5 ms·

pirates

pedalpete 10y ago
If the ship is completely controlled by remote, and the goods on board are essentially immobile (are they going to be able to get cars off the ship on the high-seas), what can a pirate do? They can hop a lift to the nearest port. Also, being 'remote' doesn't have to mean 'unprotected'.
- vacri 10y ago
  Destroy the uplink to the CNC node for the ship?
  - dogma1138 10y ago
    The Pirates ransom the crew they can't do anything to the ship or the cargo they have no where to offload it.
    - andyjdavis 10y ago
      I suspect there would be enough of value that could be stripped off the ship and removed to make it worth the pirate's time. Bear in mind that it doesn't matter to pirates if they cause millions of dollars of damage to extract a small fraction of that for themselves. Cripple a hugely valuable ship and destroy much of its equipment and cargo to extract a few hundred thousand dollars worth of stuff that you can take with you? Sounds like a reasonable deal for a group of pirates. Hell, they might as well try and sink the ship once they are done with it to make it hard to gather evidence and determine exactly what was stolen. It would take some time for people to do the math to determine what components of ships and common cargo have the highest value Vs their portability but someone would figure it out eventually.
      - dogma1138 10y ago
        Sink it with what? they attack it with fishing boats and AK47's you'll need a literal ton of explosives to sink on of those ships. They can't offload the containers and other than the money in the captain's vault there is nothing of value other than the propane tanks in the galley (that and the med bay is the only thing they raid).
        codeduck 10y ago
        5kg of plastic explosive will be more than enough to sink a ship.
        dogma1138 10y ago
        No it won't, have you ever handled explosives?
        mjlee 10y ago
        Wedge the watertight doors open, disable the salvage eductors and you can sink a ship by cracking a single sea water intake pipe open. I'm on mobile so I can't provide a link, but look up the Argentinian Type 42 sunk in harbour or HMS Endurance for examples.
        andyjdavis 10y ago
        I said "try to sink it" not that they would necessarily succeed. That said if they are on board and have unlimited access to the entire ship it may be possible to sink it without any explosives. Not all ships even require explosives to be scuttled. >They can't offload the containers I never suggested that they would. Rather I suggested that they would ransack the ship and cargo looking for valuable components or equipment that is transportable.
    - jimjimjim 10y ago
      piracy didn't die out with rum and parrots. It's an ongoing problem especially around failed states: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ships_attacked_by_Somali_pirates https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ships_attacked_by_Soma... basically whole towns/villages live symbiotically with pirates which makes it difficult to do anything about it. They just commandeer the ship, steer it to their home port, and await the payout.
      - dogma1138 10y ago
        No one claims that piracy has died, we are all aware of the pirates in Africa, the Indian Ocean and in the Pacific. But there is no homeport that can harbor not to mention offload any of those ships, they ransom the crew every time (often not even the entire crew). Those ships hull on average about 4000 containers you need a modern port to offload them, a fishing village in Somalia won't cut it, the ship won't even be able to dock. The only ports in Somalia which are capable of harboring a cargo vessel are in Mogadishu, Berbera, Bosaso and Kismayo the Pirates simply cannot operate from those areas as the Somali government controls those ports pretty tightly.

pirates

If the ship is completely controlled by remote, and the goods on board are essentially immobile (are they going to be able to get cars off the ship on the high-seas), what can a pirate do? They can hop a lift to the nearest port. Also, being 'remote' doesn't have to mean 'unprotected'.

vacri 10y ago
Destroy the uplink to the CNC node for the ship?
- dogma1138 10y ago
  The Pirates ransom the crew they can't do anything to the ship or the cargo they have no where to offload it.
  - andyjdavis 10y ago
    I suspect there would be enough of value that could be stripped off the ship and removed to make it worth the pirate's time. Bear in mind that it doesn't matter to pirates if they cause millions of dollars of damage to extract a small fraction of that for themselves. Cripple a hugely valuable ship and destroy much of its equipment and cargo to extract a few hundred thousand dollars worth of stuff that you can take with you? Sounds like a reasonable deal for a group of pirates. Hell, they might as well try and sink the ship once they are done with it to make it hard to gather evidence and determine exactly what was stolen. It would take some time for people to do the math to determine what components of ships and common cargo have the highest value Vs their portability but someone would figure it out eventually.
    - dogma1138 10y ago
      Sink it with what? they attack it with fishing boats and AK47's you'll need a literal ton of explosives to sink on of those ships. They can't offload the containers and other than the money in the captain's vault there is nothing of value other than the propane tanks in the galley (that and the med bay is the only thing they raid).
      - codeduck 10y ago
        5kg of plastic explosive will be more than enough to sink a ship.
        dogma1138 10y ago
        No it won't, have you ever handled explosives?
        mjlee 10y ago
        Wedge the watertight doors open, disable the salvage eductors and you can sink a ship by cracking a single sea water intake pipe open. I'm on mobile so I can't provide a link, but look up the Argentinian Type 42 sunk in harbour or HMS Endurance for examples.
      - andyjdavis 10y ago
        I said "try to sink it" not that they would necessarily succeed. That said if they are on board and have unlimited access to the entire ship it may be possible to sink it without any explosives. Not all ships even require explosives to be scuttled. >They can't offload the containers I never suggested that they would. Rather I suggested that they would ransack the ship and cargo looking for valuable components or equipment that is transportable.
  - jimjimjim 10y ago
    piracy didn't die out with rum and parrots. It's an ongoing problem especially around failed states: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ships_attacked_by_Somali_pirates https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ships_attacked_by_Soma... basically whole towns/villages live symbiotically with pirates which makes it difficult to do anything about it. They just commandeer the ship, steer it to their home port, and await the payout.
    - dogma1138 10y ago
      No one claims that piracy has died, we are all aware of the pirates in Africa, the Indian Ocean and in the Pacific. But there is no homeport that can harbor not to mention offload any of those ships, they ransom the crew every time (often not even the entire crew). Those ships hull on average about 4000 containers you need a modern port to offload them, a fishing village in Somalia won't cut it, the ship won't even be able to dock. The only ports in Somalia which are capable of harboring a cargo vessel are in Mogadishu, Berbera, Bosaso and Kismayo the Pirates simply cannot operate from those areas as the Somali government controls those ports pretty tightly.