Whatever you might have heard, piracy is not a thing of the past; in fact it is larger, more organised and more profitable than ever - worse still, these aren't the kind, shanty singing pirates seen in films. With dozens killed every year piracy is not for amusement, it is for abhorrence.

There has been recorded piracy for millenia, but it has normally been either single ships commanded by captains who required victory, and more importantly booty to maintain their position; or privateers initially sponsored by certain governments. The privateers would have a certain amount of legal protection in the form of letters of Marque, in return for attacking only ships of certain countries. Since pirates don't generally follow the rules, and countries being attacked don't appreciate pieces of paper, the letters of Marque were often ignored.

Summary of Modern Piracy

Piracy is defined by the United Nations as "any criminal acts of violence, detention, rape, or depredation committed for private ends by the crew or the passengers of a private ship or aircraft that is directed on the high seas against another ship, aircraft, or against persons or property on board a ship or aircraft."

Who's At Risk?

Other than everyone? Everyone is affected by piracy, but the specific acts of piracy are against certain types of boats. These boats are generally either large commercial container ships, worth a fortune to their companies or small yachts with a few passengers, easy to capture and hide. Some categories of boat are generally safe, passenger liners have so many crew and passengers that they make extremely difficult pickings for any pirate.

Bases

The wide variety of pirate groups will each have different bases on land. Each one however will share common characterisitics. The bases themselves must be isolated, but be capable of maintaining themselves (evidently this is normally done by sea); attached to this necessity is that of a shoreline or lee capable of landing boats and small ships. The bases will be well defended to aid fighting off possible attacks by land. Their size will vary due to a mixture of the pirate's knowledge of military actions - a larger camp is harder to defend, but can support more boats and hold more stolen cargo.

The crucial feature of any pirate camp is its geographical location. They must be based in a country without the capability to shut down the piracy. As well as this the country must be unwilling to accept assistance from outside countries, that otherwise might eliminate pirate's support base. This normally means that countries that are suffering political and/or social unheavel are preferred, especially those that are hostile to large maritime countries.

Financial Backing

Pirates require a modicum of financial backing to hire soldiers and sailors and purchase some firearms. The extremely high poverty numbers in most areas where piracy is rife make it easy to find willing members, given the potential to make enormous fortunes very quickly. The background knowledge of shipping patterns and even possibly information concerning actions of different navies add greatly to the chances of a sucessful attack.

Large ships

Most pirate groups will have at least one larger "mothership". This mothership will be what goes to sea for extended periods of time. It will travel the area of sea in order to find a suitable ship to attack. 50 people is a common number to be aboard such a ship with all the weapons, food and other support that any attack might require.

Smaller ships

Upon finding a vessel, several smaller boats are generally launched. This are generally high speed powerboats with perhaps ten pirates on each. These are used as they are faster than the ships they are attempting to catch and because it is too potentially costly to risk the larger ships, a substantial part of the pirate's base. Finally smaller ships, obviously, are harder to see and have a smaller radar return.

Taking ships

There are several actions involved when pirates capture a ship. Firstly they must find one, either by travelling in frequented areas, luck or by insider knowledge, where a crewmember will send the current navigation information to pirates. Knowing where the ship is allows the pirates and small boats to be launched to close on the ship. Normally the boats will try and sneak up on the ship from behind, which often acts as a radar blackspot and is less frequently viewed by crewmembers.

The first method of capturing a ship is just by demonstrating strength. Either guns or rockets are fired to try and persuade the crewmembers to surrender and allow the pirates on board without a fight.
If this doesn't work pirates will try and board by using either a rope ladder or grappling hook to get onboard the ship. Once onboard the pirates will try to secure the critical areas, such as the bridge and engine room. Rounding up crewmembers is a priority since otherwise they can try and contact help or disable the ship to prevent the movement to a more dangerous area.

If necessary the pirates can try and damage the ship to prevent it escaping. Evidently even a small number of rockets will have a massive effect on a ship, and any ship carrying volatile substances, such as natural gas, risks becoming an enormous fire if the pirates choose to fire on it.

If there is a bribed crewmember on board, then they may attempt various actions that make it far easier for pirates to capture a ship. These include deactivating the distress signal, giving more time for any captured ship to be moved to a safe haven for the pirates before any help can reach the crew. If on watch then the bribed crewmember can ignore the approach of the pirates allowing a stealthy capture of the ship, reducing chances of the crew sucessfully resisting.

Hostages

The crew of any captured ship will normally be left on ship until reaching a pirate port where they will be held. The hostages ensure that companies and governments will respond to demands made by the pirates. They also make it far harder for navies to retake the ships without loss of innocent life. Pirates will almost always treat any hostages well - dead hostages are worth little to companies, governments are more likely to act against pirates that have murdered their nationals and any remaining crewmembers are likely to try and escape or retake the ship if they consider themselves at risk. The only risk to hostages from pirates once a ship has been fully taken is if pirates have been killed taking the ship, and the remainder wish to take revenge.

