Call for armed convoys to protect vessels from pirates

As Somali piracy intensifies, a mostly dismissive world has yet to come to grips with a crisis for which there is no immediate, or apparent, answer. Closest to home was the attack on Saturday night on the MSC Cruises ship MSC Melody which was returning to Genoa shortly after leaving the Seychelles. She was en route to Aqaba, Jordan when the pirates struck but they were warded off by security staff and the vessel continued to its destination under escort. The spiralling number of incidents off the African coastline and in the Gulf of Aden have not claimed merchant crew lives thus far – unlike Southeast Asia, where live bodies are often simply dumped overboard – but those days may be numbered. This has become a truly desperate situation, as Andrew Robinson, national president of the Maritime Law Association and partner in the law firm, Deneys Reitz, reminds us. “The reality is that modern day pirates have swopped cutlasses for rocket launchers and are clearly intent on carrying out these crimes using extreme violence. “I fear it is only a matter of time before an entire crew is lost at the hands of these sea robbers – unless, of course, there is a quick and decisive response by the international community.” The collective global community has hardly been decisive in addressing the dilemma – and there’s growing sentiment that shipping lines have also been far too “passive” for too long, their primary concern for the wellbeing of crew, cargo and vessel. Captain Roy Martin, national president of the Society of Master Mariners and chairman of the Maritime Law Association’s Durban Chapter, is one who agrees with this indictment. “Owners and shipping lines should be a lot more proactive in arranging convoys/protection for vessels and owners should be leaning on their flag states and governments to co-ordinate the safety of seafarers. They are the guys who should be sorting out the problems, not captains of ships.” Joining Martin in favour of armed convoy escorts of merchant vessels in pirateinfested waters, along the lines of those across the Atlantic in both World Wars, is Helmut Heitman, South African correspondent for Janes Defence Weekly and an independent Cape Town-based defence analyst and consultant. Martin is also in favour, though with some reservations on the issue. Pointing to the vast area that has to be covered by a relatively small international EU/Nato task force, Robinson says that despite some successes, resources are spread too thin. “In theory, the convoy concept is correct but it will not happen unless the shipping lines come to the party.” And this is a highly unlikely scenario given the impact it would have on schedules and the cost of participating.”