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For five nights, while the ship was passing the Horn of Africa and through the Gulf of Aden, the outdoor Promenade Deck was closed from dusk until dawn. During the hours of darkness, only essential open deck lights remained on; passengers were asked to switch off their balcony lights and to keep cabin curtains closed. Cruises over the Baltic Sea are most beautiful in summer, when the sun never sets in many Nordic countries and you can experience the "white nights" in St. Petersburg—the downside, however, is that prices are highest at this time of year.
Attack on the MSC Melody: Passengers Fought Pirates with Tables and Deck Chairs
Somalia's 1,880-mile coastline is Africa's longest, and the country has had no effective central government since opposition leaders ousted dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991. They then turned on each other, transforming this nation of 7 million into a patchwork of battling fiefdoms ruled by heavily armed militias. The Spirit had been bound for Mombasa, Kenya, at the end of a 16-day voyage from Alexandria, Egypt. It was expected to reach the Seychelles in the Indian Ocean on Monday, and then continue on its previous schedule to Singapore, company officials said. Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Passenger Aboard Cruise Liner Reveals What Happens in a 'Pirate Drill' - Newsweek
Passenger Aboard Cruise Liner Reveals What Happens in a 'Pirate Drill'.
Posted: Mon, 23 Jan 2023 08:00:00 GMT [source]
Are Cruise Ship Pirate Attacks Common?
"We were professional," Vago says, rather openly, "but we were also lucky." Certainly, most will go through their careers at sea without ever needing to use that training and knowledge -- but most is not all. “And it’s impossible to know whether a small craft is a threat or just fishermen. You can’t tell the difference between a weapon and a baguette at anything more than 200 yards. It reminded me of a journey through the same Pirate Alley in 2009 on Spirit of Adventure, during a fascinating cruise that had taken me to rarely-visited ports in Eritrea and Sudan.
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According to a blog posted by Laura, a passenger currently on board, the crew led their guests through a “Safe Haven drill” designed to deal with the unlikely event that pirates manage to board the mega-ship. The ship is currently doing a 99-day World Cruise, and is chartered by one of the largest travel companies in Japan. This is not the first time such precautions have been taken aboard this particular ship.
“In addition to our normal ongoing security training, additional piracy specific training is conducted prior to any of our vessels entering areas of concern,” the company said. “Any measures aboard Sea Princess were simply taken out of an abundance caution and not in response to a specific threat and are common to international shipping sailing in the region." He says journalists have told him that a Somalian who claimed to be the head of the pirates bragged about the attack by phone on Saturday.
A cruise liner that was attacked by pirates over the weekend docked safely on the Indian Ocean archipelago of Seychelles on Monday after changing its course to escape. In 2005, the cruise ship Seaborne Spirit was attacked by pirates off the coast of Somalia. Captain Pinto, who has been celebrated in the press as a hero, reported details of the attack to the passengers on Monday. "You can't hold back pirates with chairs and tables," he told the assembled passengers.
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Many left behind their mobile phones, purses and even their shoes as they dashed to safety, he said. Actually being approached by pirates requires a whole other range of tactics. Compared to the sheer quantity of cruise and commercial ships moving through this area -- and based on the fact that incidents impacting cargo vessels and oil tankers are clearly more common -- these six incidents do not make as big of a splash. Two armed boats approached the Seabourn Spirit about 100 miles off the coast of Somalia and fired as the boats' occupants attempted to get onboard, said Bruce Good, a spokesman for Miami-based Seabourn Cruise Line, a subsidiary of Carnival Corp. In an earlier video, the cruise passenger, who manages the TikTok account Horatio Hedgehog, revealed a letter signed by the captain informing passengers about a pirate drill the following day as the ship was due to enter the famous canal. A video recording of an announcement on the Queen Mary 2 ocean liner explaining the protocol in the event of a pirate attack as the ship sails through the Suez Canal has gone viral, garnering over 4 million views.
In such asymmetric conflict situations where a big ship is under threat from a small boat, the best method of defence, says Brooks, is to disrupt the targeting process by separating target and attacker in time or space. Security consultant Graeme Brooks, a former Principal Warfare Officer with the Royal Navy and now chief executive officer of Portsmouth-based Dryad Maritime, described some of the problems faced by commercial shipping in the region. The 10,000-ton cruise ship, registered in the Bahamas, sustained minor damage, Good said.