Ransoms of People and Ships

The primary way that pirates make money is by returning the crew, ship and cargo to the owners. Evidently this is not out of the goodness of their hearts. Once the ship has been subdued and the ship has been docked at a safe port, the pirates will ring (on a satellite phone) the company. They will then tell the owners that the crew and ship are in good condition (hopefully). At this point, the company will do several things, only two of which will pertain to getting the crew and ship back. These are:

• Seeing whether there is any chance of retaking the ship - by the nature of where the pirates choose to stop, this is an unlikely option

• Handing over negotiations about the ransoming to one of several negotiation specialist groups that focus on dealing with pirates. Often based in countries such as Switzerland. The ransom value is generally calculated by the value of the ship and the previous payouts given to pirates before. With the combination of these two factors, costs have been skyrocketing over just a few years. One decade ago, £40,000 was a possible payout to pirates, nowadays £10,000,000 is possible

While the cost is being figured out the insurance companies are watching to see what they will be required to pay out. Pirate insurance is a common feature with commercial ships. However small yachts with a few passengers will have to rely on their personal wealth or that of friends to pay their ransom in order to buy their freedom.

Cargo

Cargo is normally returned with the ships - the thousands of containers on a modern container ship are far too many for most pirates to be able to transport to possible markets. The same is likely to apply to ships holding enormous amounts of oil or gas.
However anything convenient, such as cash, valuable items and small amounts of cargo that can be used will quickly be stolen to supplement the payments given to pirates.

There are certain "hostile" ports, that act against the interests of most countries, where it is possible for large amounts of cargo to both be offloaded and then sold on. However due to the scarcity of ports that are both willing to act against the large maritime nations and are large enough to deal with ships hundreds of metres long, it is a rare option.

Certain Areas

There are a surprisingly large number of areas currently deemed to have a high risk of piracy. Despite the appearance that the entire sea entails doom, the areas listed occupy only a small amount of our very large oceans. Nevertheless within the waters given below, there is a notable threat, and so it pays to try and pick as safe a route as possible.

There are three main areas, within which the piracy is mainly contained with specific sub sections.

South East Asia

• Bangladesh, attacks are often made while ships are anchored. Most attacks are made while close to the shoreline

• Indonesia, well armed pirates usually attack at night, piracy groups note that if spotted sufficently early the pirates will usually break off their attack

• Malaysia, it is rare for larger ships to be taken but barges and tugs, usually safer due to their lower values and higher crew/passenger numbers, are common prey

• Singapore Straits, once the bane for ships sailing through them, the area has improved in security due to an enormous fleet deployment to counteract the piracy, nevertheless attacks have not ceased

• The South China Sea and Vietnam are also reporting rises in pirate activity, with little protection yet being offered around Vietnam

Africa

• Nigeria, many attacks have been made, along with high fatality rates in all areas of Nigerian waters, raids are especially common, with many attacks not being reported

• Gulf of Aden, very dangerous area, with several ships sunk after being fired at by rocket propelled grenades, most ships captured will be taken to Somalia, to prevent them being retaken

• Somalia, perhaps the most well known of piracy areas, most would say it deserved its reputation. A complete lack of internal government prevents land supression of pirate bases, and allows piracy to occur with near invulnerability, attacks have occured up to 1000 nautical miles from the Somalian coastline

South America and Central America

• Brazil, attacks have risen year after year, despite measures taken to eradicate the piracy, as one area is cleansed pirates move into another

• Peru, attacks often occur while the ships are docked, including at times where ships have left watchmen guarding the ship, pirates have either subdued or killed the guards and then taken the ships

• Haiti, attacks have been prevalent in the approach and near depature of ships, as well as at shore, piracy is reasonably rare further away from shore

This is not a definitive list of dangerous areas even with the locales mentioned, not to mention excluding areas all over the world, straits in particular are always vulnerable to piracy. Up to date risk zones are freely available and are a basic necessity of any voyage out into the sea.

Defenses - Governments vs Ships

Defenses against piracy can be separated into two primary areas: what can ships do and what can governments do?

Ships?

There are many things that ships, of any size, can do rather than sit still while pirates hoist the jolly roger and take over. Some of these may appear blindingly obvious, some might appear not to have much apparent effect at first sight and others might appear to be impossible for a certain ship or company to do. Most wise ships use a mix of methods that suit them and update as necessary.

• Lookouts, so obvious and yet the mark one eyeball (preferably enhanced by binoculars) is extremely good at picking pirates up at a range. If pirates are spotted at a distance then ships have many more options open to them - they can take avoiding action, send out a distress call and warning, prepare a defense and many other things. Much of what a ship can do requires a small amount of forewarning of an attack, the more warning the better. The reason why ships don't always have several crewman out on deck looking around is simple; more crew means more cost, companies always strive to cut costs. Evidently though, a crewman's salary costs less than a ship, so it is to be hoped that all ships have lookouts on guard

• Searchlights, many pirate attacks happen at night, for simple reasons of visibility. Searchlights help counteract this problem, but still need crewmen on watch to make use of them

• Radar, all modern ships will have radar, but most large ones have a blind spot dead behind them. The use of extra radar allows ships to eliminate this blind spot. While the initial cost can be high, maintenence is not too costly, so this is becoming an increasingly popular option by larger ships. It is however providing a false sense of security, where ships don't think to watch out for smaller ships with harder to spot radar signatures

