Last Sunday, a cargo ship traveling from Cairo to Dubai set out on a routine voyage that would take it through “Pirate Alley”. The ship is called the Maersk Idaho and along for the ride is Douglas Stevenson, head of the Seamen’s Church Institute’s (SCI) Center for Seafarers’ Rights, who has been twittering throughout the voyage, and keeping his eyes peeled for pirates of the coast of Somalia.
Stevenson is hoping to avoid the pirates of course, but he is trying to connect with sailors who routinely pass through those dangerous waters. in recent months, the Somali pirates have become increasingly bold in their attacks, and although there haven’t been any high profile incidences like the ones that took place back in April, in which U.S. Navy SEALS shot and killed pirates holding an American hostage.
You can follow Stevenson’s Twitter feed by clicking here. So far, there is nothing as exciting as “Taking fire from pirates”, but it is still interesting to follow the progression of the journey. The ship is scheduled to reach it’s destination on this Sunday, and as of this writing, the boat is moored in Djbouti. It’s highly likely the rest of the journey will go with out incident, but it should still be an interesting thing to watch unfold.
You can read more about the journey here.
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It is insane that pirates now inhabit the earth once again…
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Still boggles my mind too. They're also quite bad in the South China Sea. So hard to believe in the 21st century.
The conditions the pirates from Somalia live in are deplorable. They have nothing to lose. I'll never forget seeing the big smile from a pirate who was arrested after the hostage incident. He must have been thinking that nothing could be worse than where he was before.
As long as there are people living in poverty, hunger and war there will be pirates, and (unfortunately) I think we'll be seeing a lot more of this.
It is next to impossible to control them, too. The Somalian navy has an admiral with no maritime experince in 23 years, no naval vessels, and little in the way of funding.
Not to mention the large area of open water that they are roaming. It's just too much territory to cover as well.