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Somali Pirates Open Up a "Stock Exchange"
reginaldo writes to clue us that pirates in Somalia have opened up a cooperative in Haradheere, where investors can pay money or guns to help their favorite pirate crew for a share of the piracy profits. "'Four months ago, during the monsoon rains, we decided to set up this stock exchange. We started with 15 "maritime companies" and now we are hosting 72. Ten of them have so far been successful at hijacking,' Mohammed [a wealthy former pirate who took a Reuters reporter to the facility] said. ... Piracy investor Sahra Ibrahim, a 22-year-old divorcee, was lined up with others waiting for her cut of a ransom pay-out after one of the gangs freed a Spanish tuna fishing vessel. 'I am waiting for my share after I contributed a rocket-propelled grenade for the operation,' she said, adding that she got the weapon from her ex-husband in alimony. 'I am really happy and lucky. I have made $75,000 in only 38 days since I joined the "company."'"
They're freaking pirates! This woman is an idiot if she expects any money from this. It's not like she's seeding a movie!
Historically, pirates (in the 1600s US/Caribbean/Europe trade route sense) observed a fairly strict code of conduct which included reimbursing investors their fair share; widows/orphans got their ex-father's share, and generally they did a lot less killing than their reputation suggested.
It sounds like modern pirates appear to follow fairly similar rules, which makes for some interesting cognitive dissonance in those who romanticize the old-school version but demonize the Somali version.
The US had no part in the Somali Civil War, which started in 1991 and marked the end of a functioning government. The US was a part of the United Task Force which entered the country in 1992 to try to prevent famine, but they left in 1993, to be replaced by UN troops.
Somalia became a failed state all on its own, I'm afraid. In fact, the US has been criticised for not doing enough.
I'd imagine many people have this vision of the crews being able to see the pirates coming and just gunning them down with a chaingun, but the reality is the pirates often manage to sneak up on vessels either using bad weather, blind spots or the cover of night, so many firefights would involve close quarter combat on the decks of the ship itself.
Most of your post is very good, but this is somewhat misleading. Pirates are generally in small (30') open boats with minimal radar profile and difficult to detect. Target vessels are generally intercontinental cargo ships with deck 100 feet off the water. Pirates don't sneak aboard these boats with grappling hooks, they threaten violence and the target crew lowers a boarding ladder for them.
Interestingly, the most effective pirate deterrent is the ship's fire suppression system. If you've never seen one of these in operation, it's quite impressive, and can literally hide the ship behind a curtain of water. It's completely impossible for a small boat to approach a ship with its firehoses running. The point of the pirates' RPGs is to make the captain turn off the firehoses.