When people hear about pirates, they usualluy conjur up visions of a bygone era with Blackbeard and the other pirates of the Caribbean. Most perople are not aware that today piracy on the seas is alive and well. Today's pirates are not the swashbucklers of Blackbeard's time who attacked merchant ships with cannons and boarded them with swords and pistols in hand.
Modern pirates are stealthy knife or gun wielding thieves and robbers who operate from fishing boats or from deep-sea going power boats, sneaking up on their prey in the middle of the night. Container ships and open cargo ships are their favorite targets, but they will attack tankers and other bulk carriers as well. They are most prevalent off the African coast, in the waters of Southeast Asia, and off the South American coast. And, they still operate in the Caribbean.
I have just returned from 41 days aboard a container ship which sailed from the U.S. to the Dominican Republic, Brazil, Argentina, and Mexico. I was on the bridge every day looking at the ship's charts, most of which were marked with designated "Pirate Area" locations. Many ships have to wait at anchorage outside a port until a dockside berth becomes available. Pirates prefer to attack a ship at night while it is in anchorage. However, as I learned first-hand, they will also board a ship while it is docked in port.
Around 3:00 AM on November 4th, while we were docked in Santos, Brazil, one of our crew members discovered pirates aboard the ship. They had broken into a 40 foot container and were unloading cartons of Mary Kaye perfume which they threw overboard into a waiting boat. By the time they were discovered, they had removed half of the perfume loaded in the container. That was a lot of perfume. Five or six of the pirates had boarded the ship by going up the gangway pretending to be dockworkers. When they were discovered, they left the same way. The crew had orders not to stop them because they were probably armed with knives or possibly guns. The Captain told me, "We are sailors, not soldiers."
The pirates in Santos knew exactly what they were after and where to find it. This would indicate that they were in collusion with one or more dock supervisors who had access to the ship's manifest as well as specific knowledge of the perfume's exact location. The dock supervisors could have facilitated the boarding of the ship via the gangway. It is also quite possible that the pirates were in cahoots with the police or security personnel.
To prevent the theft of the ship's electronics and the crew's valuables, all deck and cabin doors are locked while the ship is in anchorage or docked. The locked deck doors will prevent pirates from getting access to the inside of the ship. While in anchorage, there is at least one crew member on each wing of the bridge, keeping a sharp lookout for any suspicious boats. During a recent voyage, the captain of my ship went to the bridge one night while it was in anchorage. He found the watch officer sound asleep and one of the lookouts dozing off in a deck chair on one of the wings. Both were fired when the ship arrived at the next port.
Right after the reunification of Germany, the captain, an East German, was on a ship in the Singapore Straits. Because he had to be recertified by the new government, he relinquished his command to another captain, serving as the first mate instead. The new captain was lax in enforcing anti-piracy measures, failing to post lookouts on the bridge wings while in anchorage. One night, instead of locking all doors, he sent the cook and messman to the deck on some errand. They were immediately captured by a group of pirates who had boarded the ship undected. The Chief Engineer barely escaped capture by locking himself in the engine compartment. The pirates made their way up to the bridge where they surpised the captain and the helmsman, poking each in the kidneys with long knives. They stripped the ship of its electronics and robbed everyone they found of their valuables before returning to their boat.
Today's piracy is not without its moments of humor. After the pirates departed, my friend, who slept through the Singapore Straits attack, was awakened by loud banging on his cabin door and informed of what happened by an almost speechless crewman. He made his way up to the bridge where he found the captain white as a ghost and completely speechless. On the other hand, the helmsman was laughing, pulling his wristwatch out from inside of his jockey briefs and exclaiming, "They didn't get my watch." Several years ago, my captain was on another ship which was attacked in Peruvian waters by pirates who made off with a whole container full of expensive shoes. However, the pirates were outsmarted by the manufacturer who had loaded only left shoes in one container, while loading the right shoes in an entirely different container.
Piracy at sea continues to be a serious and dangerous problem for ships and their crews. I was made aware of this when I took my first container ship voyage in 2003. Because sailors are not soldiers, they will attempt to repel boarders only by using fire hoses, and failing that, will retreat to the inside, locking the doors behind them. Today's pirates may not be the romanticized rogues of Blackbeard's time, but they are out there doing their dirty deeds throughout much of the seafarer's world.
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