Captain Ken #39 - Piracy on the High Seas

When I first went to sea, in the early fifties, like most boys of my age, I was intrigued to know that off the coast of China there were still pirates operating.

While visiting Hong Kong, I remember noticing that the Butterfield and Swire coastal China Navigation ships, which, in those days, served the Chinese ports, had very strong defences protecting their bridges and accommodation blocks. This was to prevent pirates hiding amongst the deck passengers, taking control of the ship. 

When Mau Tse Tung's Navy gained control of the coastal waters the Chinese pirates were unable to operate. 

Shipping worldwide increased massively, and general cargo ships gave way to huge container ships while tankers grew bigger and bigger. 

It was in the late eighties when I was captain of a very large container ship when I was horrified to learn that a great friend and colleague of mine, commanding a sister ship, had been boarded and robbed just clear of the Singapore Straits. 

The pirate had gained access to his quarters while the ship was in Singapore, then waited until the ship sailed towards Hong Kong. Several hours later the captain handed the control of the ship to the duty officer and left the bridge returning to his room where the pirate was waiting. 

 SIR - What could better highlight the atrocious piracy situation at present than Captain Philip Beale's letter (December 6) sent from the Indian Ocean? He is navigating his replica sailing ship following the same route the Phoenicians took 2,500 years ago, but appears to have found pirates more hazardous than they ever were then. Recently, the International Transport Federation declared the Indian Ocean as "unfit for seafarers". The International Chamber of Shipping stated that the current level of threat to the industry was unacceptable and could not be allowed to continue. Since early last year, more than 250 ships have been attacked, over 70 hijacked, 1,300 seafarers taken hostage and several killed. 

The few international naval ships trying to guard the merchant shipping are hamstrung by the very size of the area to patrol and with restrictive terms of engagement, favouring the human rights of the pirates over that of the seafarers. 

Governments are too immersed in the climate-change debate, worrying economics and the Afghanistan conflict to pay sufficient attention, and the merchant seafarer's concern is that as insurance rates escalate, the piracy they face will simply become included with "perils of the sea" and forgotten. 

Captain Ken Owen, 

High Peak, Derbyshire