• Safe Rooms, this, technically, doesn't refer to a way of fighting piracy. Safe rooms, aka citadels, are places within a ship that are resistant to pirates where crew can shelter. Strong, large enough for all the crew and well stocked with resorces and communication devices it protects the crew in case of capture. This can actually deter pirates for several reasons: pirates have small ships, they often need the crew to manage large ships and while armed forces are often against storming a ship with hostages, when crew has been confirmed as safe ships have been retaken

• Electric fences, a step up from those used to guard your cattle, these 9000 volt fences prevent the sides of a ship being climbed. They can, of course, be put away when letting the customs official come on board. The system can be quite complicated but has been improving in design for the last few years

• Dazzle gun, this is a laser that when shined into a pirate's eyes temporarily blinds them. They have been available for several years now and are quite common on large commercial ships, they are slowly appearing for smaller ships as well

• Armed guards, at the moment, if you have these on any ship that isn't part of a navy, you are breaking the law. However maritime law is being looked at to see whether licensed private guards could be placed on at-risk ships. This could well prove a disincentive to pirates, it could also prove dangerous to those guarding the ships. However trained personnel that would always be present allows a more consistent level of security

Governments?

Which of these quotes would you agree with? "Eternity begins and ends with the ocean's tides." or "Nothing that happened an ocean away seemes very threatening." Certainly those crewing the ships, both genuine and pirate would think the former, and yet huge hoards of people, and many governments would agree with the latter. What can and should be done is shown below.

• Ships, most governments deploy parts of their navy to protect shipping routes. The problem is that there only a few frigates, destroyers etc. There are a lot of pirates, a lot of ships that can be held to hostage and a massive amount of space for any hijacking to take place. The chance that a ship is in the exact place at the right time is always unlikely. Nevertheless, extensive patrolling of an area will always reduce the pirate activity, and is helpful in resolving any situation where piracy has occurred

• Shipping Lanes, by telling ships that they should only pass through specific parts of dangerous waters, it cuts down the theroetical amount that has to be patrolled. This creates a higher chance of there being a nearby ship in case of emergency. It also means navy ships can run down ships outside the lanes and find their reasons for being there. Evidently this is more helpful the more countries that agree to it

• Convoys, this does sound rather like what you would expect in a world war, nevertheless, it is extremely helpful and quite practical. Ships of similar speed are placed together, and if guarded, are easier to guard, and even if not the larger amount of ships means more crewmen to watch for pirates

• Negotiating, another method that is not technically a defense against piracy. Governments can assist in the negotiating for hostages, while governments will not pay the fees they will often provide the personnel to conduct talks with the pirates. This is especially helpful for those who aren't part of large shipping firms with trained personnel concerning hostage taking

• Land security, this takes many forms from stable governance to ensuring jobs to patrols along the shore. Pirates rarely operate out of stable countries where there are opportunities for jobs and a sufficent military to eradicate any land base. Countries should therefore help ensure that other countries remain stable and assist them in matters concerning piracy if asked. Revolts and riots on land often trigger pirate attacks hundreds of miles from shore

Maritime Law

Maritime law is what is supposed to cover all matters concerning ships travelling between nations, especially those of the High Seas, the waters between any country's national waters. However there are massive flaws concerning maritime law and piracy. There is quite a long section on privateering, however since this is no longer a way of warfare, it is of little use.

Maritime law, as it stands, only gives true jurisdiction to country's over their own citizens (meaning, in theory, that a British frigate could only protect a container ship if either the crew or the pirates were British). This means that many parts of either national or more obscure parts of maritime law must be used. Attempts are being made to alter law to allow a more effective combating of piracy; however there are several flaws with capturing pirates under modern laws. The most critical of these is that the capturing party is responsible for imprisoning them, and then dealing with the pirates after their release from prison.

The difficulty in holding and punishing any caught pirates is reducing much of the deterrent factor that any armed presence might provide. Frequently, caught pirates are simply let go, with their possesions destroyed. If pirates believe they can raid and have no possible consequence other than the loss of some guns that cost less than 1/100th of the potential profit of a single sucessful attack, then there is no reason to stop.

The Cost of Piracy

The true costs of piracy cannot be conveyed by cold statistics, but this researcher hopes that the staggering costs of piracy will eliminate any sympathy for the murdering robbers who are spreading across some of the most busy parts of our world.

The obvious costs are those of ransoming hostages or lost ships. These are large but there are massive costs aside these. Replacing lost cargo, insuring ships, rerouting ships to avoid pirating zones, protecting ships and the costs of naval forces. The rough cost in 2010 alone is believed to be 10 billion US dollars. Then the lost money in profit that the ships would have provided would have been over one billion US dollars. That means in one year alone 11 billion dollars, bigger than many countries national budgets, was lost due to pirates.

The true cost cannot just be counted in money though. Since 2006, when more detailed records started to be taken of the threat piracy posed, nearly 4000 innocent crewman have taken prisonor. Hundreds have been tortured and over 100 killed. These are not pirates who let orphans go, they are murderers.