The Leaky Barge

2011-12-24T15:37:00.000-08:00

US Navy disrupts pirate attack on Suezmax off Yemen

London (Platts)--22Dec2011/707 am EST/1207 GMT

US Navy destroyer USS Pinckey disrupted suspected pirates south of Yemen on December 19, the US Navy said in a statement late Wednesday.

The destroyer responded to a distress call by the Nordic Apollo, a Suezmax crude tanker, that "they were under attack and [had] been fired upon by pirates from a skiff."

Pinckey's helicopter successfully tracked and located a skiff, "observing nine suspected pirates and pirate paraphernalia on board, including several ladders, weapons and fuel containers," the US Navy statement said.

Cyrus Mody from the International Maritime Bureau said Thursday navies operating in the area off Somalia and the Gulf of Aden have helped reduce successful hijackings by Somali pirates this year.

"After the monsoon we have not seen a lot of piracy attacks," Mody said, adding that "the navies had been very actively targeting the pirate action groups and that has helped in reducing the numbers."
Click here for more...

2011-12-24T15:29:00.000-08:00

US Navy Stops Somali Pirate Attack
December 21, 2011

A U.S. destroyer broke up an attack by Somali pirates on Monday in the lawless waters of the Gulf of Aden, but the American Sailors let the would-be hijackers go, the Navy announced.
The incident highlights the difficulty for the U.S. and international navies that patrol the pirate-infested waters off the Horn of Africa, where warships can help disrupt attacks when they happen or sometimes rescue ships after the fact -- but only treat the symptoms of the piracy problem, not its root causes.
According to the Navy, the Marshall Islands-flagged tanker Nordic Apollo radioed for help at about 8:40 a.m. local time on Monday -- its crew reported being fired upon by pirates in a small skiff. At 11:00 a.m., another vessel reported "suspicious activity by a skiff," and the destroyer USS Pinckney responded to investigate....(cont at link below)

http://www.military.com/news/article/2011/us-navy-stops-somali-pirate-attack.html

2011-11-16T22:27:00.001-08:00

So finally the British Submarines will be cut up? Not at all a sure thing. 17 are sitting at dock waiting for someone to come up with a cunning plan...

2011-10-29T17:00:00.001-07:00

2011-10-14T16:16:00.001-07:00

Royal Marines destroy pirate vessel
A Military Operations news article
24 Nov 10

Royal Marines based onboard a Royal Navy warship destroyed a boat yesterday that was being used by pirates off the coast of Somalia to attack merchant ships.The pirate vessel destroyed by Royal Marines from HMS Montrose [Picture: Crown Copyright/MOD 2010]The Marines, from Plymouth-based frigate HMS Montrose, fired their machine guns at the pirate vessel as they hovered above it in the warship's Lynx helicopter.The incident took place during a routine patrol off the Somali coast yesterday, Tuesday 23 November 2010, when the helicopter identified the suspect boat as the whaler from MV Aly Zoulfecar, which had been acting as a pirate 'mother ship' since it was hijacked on 3 November 2010.The whaler was anchored off a known pirate camp and, once permission had been given to take it out, the Royal Marines marksmen fired their M3M .50-calibre machine guns and destroyed it.HMS Montrose's Commanding Officer, Commander Jonathan Lett, said:"HMS Montrose has been patrolling off the Somali coast for some time and we know how the pirates operate."Our destruction of the whaler close to a known pirate camp has sent a message to the Somali pirates that NATO and other coalition forces are willing to take the fight to them in order to prevent them from attacking merchant ships."HMS Montrose is operating off the Somali coast as part of NATO's counter-piracy operation, OCEAN SHIELD.Image of skiff on beach that was destroyed in 2010

Royal Marines from the Navy frigate HMS Portland intercept two pirate skiffs in the Gulf of Aden

2011-09-14T18:18:00.000-07:00

gulfnews : Three killed in rescue of hijacked dhow off Oman

2011-09-07T16:04:00.000-07:00

IMO Magazine - Special Piracy Issue 2011

http://www.imo.org/MediaCentre/NewsMagazine/Documents/IMO-News-03-11-WEB.pdf

gulfnews : Three killed in rescue of hijacked dhow off Oman

2011-08-14T17:01:00.001-07:00

Take that! Royal Marines blow up Somali pirates' ammunition-packed boat in battle to keep Indian Ocean safe

By Mail Foreign Service
Last updated at 11:39 AM on 19th November 2010

A boat belonging to Somali pirates goes up in a ball of flame after being destroyed by British commandos in the Indian Ocean.

