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Pirates attack Seabourn Spirit! For Real!

Coral

By Coral,
in Princess Cruises

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Coral "Live from...." Rare

Coral

Posted
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http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/africa/11/05/somalia.pirates/index.html

 

Cruise liner fends off pirate attack

By CNNRadio's Matt Cherry and Amanda Moyer

 

Saturday, November 5, 2005; Posted: 4:41 a.m. EST (09:41 GMT)

 

(CNN) -- A luxury cruise line will re-evaluate whether to offer future cruises off the coast of Somalia after pirates attempted to attack one of its ships early Saturday.

 

The modern-day pirates were in two small boats and carrying machine guns and a rocket-propelled grenade when they attempted the attack on Seabourn Cruise Lines' "Spirit" about 5:35 a.m. local time Saturday, Deborah Natansohn, president of the cruise line, told CNNRadio.

 

The ship was carrying 150 passengers and a crew of about 160.

 

The ship, she said, immediately instituted its emergency response system. "The occupants of those boats did not succeed in boarding the ship and eventually turned away ... our captain and crew did a terrific job taking responsive action."

 

Passenger Mike Rogers of Vancouver, Canada, said the pirates were shooting and sending rockets at the boat.

 

"The captain tried to run one of the boats over, but they were small boats, about 25 feet long," he told CNNRadio affiliate CKNW in Vancouver.

 

"Each one had four or five people on it, and (the captain) said he was going to do anything to keep them from getting on board."

 

The captain, however, did not hit the alarm button to alert passengers of the emergency, Rogers said.

 

"He announced it over the speakers, because he was scared people would run up on deck, and he didn't want people on deck because they would have been shot."

 

The cruise ship eventually outran the pirates' boats, Natansohn said. One person suffered minor injuries, she said, but did not elaborate.

 

"There's some minor damage done to the ship," Rogers said. "There's no water right now, for instance, in some places, and I believe one of the grenades actually went off in one of the cabins, but everyone on board is fine."

 

The boat is now en route to the Seychelles Islands, Natansohn said.

 

On Thursday, the United Nations' World Food Programme warned that hijackings off the coast of Somalia were restricting the delivery of needed food assistance to the country.

 

"The southern Somali coastline is one of the most dangerous in the world," the WFP said on its Web site.

 

"In recent months, WFP's operations in Somalia have been sabotaged by the hijackings of two vessels carrying relief food. Ship owners are now demanding armed escorts to travel in these waters."

 

Natansohn said efforts were underway Saturday to locate the pirates. "We have notified U.S., Canadian and Australian authorities, because most of our passengers come from those three countries, as well as local authorities in Africa."

 

"Seabourn 'Spirit' has offered itineraries in that part of the world before, but we'll obviously be looking at the incident to determine what to do in the future," she said.

 

Rogers said, "we're always looking for adventure, but this is probably a little more than we would normally look for."

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starsjohn

starsjohn

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That Seaborne ship would have been a rich prize indeed, with all the wealthy people aboard. A neighbor worked for this cruise line and said it was intended for rich businessmen.

 

Its good to know that Princess ships have security people that are able to deal with these kinds of things.

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Dreamer333

Dreamer333

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I would like to marry one of those rich businessmen (so that I can cruise Seabourn) :)

 

I'd like to marry one of those pirates and spend my life on the sea! Did the article happen to say if any of them looked like Johnny Depp in the Pirates of the Caribbean? ;)

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Coral "Live from...." Rare

Coral

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I'd like to marry one of those pirates and spend my life on the sea! Did the article happen to say if any of them looked like Johnny Depp in the Pirates of the Caribbean? ;)

 

LOL!

 

Seabourn had some very affordable rates this December - it was about $1900 pp for a 7 night Caribbean cruise. Some day, I will try one of these luxury lines....

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traci28

traci28

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It's good to see everyone joking about the subject here , whereas if you read about this on other threads they're taking it very very seriously. I mean - we can joke about it now, because no one was seriously injured.

 

And to the OP with the picture - I was rolling when I read that. Too too funny ~!

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kayred

kayred

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This is truely scary. What a great job the captain did, I wonder if the pirates know they were scared off by an audio tape of bullets...I would guess this wouldn't work next time.

 

I find the story to have humor however and it really makes me want to watch a really crappy action flick now, kinda like Speed 2 or something. I am laughing at the picture and the situation but I am very glad that I am cruising Mexico.

 

Ok I have a question. I am a first time cruise however the ships look Huge to me...How do you board the ship with out help from the ship....Is there an entry at water level???? Just wondering.

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