast of Malaysia. The next day, a small boat, outfitted with some serious firepower (as well as a few more bodies), was found not far away. Although it was never proved, it appears that these were pirates who were attempting to board a Russian freighter off the coast of Sumatra.

Check my previous post in this thread, and if you get a chance, read the book.

Interesting, thanks for the heads up I'm going check that one out.

You'll be glad you did. I stumbled across it at my local library about two years ago. It'll answer lots of the questions that have come up in this thread.

Nothin like adding a few facts to what we think we already know.

Nah to much interferance. Pirates are really only a problem in certain area's, and in those spots ships run fast, with their lights on, and usualy have fire hoses going over the stern. They know the potential is their so lookouts are posted. A freighter moving at 20 knots is hard to get close to yet alone board. Remember your looking at pretty much a flat steel wall 30+ feet high, thats wet, usualy slimmy, and moving through the water fast. I imagin the only way to get up is to use grapple hooks, so perfect choke point for the crew to machine gun the SOB's.

Approaching a boarding a ship like that is a pretty tricky matter.

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