The swoop by Royal Marines off the coast of Africa is part of the continuing battle to make safe shipping lanes off the coast of Africa.

It comes less than a week after Britons Paul and Rachel Chandler were released by Somali pirates, who kidnapped them 13 months ago.

Destroyed: A Somali pirate ship is detroyed by a team of British special forces off the African coast
Many other hostages, who have not had ransoms paid, are still held in captivity.

The Marines found this boat packed with ammunition which they believe was intended for hijacks. The pirate crew was later released on the Somali coast.

The operation was led by Corporal Michael Murray, 28, who was on duty on the Fort Victoria - part of the Navy's Royal Fleet Auxiliary.

Cpl Murray and his team scrambled launches to tackle the pirates, who they found without food and using a makeshift sail after losing engine power. They threw their weapons overboard and surrendered.

In his sights: A member of the Royal Marines Raiding Craft trains his gun on the pirate ship as his colleagues board it
NATO forces have been stationed off the Horn of Africa since December 2008 and have been fired upon by pirates.

Cpl Murray, from Oldham, said: 'In this part of the world there is always the chance that you're going to encounter pirate vessels, and this one was a few miles from the ship.

'From the alert going out we had 20 minutes to prepare and get ready to go.We were told it was a whaler, which is the kind of boat that pirates often use in the Indian Ocean.

'We approached with our fast boats and were ready for any exchange of fire. Fortunately they didn't offer any resistance. 'They put their hands up and we were able to come alongside and carry out a search, during which we found ammunition.'

UK Royal Marines destroy Somali pirate vessel

2011-08-14T16:56:00.000-07:00

UK Royal Marines destroy Somali pirate vessel

| Print |

Written by defenceWeb

Friday, 26 November 2010 11:45

A British task team has destroyed a boat that was being used by pirates off the coast of Somalia to attack merchant ships. Royal Marines, assigned to the Plymouth-based frigate HMS Montrose, fired their machine guns at the pirate vessel as they hovered above it in the warship's Fleet Air Arm Lynx helicopter, the UK DoD says in a statement.

The incident took place during a routine patrol off the Somali coast yesterday, when the helicopter identified the suspect boat as the whaler from MV Aly Zoulfecar, which had been acting as a pirate 'mother ship' since it was hijacked on 3 November 2010.

The whaler was anchored off a known pirate camp and, once permission had been given to take it out, the Royal Marines marksmen fired their M3M .50-calibre machine guns and destroyed it, the statement explained.

HMS Montrose's commanding officer, Commander Jonathan Lett, says his ship "has been patrolling off the Somali coast for some time and we know how the pirates operate. Our destruction of the whaler close to a known pirate camp has sent a message to the Somali pirates that NATO and other coalition forces are willing to take the fight to them in order to prevent them from attacking merchant ships." HMS Montrose is operating off the Somali coast as part of NATO's counter-piracy operation, OCEAN SHIELD.

According to Sky News, senior British commanders and other sources in the Ministry of Defence have warned the goverment of Prime Minister David Cameron not to underestimate the threat posed by Somali pirates saying that they fear the recent increase in attacks in the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean could result in the UK's gas and oil supplies being disrupted, causing a rise in prices over the winter.

The Royal Navy and its supporters are also lobbying for the new Nimrod MRA4 marine reconnaissance aircraft project to be brought back to life.

Earlier this month the European Union anti-piracy task force rescued a South African yachtsman after he was left behind by Somali pirates who were trying to hijack his yacht. Two crew members, both South African, were taken onshore as hostages.

