Danish Warship Rescues Somali Pirates

LONDON -- A Danish warship on patrol to thwart piracy in the Gulf of Aden ended up rescuing seven of its presumed prey when its crew found suspected Somali pirates adrift this week with a broken motor on their speedboat, the Danish Navy said on Friday.

Danish sailors brought the hungry, thirsty Somalis on board their own ship, a naval official said. Then they sank the speedboat.

The incident highlighted the challenges facing a small international flotilla patrolling vast expanses of ocean where pirates have struck with increasing audacity, hijacking vessels including a Ukrainian freighter laden with armaments and a supertanker carrying an estimated $100 million of crude oil.

Read the whole story here.

Comments

[Deli]

The hijacked supertanker, the Sirius Star, is anchored a few miles off the coast of Somalia, near the town of Xarardheere.

Cargo of 2 million barrels of Saudi crude: $100 million;
The ship itself: $100 million.
Ransom Demand: $15 to $25M
25 crew members? Priceless.

I hope those rescued understand mercy now and show it when they are asked to shoot people. I'm sceptical though, and given they were known to be pirates, aren't there grounds to detain them? The free world is too kind for its own good, sometimes.

[kid5rivers2]

The cargo's value is more like $80m...and falling.

[JessWonderin]

Better settle quick before oil reaches $42 a barrel . . . . .


a great solution would be to hire Blackwater and post a bounty of $45 a head on each pirate . . . in today's economy a little incentive might raise wages and clean up the threat rather quickly . . . needn't worry about civilians in the way, Blackwater doesn't either . . .