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Watching Captain Phillips got me thinking.......


mrwilliamt
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After watching the Tom Hanks movie Captain Phillips, I couldn't stop thinking "what if"? Has anyone heard of a cruise ship being invaded by pirates? What if it actually happened? I know that there is decent security aboard NCL ships, but to what lengths?

 

 

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After watching the Tom Hanks movie Captain Phillips, I couldn't stop thinking "what if"? Has anyone heard of a cruise ship being invaded by pirates? What if it actually happened? I know that there is decent security aboard NCL ships, but to what lengths?

 

 

Sent from my iPod touch using Cruise Critic Forums mobile app

 

On NCL Spirit I was told they have a water cannon for this .

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After watching the Tom Hanks movie Captain Phillips, I couldn't stop thinking "what if"? Has anyone heard of a cruise ship being invaded by pirates? What if it actually happened? I know that there is decent security aboard NCL ships, but to what lengths?

 

 

Sent from my iPod touch using Cruise Critic Forums mobile app

IT has happened. I don't remember when or what ship, but I remember passengers actually threw furniture down at pirates causing them to go into the ocean.

 

Also, I know that on cruises that go through the Red Sea and Horn of Africa on their way East have Navy Seals (probably former seals, now private security) on-board.

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After watching the Tom Hanks movie Captain Phillips, I couldn't stop thinking "what if"? Has anyone heard of a cruise ship being invaded by pirates? What if it actually happened? I know that there is decent security aboard NCL ships, but to what lengths?

 

 

Sent from my iPod touch using Cruise Critic Forums mobile app

 

It happens every now and then and ends with predictable results: pirates fail to make it on board and the passengers get drunk afterwards because now they can tell their friends that they fought pirates and won. A lot of the high seas piracy has moved to the west coast of Africa (particularly Nigeria and Ivory Coast) so I'd imagine that they're less likely to encounter cruise ships.

 

That said, ships traveling through certain parts of the world frequently have armed escorts less as a preventative measure and more of a warning.

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Achille Lauro, an Italian cruiseship was hijacked somewhere in the Mediterranean in the mid 1980's. It was some religious group (I think) and they killed a passenger in a wheelchair and threw his body overboard.

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IT has happened. I don't remember when or what ship, but I remember passengers actually threw furniture down at pirates causing them to go into the ocean.

 

Also, I know that on cruises that go through the Red Sea and Horn of Africa on their way East have Navy Seals (probably former seals, now private security) on-board.

 

That actually makes me feel better.

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After watching the Tom Hanks movie Captain Phillips, I couldn't stop thinking "what if"? Has anyone heard of a cruise ship being invaded by pirates? What if it actually happened? I know that there is decent security aboard NCL ships, but to what lengths?

 

I wouldn't mess with Norwegian security. They're quite the fierce bunch and I feel protected with them on the ship. They crack down when they need to and they are friendly when it's not needed (usually).

 

NCL doesn't tend to sail in pirate infested waters though. They don't have any ships over in the Eastern Africa waters where piracy has been known to be prevalent and where this movie's true life story took place.

 

As another poster mentioned, Costa does use armed guards on their ships when going through the Suez Canal area. Also, ships transiting the area have water cannons usually and a directed sound machine to deafen them if they approach.

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Achille Lauro, an Italian cruiseship was hijacked somewhere in the Mediterranean in the mid 1980's. It was some religious group (I think) and they killed a passenger in a wheelchair and threw his body overboard.

 

The passenger was Leon Klinghoffer. The hijackers were PLF/PLO.

October 7, 1985. Off the coast off Egypt.

 

On a tour of the bridge aboard RCI's Explorer OTS, the captain answered questions about this topic and said that it would be nearly impossible now to be boarded and hijacked and they do have weapons to combat any such nonsense.

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There was a show on a few years ago about piracy and there are some cruise ships that carry various weapons that they dont want passengers to know about because no one wants to think about things like that on their vacation.