Somali pirates typically hijack merchant vessels, take the ships to coastal towns they control and hold them until a ransom is paid. As ransoms are usually in the millions of dollars, the lucrative trade has continued despite foreign naval patrols. According to the International Maritime Board, ship hijackings hit a five-year high of 39 in the first nine months of the year -- 35 of them carried out by Somali pirates. At least 31 vessels and 541 hostages remain in Somali pirate hands in several locations, according to the latest report by Ecoterra International, a piracy monitoring group.

2011-08-07T16:11:00.001-07:00

On my shelf....

2010-02-16T16:34:00.000-08:00

Published articles written by the author that relate to various aspects of maritime law enforcement:

Martin T.A., 'Maritime Piracy: Out of Sight, Out of Mind?', Goorangai, Occasional Papers of the Royal Australian Naval Reserve Professional Studies Program, vol.2 no.3 Aug (2006) [Australia]

Martin T.A., 'Littoral and Asymmetric Warfare', Goorangai, Occasional Papers of the Royal Australian Naval Reserve Professional Studies Program, vol.3 no.3 Sep (2006) [Australia]

Martin, T. A., ‘Drawing Lines In The Sea’, USNI Proceedings, United States Naval Institute, Annapolis, MD, vol.134, Dec (2008)

Martin, T.A., 'The Impact of Narco Trafficking and Interdiction on Shipping', Strategic Insights: Global Maritime Security Analysis, no.15 Nov (2009) [Denmark]

Martin, T.A., 'Shipping, Cocaine and the West African Connection', Strategic Insights: Global Maritime Security Analysis, no.18, Sep (2009) [Denmark]

Martin, T.A., 'Maritime Law Enforcement Beyond the Littoral', Headmark, Journal of the Australian Naval Institute, iss.132, Winter (2009) [Australia]

Martin, T.A., 'In the Wake of Disaster: How the Haiti Earthquake is likely to Redefine the Notion of Port Security', Strategic Insights: Global Maritime Security Analysis, no.21 Jan (2010) [Denmark]
hts: Global Maritime Security Analysis, no.21 Jan (2010) [Denmark]

Martin T.A., ‘Drugs, Ships and Containers: How Anti-terrorism Benefits Shipping Security’, Strategic Insights: Global Maritime Security Analysis, no.31 Mar (2011) [Denmark]

Narcotics Trafficking & International Law

2009-06-26T05:40:00.000-07:00

NATO MARITIME ALERT SITE

U.S. Dept of Justice

Illicit Trafficking (handbook to sources)

Non-Traditional Threats

UNODC on West Africa Trafficking

UNODC West Africa Drug Trafficking Report 2008

'The Traffic in Narcotics' - Anslinger & Tompkins

The Drug Library

International Law

Maritime Law E-Books

THE 'LECTRIC LAW LIBRARY

MARITIME LAW ENFORCEMENT

Counter-Piracy Locker

2009-04-17T20:27:00.001-07:00

NATO Shipping

ONI - National Geospatial Intelligence Agency

IMB - Piracy Reporting Centre

IMO - Monthly Piracy Circulars

NATO - Anti-Piracy: Gulf of Aden

NATO - 0TAN

MARAD - U.S. Maritime Administration

MARAD - Piracy

RECAAP - Piracy Reporting Southeast Asia

RUSI - Maritime Forces Research/Analysis

UNSC - UN Security Council Reports

United States Coast Guard
EUNAVFOR

Marisk

United States European Command

Dryad Maritime Intelligence Service

Hijacks - Ecoterra Status of Vessels

Weather Charts and Stuff

Ocean Weather States

Global Weather in Maritime Zones
Time Zones and Weather Forecasts

U.S.Navy - global wave charts

Maps WW2 : University of Texas

Time, Location &Nautical Calculators

Degrees to Decimal/Decimal to Degrees...

