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| East Asia | |
| Taiwan ship attacked by pirates | |
| 2003-08-11 | |
The captain of a Taiwan fisheries cargo ship has been wounded after his vessel was attacked by pirate boats in the Malacca Strait. The 3,000-tonne "Tung Yi" based in Taiwan's southern Kaohsiung city, was attacked by two pirate vessels while it was sailing for Singapore on Saturday local time, an official from Taiwan's National Rescue Command Centre said. "The two pirate ships were disguised as oil rig tug boats... that was why the captain did not pay attention to them when they showed up," an official from the centre quoted the captain as saying. The captain, identified as Lo Ying-hsiung, said his ship had to speed away following the submachine gun attack which lasted for some two hours. The captain was hit in the knee by a bullet and some of the ship's steering equipment was damaged. The rest of the crew, including nine Taiwanese and 24 Philippine, Chinese and Vietnamese sailors, escaped unscathed.
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| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |
| #8 The straits of Malacca are teeming with pirates. I've taken a couple nerve-racking trips through the straits. We used radios to stay in touch with other boats in area, all identifying and sharing ship info, but you have to be careful to only talk to people you know, because the pirates also use the radio and masquerade as boats with good reps. A tiny bit safer when the captian is armed and there are several spear guns lying about (yummy grouper there in the straits). A colleague of mine got picked up by burmese pirates in the straits, managed to live, but noticed boat lying low from crates of arms and ammo on deck before he was shoved off. |
| Posted by: parallaxview 2003-8-11 8:59:20 PM |
| #7 The straits of Malacca are teeming with pirates. I've taken a couple nerve-racking trips through the straits. We used radios to stay in touch with other boats in area, all identifying and sharing ship info, but you have to be careful to only talk to people you know, because the pirates also use the radio and masquerade as boats with good reps. A tiny bit safer when the captian is armed and there are several spear guns lying about (yummy grouper there in the straits). A colleague of mine got picked up by burmese pirates in the straits, managed to live, but noticed boat lying low from crates of arms and ammo on deck before he was shoved off. |
| Posted by: parallaxview 2003-8-11 8:58:53 PM |
| #6 Better yet, Lucky... lets go back into history and revive the "Q"-ship, then it would be: "Yar! We be Dyak pirates!" BLAM! "Whatcha mean, pirates don't get the virgins!?!" |
| Posted by: Hodadenon 2003-8-11 1:50:03 PM |
| #5 Time to start arming your merchant ships. Bigger guns, more ammo, and a shoot to kill mentality. Bring'm in dead. |
| Posted by: Lucky 2003-8-11 12:44:31 PM |
| #4 I thought it said that as well Ptah, had to re-read it twice |
| Posted by: Frank G 2003-8-11 9:36:21 AM |
| #3 Submarine gun attack??? |
| Posted by: Ptah 2003-8-11 8:24:51 AM |
| #2 Retiring Moonbat Mahathir Mohammed has just spent $1.9bn buying Russian fighters and French submarines. They should be really effective against pirates. A few tens of millions on high speed patrol craft and proper radar system by the Malaysians and Indonesians would solve the problem, but why bother when the merchant ship crews are infidels. It is time the British, US, Australians, Japanese and other concerned nations placed armed forces on merchant vessels when they transit the Malacca straits. A tanker entering Singapore with a couple of pirates hanging from the yard should act as a disuasion of this kind of thing. |
| Posted by: Edmund Burke 2003-8-11 8:20:14 AM |
| #1 Despite the fun & game of the recent Disney movie, modern day piracy is a very real problem in the South China sea region going from South China all the way to Singapore. There are lots of cargo ship going through that region, and lots of money to be made. Unfortunately, there really isn't a great naval power in the region that can lick the piracy problem once and for all (the problem has been around since at least 1600). |
| Posted by: BigFire 2003-8-11 12:13:42 AM |