Cruise Company Believes It's Invincible
Idiotic Approach To Return Fire With Water Hose!
By Mike Groves
‘I’m concerned!’ – the first words that left my lips when I heard that a British Cruise Company had decided that enough is enough with these darn pirates and how they are now intending to tackle them head on - with a water hose! It would be fair to say that the water hose in question; the Nemesis 5000 is a state of the art water hose, as water hoses go, but it still shoots out a jet of water nonetheless while pirates prefer to return fire with 7.6mm live rounds and a few RPG’s (Rocket Propelled Grenades) for good measure!
Now clearly the Nemesis is an awesome piece of equipment and could be a viable anti piracy solution, I’m not disputing that at all. However two questions arise from this in respect of cruise operators–
1) Will cruise operators really allow for it to be permanently affixed to their ships super structure in readiness and thus spoil their ever so precious aesthetic appearance?
2) The most important – should the cruise lines really be sailing in such dangerous waters anyway where devices like the Nemesis are required? In short absolutely not!
Notwithstanding the pro’s and cons of the Nemesis 5000, a device which has the capacity to throw out a curtain of water at 80mph while rotating through “360-degrees it will still struggle against heavily armed pirates intent to board a vessel. I do agree 'in part' with its inventor, ex Special Forces member Jim Murray when he says “It is cheap to operate and can be activated in an instant. Passengers may know about it, but they won’t really notice it because only nozzles pointing down spray water.” but an ideal deterrent? I'm not so convinced.
Idiotic approach to fend off Pirates discovered – a water hose!
Cruise Company believes it can ‘return fire’ with water, and win?
By Mike Groves QGM
Cruise Bruise Security And Safety Advisor
November 20, 2010
Clearly Jim is not stupid and goes on to say that he knows from personal experience how difficult it is to board a vessel when powerful jets of salt water are being sprayed in your face. So I guess Jim was a member of the Special Boat Service (SBS) from that little admission, the American equivalent to the SBS being Navy Seals.
But my concerns are not focused on Jim or the Nemises 5000; my concerns remain firmly focused with the cruise line operators because of points 1 and 2 above.
Jim also rightly points out that although larger cruise liners are not targeted as frequently as cargo ships and tankers there have been some high-profile examples in recent years, citing MSC Melody which was attacked with 1,500 passengers on board last year. He is also correct when he informatively states that the vast majority of attacks are still focused against cargo ships and tankers, many of which also utilize the LRAD (Long Range Acoustic Devices) which emits powerful waves of sound to deter anyone trying to board them.
As many of you will recall, the LRAD was also used by Som and I during the attack against the Seabourn Spirit in 2005 and it was the LRAD sending out powerful sonic waves that saved the day however, not a water hose! Also during the MSC Melody attack the Pirates were only repelled when Israeli guards opened fire as the pirates tried to scale ladders, having already spent 10 minutes spraying the deck with automatic fire before they got bored with that approach!
Graphic illustration of LRAD's ability to deliver!
But lets not forget one crucial thing here, what happens SHOULD things not work out as expected? On board oil tankers, freight and cargo ships there are no women to be found on board in the majority of cases and if there are, they comprise of one or two female officers or crewmembers. Such small numbers could easily be hidden deep inside the bowls of the ship should it be overtaken but can the same be said for cruise ship? On a cruise ship, even a comparatively small one such as the Seabourn Spirit there were over a 150 women, comprising of passengers and crew alike. After the Seabourn Spirit attack in November 2005 off the coast of Somalia the ship was diverted (kept out of sight at sea basically) by its operators and we were diverted to the Seychelles where on arrival she was immediately boarded by EOD officers (Explosives Ordnance Disposal) and members of the FBI, and NCIS to name a few!
Just the very presence of EOD says a lot doesn't’ it, just think about that for a second? Told you I had a lot to reveal about this incident.
