Uh...pirates?

[Matt700wlw]

MIAMI (AP) _ A luxury cruise liner has been attacked off the east African coast.
A spokesman for Miami-based Seabourn Cruise Lines says pirates fired a rocket-propelled grenade and machine guns at the ``Seabourn Spirit'' today about 100 miles off the coast of Somalia.
The cruise line says the attackers approached the ship in two 25-foot inflatable boats, and opened fire as they tried to board.
Spokesman Bruce Good says the ship managed to outrun the attackers and change course.
The 151 passengers, mostly Americans, were gathered in a lounge for safety. The company says one crew member was slightly injured and the ship suffered minor damage.
Good says theft is the suspected motive.
The liner was on its way from Egypt to Kenya when it was attacked. It's expected to stop in the Seychelles (say-SHELZ') Monday, then continue on to Singapore.

[ochre]

Piracy is still a big deal in the south china and philipine seas. I'm sure that the ocean/seas of east africa are quite the same.

[KronoRed]

These pirates are NOT cool.

[ghettochild]

argg

[alex trevino]

shimber me timbers!

[Crash Davis]

Originally Posted by Matt700wlw

It's expected to stop in the Seychelles (say-SHELZ') Monday, then continue on to Singapore.

...where internet-savvy pirates will be eagerly anticipating their arrival.

[Crash Davis]

Originally Posted by Matt700wlw

The cruise line says the attackers approached the ship in two 25-foot inflatable boats...

Inflatable boats? And you call yourselves pirates? That's a sad excuse for piracy. Worst pirates I've ever seen. If they pull a stunt like this again, piracy will lose all respectability and become the butt of innumerable lousy jokes.

Should've never let my guidance counselor talk me out of being a pirate. These clowns could obvioulsy use an upgrade at captain.

[LoganBuck]

You would think that the ship should carry a dart gun that would end the inflatable raft.

[LincolnparkRed]

Originally Posted by LoganBuck

You would think that the ship should carry a dart gun that would end the inflatable raft.

Don't most cruise ships have rifles aboard for skeet shooting?? They could have defended themselves with those from the sound of it.

[Blimpie]

How tall is the average modern cruise ship? I hope those guys brought their suction cups.

[Unassisted]

Piracy happens along the South American coast, too. Usually, the targets are freighters. Attacking a cruise ship is quite brazen. The cruise industry must be eager for this story to go away.

[Blimpie]

Originally Posted by Unassisted

Piracy happens along the South American coast, too. Usually, the targets are freighters. Attacking a cruise ship is quite brazen. The cruise industry must be eager for this story to go away.

I guess for the pirates, the cruise ship is more like a floating ATM machine compared to a freighter...

[smith288]

SO this is where Pittsburgh's baseball team trains in the off season...

[Blimpie]

Sounds like this could have been much worse, were it not for some nifty manuevering by the Captain...

Ship's Passengers Recount Pirate Attack
By BISHR EL-TOUNI, Associated Press Writer
Mon Nov 7, 8:48 AM ET


A World War II veteran wielding a camera found himself facing a smiling attacker armed with a grenade launcher. Another holiday maker escaped injury because she was taking a bath, and not in a stateroom where an explosive landed.

Passengers of the Seabourn Spirit described moments of panic and luck Monday after docking in the Seychelles after presumed pirates in speedboats chased their luxury cruise liner at sea. None of the passengers, most of whom were Americans, was hurt. One crew member was slightly injured.

Those familiar with the security sitation off anarchic Somalia's coast said Saturday's attack fit the methods of pirates who have been hijacking cargo ships for ransom and loot, but marked a new boldness.

Some passengers were lucky to escape with their lives, according to Charles Forsdick, from Durban, South Africa.

A woman survived an explosion in her stateroom simply because she was taking a bath at the time. Others flung themselves to the floor to avoid bullets that were zipping through the ship, Forsdick told Associated Press Television News.

"I tell you, it was a very frightening experience," WWII veteran Charles Supple, of Fiddletown, California, recalled by phone after the liner dropped anchor off Seychelles.

The retired physician and World War II veteran said said he started to take a photograph of a pirate craft, and "the man with the bazooka aimed it right at me and I saw a big flash.

"Needless to say, I dropped the camera and dived. The grenade struck two decks above and about four rooms further forward," Supple said. "I could tell the guy firing the bazooka was smiling."

Bob Meagher of Sydney said he climbed out of bed and went to the door of his cabin shortly before 6 a.m. after hearing a commotion outside.

"I saw a white-hulled boat with men in it waving various things and shooting at the ship — at that stage it appeared to be rifle fire," he told Australian radio.

"My wife said `look, they're loading a bazooka', which we later discovered was called an RPG (rocket-propelled grenade) launcher.

"There was a flash of flame and then a huge boom — a terrible boom sound," he said, adding the grenade hit about 10 feet (three meters) from him and his wife.

Meagher and others praised the ship's captain and crew for the way they handled the attack and for keeping passengers calm.

"I was scared, I was very scared," Jean Noll, of Florida. But her husband said the experience was not likely to deter them from enjoying another cruise.

"We cruise all the time," Clyde Noll said.

The gunmen never got close enough to board the cruise ship, but one member of the 161-person crew was injured by shrapnel, according to the Miami-based Seabourn Cruise Line, a subsidiary of Carnival Corp.

The liner escaped by shifting to high speed and changing course.

The liner had been bound for Mombasa, Kenya, at the end of a 16-day voyage from Alexandria, Egypt. Instead, passengers were to continue from the Seychelles to Singapore, company officials said.

Some of the passengers who planned to tour Mombasa, however, will fly there Tuesday aboard a chartered plane.

Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer told Australia radio Monday that the attackers might have been terrorists. But others said the attack bore the hallmarks of pirates who have become increasingly active off Somalia, which has no navy and has not had an effective central government since 1991.

Even before the cruise ship attack, Somali Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi Gedi had called on neighboring countries to send warships to patrol his 1,880-mile coastline, Africa's longest. As if to underscore his country's lawlessness, Gedi escaped an apparent assassination attempt in his capital Sunday.

In its latest piracy report, the British-based International Maritime Bureau said in a report released Monday that the risk of violent hijackings off Somalia's coastline was increasing. It said 19 attacks occurred between January and September compared to just one last year.

The bureau advised ships to remain at least 150 miles away from Somalia's eastern coast.

Armed pirates in speedboats frequently fire on ships passing near Somalia, seeking to hijack them and hold the crew for ransom, the bureau said. Somalia lies along key shipping lanes linking the Mediterranean with the Persian Gulf and Indian Ocean.

Judging by the location of Saturday's attack, the pirates likely were from the same group that hijacked a U.N.-chartered aid ship in June and held its crew and food cargo hostage for 100 days, Andrew Mwangura, head of the Kenyan chapter of the Seafarers Assistance Program, said Sunday.

That gang is one of three well-organized pirate groups on the Somali coast.

Somali pirates are trained fighters with maritime knowledge, identifying targets by listening to the international radio channel used by ships at sea, Mwangura said.

[smith288]

need to start arming these "holiday" vessels.