Cruise Lines Take Precautions Against Pirates

Arizona Republic
February 20, 2009
by Dan Fellner

INDIAN OCEAN OFF EAST AFRICA - "If they come, we will deal with it."

It is 6:30 a.m., just after sunrise, and a security guard is on Deck 9 peering over the railing on the Silversea Silver Wind, a luxury cruise ship carrying 400 passengers and crew. Two of his colleagues are patrolling other decks. Armed only with two-way radios, they have been walking around the ship's decks throughout the night.

We're sailing in the Indian Ocean only 200 miles from lawless Somalia, and the Silver Wind crew is on the lookout for pirates.

The security guard stops for a minute to answer my questions. He says that nothing unusual happened during the night but that if an unidentified vessel were to come too close to the Silver Wind, the ship had procedures in place to fend off would-be intruders. He wouldn't specify what the procedures were, but cruise ships have been known to use everything from high-pressure hoses to sonar weapons to repel attacks.

No such measures were needed on this voyage, and the Silver Wind docked uneventfully that morning in Mombasa, Kenya, completing a 16-day journey that began in Cape Town, South Africa, and had stops in Mozambique, Madagascar and Tanzania.

Somali pirates have attacked hundreds of cargo ships off Africa, raking in an estimated $30 million in ransom last year. On Feb. 5, pirates made off with $3.2 million in ransom after releasing an arms-laden Ukrainian freighter, one of their biggest hauls.

Pirates have tried, but so far failed, to hijack cruise ships, which potentially could yield even bigger paydays.

Our ship of 200 affluent, mostly European and North American passengers was carrying enough bling and cash to make any band of pirates drool, not to mention the enormous ransom a luxury cruise ship could fetch.

On Nov. 30, the Oceania Nautica was attacked in the Gulf of Aden by two small boats carrying armed Somali pirates. Shots were fired, but the Nautica outran the bandits.

On Nov. 5, 2005, two inflatable speedboats full of pirates armed with grenade-launchers and machine guns were thwarted in an attack on the Mombasa-bound Seabourn Spirit about 100 miles off Somalia. According to passenger accounts, one grenade landed in a stateroom but caused no injuries.

The cruise industry is taking the threats seriously but continues to sail in the region.

"We haven't altered any of our itineraries," said Silversea Cruises spokesman Brad Ball, who was aboard the Silver Wind's Cape Town-Mombasa sailing. "These waters are pretty well protected. In addition, we have our own well-trained crews and security personnel on board our vessels, and we're continuously developing, increasing and enhancing our response capabilities to potential piracy attacks."

Some German cruise lines have gone so far as to fly passengers from one port in the region to the next so they won't be onboard when a ship transits the Gulf of Aden, a pirate haven that links the Indian Ocean and Red Sea. In December, German Defense Minister Franz Josef Jung said cruise lines that sail in the region are risking the lives of their passengers.

But the Cruise Lines International Association, a Florida-based trade group, defended the continued sailings through the Gulf of Aden, saying ships that traverse the region do so within a prescribed Maritime Safety Protection Area that is patrolled by military forces from several countries.

"All CLIA members have thorough security protocols in place, including anti-piracy measures, that help to ensure the safety of their passengers and crew while they enjoy a cruise vacation," the association said in a statement.

All factors considered, cruise ships make more difficult targets for pirates than cargo ships. Taking over a slowly moving container ship with a handful of crew members is one thing, but capturing a cruise ship with hundreds of passengers would be a logistical nightmare.

Pirates normally like a one-to-one ratio of captives to captors so they can maintain control of the vessel while ransom talks take place. Cruise ships also are faster and carry a wider range of non-lethal weaponry than most cargo ships. In addition, their tall hulls make it harder for pirates to throw hooks over the side and climb aboard.

Ball said the piracy threat hasn't hurt bookings.

"Guests who book Silversea are pretty seasoned," he said. "They know that, unfortunately, something can happen five minutes from your house or 5,000 miles from your house."

A new task force, led by the U.S. Navy's Fifth Fleet, launched counter-piracy operations in January. American warships are working with naval vessels from 14 countries, including Great Britain, Russia and China.