"It was only through the exemplary work of his crew and he himself that the ship was able to fend off the pirates," cruise passenger Rolf R. It was also the point at which the captain understood what was happening -- his ship was being attacked by pirates. The fact that their presence reassures passengers is no doubt encouraged by cruise lines, who are otherwise reluctant to discuss the piracy threat or the protective measures they take. Piracy along the Somalia coast is common — several ships a month are attacked or hijacked, with valuables stolen and crews held for ransom. Pirates fired a rocket-propelled grenade and machine guns Saturday in an attack on a luxury cruise liner off the east African coast, the vessel's owners said. One of the best places to find cheap cruises is of course right here on our website!
Together, the three ships are bringing as many as 15,000 guests or more to downtown Tampa that day, when both debarking and embarking guests are considered. Carnival Cruise Line has sent notifications to guests booked on the January 27, 2024 departure of Carnival Paradise from Port Tampa Bay that there may be traffic congestion and street closures impacting how guests can reach the cruise terminal. Somalian Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi has long urged neighboring countries to send warships to patrol Somalia's coast, which is Africa's longest and lies along key shipping lanes linking the Mediterranean with the Persian Gulf and Indian Ocean. Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said Monday that the attackers might have been terrorists. But others said the attack bore the hallmarks of pirates who have become increasingly active off Somalia, which has no navy and has not had an effective central government since 1991. She said the Sea Princess was equipped with hoses that could be sprayed at small ships, and a sonic boom that could knock pirates off ladders.
The liner was at the end of a 16-day voyage from Alexandria, Egypt. Some passengers were lucky to escape with their lives, said Charles Forsdick, from Durban, South Africa. The cruise line, apparently, doesn't want to have to rely on luck again as it did on Saturday. The details also tell a lot about the pirates -- the extent of their audacity and their high level of organization. The new details show just how close the ship came to getting hijacked.
With so many things to choose from -- cruise lines, ports, itineraries, board basis, cabins, upgrades, etc -- it can be confusing to know where to start. At this time, there is no delay expected for Carnival Paradise to depart Port Tampa Bay, which is scheduled for 4 p.m. All guests must be on board the ship no later than the time printed on their boarding pass, typically 30 minutes prior to the ship’s departure.
Pirates Attack Cruise Ship - CBS News
Pirates Attack Cruise Ship.
Posted: Sat, 05 Nov 2005 08:00:00 GMT [source]
According to Brooks, the devices are useful only in transmitting a targeted “Keep Away” message to non-threatening boats and would be ignored with impunity by any serious assailant. Fire hoses and foam, sometimes with added slippery or smelly qualities, can be an effective deterrent. Water cannon serve a dual purpose in drenching the assailants and potentially sinking their small boats. “There are millions of square miles of water and you can only see vessels on the horizon up to 10 miles away. None of the vessel's 151 passengers, mostly Americans with some Australians and Europeans, were injured, Good said.
Shortly after the ship's passengers had helped fend off the attackers and the captain had alerted international warships, the satellite phone on the bridge rang. "You have been attacked, you need help," a man said in broken English. "Give us your coordinates and we will come to you." Captain Pinto thought the call was strange. The man on the other end of the line didn't want to give the name of his ship, so the captain refused to state the MSC Melody's position.
He may have saved the passengers and crew from another pirate attack. This may read like the script of a Hollywood thriller, but new reports from eyewitnesses show that the attack on Saturday evening was considerably more dramatic than accounts provided so far would suggest. Pierfrancesco Vago, head of the Italian shipping company MSC, confirmed the version that cruise ship passengers gave to SPIEGEL ONLINE, describing their statements as "authentic."
On any given sailing, whether in known piracy waters or not, ships monitor movement in the area. Some cruise lines even contract with maritime information, research and tracking companies like Lloyd's Miu; Orbcomm, Inc.; or Global Marine Networks, LLC. They also have the complete ability to track vessels and can show any change in planned itineraries or signs of distress. Other efforts by cruise lines to protect vessels and passengers include vigilant lookouts by officers and crew members for suspicious movement in the water, as well as consistent viewing of surveillance cameras.
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