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| Africa Horn |
| Somali pirates getting more sophisticated; cruise ship captain a heel |
| 2009-04-29 |
| Shortly after the ship's passengers had helped fend off the attackers and the captain had alerted international warships, the satellite phone on the bridge rang. "You have been attacked, you need help," a man said in broken English. "Give us your coordinates and we will come to you." Captain Pinto thought the call was strange. The man on the other end of the leine didn't want to give the name of his ship, so the captain refused to state the MSC Melody's position. He may have saved the passengers and crew from another pirate attack. How about that? They looked up the ship's phone number in some directory or other. "The ship had been completely blacked out and made invisible to the pirates," MSC chief Vago says. "But we've become certain in the meantime that the pirates were trying to get the position data so they could attack us again." The captain has said he believes he heard street sounds in the background in the telephone conversation. And Vago says he believes that accomplices back on the mainland were trying to provide the pirates at sea with assistance. Meanwhile, regarding the same incident: Rolf R. says more than a few passengers are irritated by the captain's posturing, and they in no way view him as a hero. "Many are now asking why the captain first had to be alerted about the shots through the passengers," says R. He is also unwilling to accept claims made by the cruise company that the passengers were never in danger. The shots were "fired at windows located just 50 meters from a group of many hundreds of passengers" attending a classical music concert, he says. |
| Posted by:gromky |
| #8 Its called a BULKHEAD = HULL, which could effectively mask small-caliber gunfire as seemingly "normal" ship engine/oper sounds. DOESN'T EXCUSE THE BOYZ ON LOOKOUT WATCH, THOUGH. The good CAPT may be being PC becuz a board of inquiry, ship's owners, etc. could still blame him as El CAPITANO for NOT HAVING RELIABLE OR PROPERLY TRAINED MEN ON WATCH, IN THESE "TRUUUBLED TYMES". |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2009-04-29 22:44 |
| #7 Screw it. It's time for a bombing run. |
| Posted by: Icerigger 2009-04-29 19:57 |
| #6 #4 For the curious of mind, the phone system is run by INMARSAT. You can go to http://www.inmarsat.com and check out the ship directory to find the phone numbers. Posted by Dreadnought 2009-04-29 16:15|| Hopefully, some forwarding leaning folks at Fort Meade are doing just that. If not, why not? |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2009-04-29 16:45 |
| #5 SB8056 - Exactly. And that wasn't an offer of assistance either, that was a nasty attempting to load itself onto the cruise ship. |
| Posted by: Seafarious 2009-04-29 16:17 |
| #4 For the curious of mind, the phone system is run by INMARSAT. You can go to http://www.inmarsat.com and check out the ship directory to find the phone numbers. |
| Posted by: Dreadnought 2009-04-29 16:15 |
| #3 Sefarious _ that's actually not an ad. If you click on the "install" it loads a nasty to your PC. |
| Posted by: Slereting Bucket8056 2009-04-29 14:39 |
| #2 The German magazine, Der Spiegel. Is that the one that's ever so fond of America and Israel? |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2009-04-29 12:54 |
| #1 the satellite phone on the bridge rang. "You have been attacked, you need help," a man said in broken English. "Give us your coordinates and we will come to you." The Somali |
| Posted by: Seafarious 2009-04-29 10:09 |