Convert Degrees & Digital Minutes to Decimal

Nautical Calculators (download from ONI)

World Time Zones - UTC to Local Times

Find Latitude - Longitude with google-tool

Wiki-Mapia - Lat & Long Interactive Reference Tool

Aden Piracy Map - (Google)

Conversion statute miles to nautical miles

Convert kilometres to nautical miles

Ship Tracking and Identification

Ship Locations (real time)

Vessel Tracker - what and where is that ship?

Digital Seas - as above and other maritime info...

Ship-Spotting - hi-res images commercial and naval

World Shipping Register (best)

Definitions

Marine Traffic.com (ships and where they are)

Fishing Vessels Search - (Tuna)

DNV EXCHANGE VESSEL INFO

Naval Leadership, Strategy and Intelligence

Naval Leadership: Voices of Experience
Ecoterra

Naval Doctrine Publication 2 - US Naval Intelligence

The Naval Intelligence Underpinnings of Reagan’s Maritime Strategy

Types of Military Intelligence

Military Intelligence (Wiki)

World Intelligence Agencies (by country)

Office of U.S. Naval Intelligence (ONI)

Canadian Naval Intelligence (book review)

Open Source Information System (Global Security)

Australian Defence White Paper 2009

U.S. JOE Report - 2008

Riddle of the Sands - Erskine Childers

Flotsam and Jetsam

Piracy - MERLN ..- (US Resource Site)

Lloyds Pirate Timeline of Attacks 2008/09

Maritime News and Views

2009-04-12T15:33:00.000-07:00

Australian Naval Institute

Royal Navy Institute-News

Mar-Pac-n005@marpachq.shawbiz.ca

U.S.N.I. Proceedings Blog

U.S. White Paper on Piracy 2009

Naval War College-Piracy

TRADEWINDS

Britannia Shipping News

US Office of Maritime Situational Awareness

World Naval Ships and Submarines

2009-04-11T17:24:00.000-07:00

World Navies Website
PLA NAVAL VESSELS (ALL)

World Military Strength (state by state)

Military Heat

Man O' War Outline

Unidentified
Dutch

Nautical Charts, Geographic Maps & Satelite Imagery

2009-04-11T17:20:00.000-07:00

Current

World Maps CIA

UNOSAT - United Nations Satellite Imagery

GUIDE TO UNOSAT MAPS

E-MAPS - World Maps and Charts

Encarta World Maps

Chart of Strait of Hormuz (high definition)

NOAA - Viewer (many US Nautical Charts here, expandable, detailed)

Gulf of Aden - UK Hydro Piracy Planning Chart

Historical

Perto Rico Charts - old and new

South China Sea - (high definition, expandable)

Crime and Interdiction in the Littoral

2009-04-08T01:53:00.000-07:00

Maritime crime can be sub-categorised, to includes theft of goods from ships at anchor or in port, to smuggling of contraband, human trafficking or violent crimes such as piracy or terrorism. All of these today fall short of actual war, at least in their legal sense. Early European lawyers, such as Hugo Grotius (1583-1645), interpreting law in the 17th century had to consider legal arguments about maritime policing actions of the era, some of which would today be regarded as state-sanctioned piracy and terrorism.i Whether the English fleet against Dutch trading vessels off Greenland, or Dutch men-o-war taking action against Portuguese and Spanish ships in Southeast Asia.
Maritime security has been linked to the naval affairs of state, and is still regarded as a means to safeguard strategic national interests of states at sea, including commercial shipping, border protection, pollution control and resource protection.

‘Risk’ is an aspect of maritime security and safety in the practical world of maritime security, as it is in maritime trade. Stakeholders include states, commercial shipping companies, and insurance firms, who all determine the level of threat attached to each operation. The general objective of policing is to reduce the weight of threat to citizens and their property while increasing the level of risk to those who would commit crime. Whether this pendulum of risk swings in favour of victim or perpetrator depends on the facilitation of policing authorities to enforce laws, the extent to which there is provision of punishment as a deterrent, and the efficacy of a judicial system to legally support both of these.

