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> How do these pirates actually unload cargo? During my around-the-world solo sail (http://arachnoid.com/sailbook http://arachnoid.com/sailbook), I saw and hea
by lutusp 13y ago
> How do these pirates actually unload cargo?
During my around-the-world solo sail (http://arachnoid.com/sailbook http://arachnoid.com/sailbook), I saw and heard any number of pirate stories. For example, in the Strait of Malacca, pirates will show up after dark in two wooden boats (no radar signature) with a rope slung between them. They stretch the rope across the bow of a passing freighter, which puts a wooden boat on each side of the ship, dragged along with it. Then they climb aboard, break the seals of some cargo containers, steal some electronics or something else easy to to carry off, climb back down into their boats and release the rope.
Perfectly simple, low-tech, and because of the small size of modern cargo ship crews, likely to escape the attention of the crew.
- baddox 13y agoI certainly don't mean to justify theft of any magnitude, but is this honestly even a big concern relative to the amount of cargo on these ships? It doesn't seem like it would be a problem large enough to significantly impact the decision whether to use drone ships.
- vidarh 13y agoFurthermore: if these thefts are not discouraged by the presence crews today, and are likely to even escape attention of the crew, it does not seem obvious whether or not removing the crew will make much difference.