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Washington Times calls for arming ship crews
Editorial here.
A thought: it might take no more than a pistol. assuming the target ship unbolts its ladders, they have to come up via grappling hook. As soon as the first guy's head appears, the crewman shoots him. The pirate crew now must call for volunteers to be the next up. If, repeatedly, the point man get shot between the eyes, this will eventually lower morale.
That might explain why the pirates veered off when the cruise ship's crew just fired some shots in the area. They had AKs, but so long as the guys with pistols could duck out of sight and wait for them to expose themselves, they could wipe them out.
Hat tip to Don Hamrick....
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Uhm, these pirates don't fly the jolly roger. Until they attempt to board or fire upon the merchant ship, they are just another boat sailing on the water. Engaging them at a distance would simple get the master and shooters prosecuted in some country that permits lawyers. You'd have to prove they had piracy intentions while they contend they were in distress and only approaching to seek the assistance all mariners are legally obligated to provide to someone in distress at sea.
Plinking them as they pop their head over the rail after they grapple a line aboard, well, now we have intent anyone would reasonably interpret as hostile. Of course, you still don't have self defense based on the pirates' non-lethal actions to date but you have established their ill intentions.
Of course, the handgun could provide cover as others move something heavy and fiberglass penetrating over the rail. That would give them something to think about and since their hostile intent is established, the Master could argue he couldn't provide assistance to the now in-distress boat because it would endanger his ship and crew.
In light oof yesterday's story that the pirates have someone spying on ship manifests in London, it might be comparatively easy to set up decoys.
I posted my bulletin about my Admiralty case for the Second Amendment at my blog. A picture is worth a thousand words. The JPEG image says it all!
AmericanCommonDefenceReview.Wordpress.com
I'd rather fire from a distance and take my chances with court. It's not acceptable for small boats to chase ships at sea in pirate infested waters. That is very likely an attack. Such an attack is clearly life threatening. When it's clear to any reasonable person that it is very likely you are under a life threatening attack, it is permitted to defend with deadly force if necessary. I think in almost all countries it is only necessary to show by a preponderance of the evidence that it was self defense, not "prove" beyond a reasonable doubt. If your ship is being chased, that's probable cause that you're under attack. A video of that should be all the proof you need.(some warning shots might make your defense a lot easier though)
You don't have to wait until an attacker lets fly their projectiles before you can conclude an attack has begun. For example if someone pulls back an arrow in their bow and points it at you, you can shoot before they let the arrow go. Likewise, a pirate attack starts with an approach. Since there is only a minuscule possibility that such an approach has a legitimate purpose, you don't have to risk your life to find out. You can at least fire warning shots.
You can't fire nearly as early if the pirate boat may just be coincidentally on a near intercept course. If your ship is agile enough and you turn to avoid intercept and the pirates change course or speed to intercept, then that is an apparent attack. In any case you don't have to wait for a grappling hook to reasonably conclude there is an attack.
Ever heard of a grenade? If you want to be they guy behind that handgun be my guest, I would pass. Sure some pirates would be scared off, but determined ones would not. Stick with two trained men with a .50 BMG rifle at long range, spotter with range finder (army scout snipers would be great). Of corse give them a couple of M4's and sidearms as well. This would cover 99.9% of situations, there is no perfect solution, but there never is.