Attacks on the USS Cole off Yemen, another against the MV Limburg (2002), and several Philippine ferry bombings, all indicate that international maritime law, codes and conventions are only as good as their application in practice. During this decade, there have been constant assaults on oil facilities in the Persian Gulf, ongoing LTTE clashes with the Sri Lankan Navy, and raids by thieves against ships off the coast of Nigeria, and piracy in Southeast Asian waters. The first test-case of official naval action by one nation specifically targeting pirates in modern times took place off the coast of Somalia. Following many incidents against shipping, on 21st January 2006 a U.S. Navy guided missile destroyer was authorized to take action against pirates near Somalia, resulting in several arrests and a trial in Kenya. Ten culprits were convicted as pirates, and all were sentenced to seven years in prison.ii

Maritime piracy has been a topic of discussion for several centuries and has become a popular subject in recent years in part due to film media such as the ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ Hollywood movie series which portray a romantic and mischievous endeavours. In these, armed attack is portrayed as less noble, more callous, and completely devoid of the romance of Hollywood’s depictions.

Maritime Security in Southeast Asia and the Caribbean

2009-02-11T17:45:00.000-08:00

Since the end of the cold war, maritime security has become a regional issue. An aspect of maritime security, neglected by academic study is maritime law enforcement and interdiction. This research will examine the current maritime security organisations, institutions and agreements that exist, or are in the process of formation in both the Southeast Asian and Caribbean regions. Maritime Security in this instance refers to Policing and Interdiction on the high seas and territorial waters.

Violent crimes at sea include armed attack, robbery, piracy and smuggling of illicit drugs. Whereas armed attack and piracy directly affect those people who make their living at sea, smuggling introduces a black-market aspect, and tends to raise the level of crime within a specific region.

Currently, the ‘war on terror’ has meant that security at sea and in port is undergoing renewed examination by authorities. Increasingly piracy, violence, illegal drugs, as well as arms and people smuggling have given a higher profile to regional maritime security, since coastal states are increasingly willing to take responsibility for policing seas within their immediate areas, rather than relying on major foreign powers. Yet continuing political pressure from foreign powers suggests that perspective of each actor continues to determine national priorities.

The purpose of this comparative study is to determine whether Southeast Asia is in the process of establishing a maritime security management regime that might address violence and crime occurring within regional maritime areas, that satisfies the political imperatives of all actors.

This research will attempt to observe:

Whether practical and long-term strategic management of regional maritime security possible in Southeast Asia and the Caribbean Sea;
The perceptions that prevail within each region regarding maritime policing;
The level of current inter-operability and cooperation between states, regarding maritime policing, a sustainable and resilient occurrence;
How the agencies and institutions of cooperation within Southeast Asia and the Caribbean Sea are developing processes of integration and coordination of maritime policing and interdiction;
The relationship between requirements for international support to maritime states and their incorporation (or otherwise) into regional maritime security initiatives.

For Southeast Asia and the Caribbean Sea, maritime security has required that coastal states collaborate and coordinate military and police forces but there are limits to cooperation. A major hurdle is the question of sovereignty rights within territorial waters. Allowing foreign patrol craft to pursue suspects into another state’s territorial waters has been a major hurdle to be overcome if true cooperation is to develop. Both Southeast Asian and Caribbean Sea state governments are subject to global influences which threaten state sovereignty. Therefore cooperation on security has been cautious.

Sensitive to the security priorities of all parties, this research will include only unclassified information to be used to develop a doctoral thesis, which will be submitted in late 2008 for assessment. Various people, including academics, coast guard representatives, government policy makers, shipping company representatives, marine underwriters and other interested stakeholders are being invited to participate in this research. The results of this research will be available, and should prove useful to coastal state policy makers and those involved in the practice of providing maritime security in Southeast Asia and the Caribbean Sea, when considering options for managing the security of legitimate maritime users.

Timothy A. Martin

PhD Candidate

School of International and Political Studies

Faculty of Arts

Deakin University

Waurn Ponds

Victoria,

Australia

titusmartinus@gmail.com