I forget who exactly has it, but they have one of those military style sound weapons on board and have used it to repel pirates.

 

A cruise ship was chased around that same time by pirates and they went full speed and swung the ship side to side to create a massive wake, which the pirates eventually gave up on. (Also a local coast guard was on its way)

 

We dont often think about it, but when they put a ship thru sea trials, they do a lot of twists and turns at full speed to see what breaks and doesnt. These ships are a lot faster than we give them credit for. A captain can surely do this if need be.

 

Edit: it was the seabourn spirit with the sound weapon in 2005. http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/tech/news/techinnovations/2005-11-07-cruise-blast_x.htm

Edited by gra2172
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I believe NCL's contingency plan for pirates approaching ships is to have the crew throw those damned breakfast biscuits at them to knock out the pirates and put a hole in their boats.

 

Makes sense to me. ;)

 

 

Perfect! I feel so much safer now :D

Colin - You crack me up!

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There was a case many years ago of terrorists boarding a cruise ship, the Achille Lauro.

 

Cruise lines today, do have policies and procedures in place in case of an incident. For obvious reasons, they do not discuss these publicly. The defenses include water canons and possibly sonic defensive weapons. They don't disclose firearm policies.

 

In most of the mainstream cruising spots, coast guard and other boats, including other cruise ships can usually be on the scene quickly.

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After watching the Tom Hanks movie Captain Phillips, I couldn't stop thinking "what if"? Has anyone heard of a cruise ship being invaded by pirates? What if it actually happened? I know that there is decent security aboard NCL ships, but to what lengths?

 

 

Sent from my iPod touch using Cruise Critic Forums mobile app

 

Just remember that according to the crew, it was Captain Phillips fault from the beginning.

Choosing to intentionally cut through the dangerous waters, to save time and fuel, rather than follow the warnings to avoid those waters.

 

So basically they made a movie, glorifying a corporate stooge, who put his crew and ship in danger, to save a few bucks and make himself look good to corporate.

 

Hopefully cruiseline Captains are smarter and more concerned for their passengers than that.

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It cracks me up when people repeat something that was already posted because they didn't bother to read even the short threads.

 

 

I hope this is not directed towards me. If it was, I must apologize, as I do not read every single thread that is posted on CC. The topic wasn't even relevant to me until I saw the movie this weekend, so I would have skipped over it anyways.

 

 

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I read over on one of the luxury line boards awhile back, Regent I think, that one of their ships that was sailing in the dangerous areas off Africa was outfitted with razor wire round the exterior of the ship. That would have been a sight.

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Someone is watching too much Hollywood movies ;)

Cruise ships don't sail anywhere near pirates. I am not aware of any cruises off the eastern shore of Africa but who knows. However, I feel safer on my next cruise on Getaway because it has a pirate theme and mock cannon to scare off any potential pirates. Seems NCL is embracing the pirate them which is pretty cool, especially if you are a Pittsburgh Pirates fan :)

 

What I always thought was scary is how easy terrorists could take over a ship in any small port in those islands.

Edited by david_sobe
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One of the Seaborn ships was attacked maybe 5-10 years ago. Like others, they were in the same area off Africa. Pirates did not make it aboard.

 

That was the Seabourne Spirit in 2005. The pirates actually fired RPGs at that ship. One stuck in the superstructure next to a balcony. They were very lucky it was a dud. The ship fought them off using an LRAD.

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I hope this is not directed towards me. If it was, I must apologize, as I do not read every single thread that is posted on CC. The topic wasn't even relevant to me until I saw the movie this weekend, so I would have skipped over it anyways.

 

Absolutely not! Referring to those that were repeating what was already posted in this short thread. It would be different if it were several pages long, but when there are only a handful of posts, and 3 said the exact same thing, it was just odd.

 

I believe it was directed to those who answered your question (correctly) three times after Zoey had already correctly answered. :D

 

Maaaaybeeee ;)

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