How would you protect an oil tanker in the South China Seas?

by Celtic 8 Replies latest jw friends

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  Celtic

  Often peoples thoughts of Cornwall in times gone by are of swashbuckling pirates and other such things. Certainly these activities used to go on a great deal even to the point where lights would be hung on lanterns on clifftops during storms to lure ships to their fate on the rocky shoreline below, then to plunder the ship of it's goods, the ships captain obviously believing that the lights signified a safe anchorage.

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  They say that Everything Starts With Ideas.

  Now this is only a semi serious post, but I just thought, I would post it for schenalligans fun to see others responses.

  Piracy in the modern world is as much a serious threat today as it was in times gone past. Terrorists and other organisations often see shipping and maritime activities as soft targets. There are well documented and known locations in the world where this is still a very serious threat indeed. Today, imagine a giant oil tanker being invaded by pirates and the repurcussions not just for the ship, it's contents and the crew but in a worse case scenario the greater consequences in terms of a major environmental catastrophe.

  If it was your responsibility to protect your vessel in an area which was prone to shipping piracy, what measures would you take to stop the invading party from boarding your ship?

  Would you use very high pressure water cannons to splat them, or would you grease the whole of the topsides of the ship so that they could not get a grip when trying to climb aboard, or would you spray sticky gunk over the decks so that once aboard, they were stuck fast like super glue? Would you use weaponry, if so what weaponry would you use as the most effective deterrent? Or would you be tempted to use similar to farmers for livestock, an electric fence surrounding the vessel so that any unwelcome boarding party would receive a nasty surprise of a shock going through their system?

  What ideas do you have?

  Whilst this is a semi serious thread, I can't help but chuckle too at the fun you could have, oh my!!
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  Celtic

  Better still, imagine then that it was members of the governing body trying to get on board to brainwash you against your crews wishes, what would you do to keep the pirates off?
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  gitasatsangha

  This aint Waterworld. Heh heh. Pirates are theives and like any thieves they have to steal something easilly transportable and be able to get away fast. To steal oil they'd need to have their own tanker. Maybe not a supertanker, but at least something big enough to make it worth their while. I would imagine pirates would be more interested in intercepting ships which they know contain easilly accessable drugs (legal or otherwise), gold boullion, yellowcake, etc.

  It's hard to rob a container ship. You don't have the craines to remove and go through each container to find what you want, and most cargo is shipped by container box now. You can't really kidnap anyone. Unless you are pirating the Queen Mary 2, its going to be hard to find anyone of substance on the high seas worth kidnapping for ransom.

  About the only reason to attack an oil tanker is to prevent your enemy from having supplies. If you are not an organized country doing the attacking you will either be labelled a guerilla or a terrorist depending on your religion and political affiliation. The main method for doing that would be to either attack it from the air, either in a suicide dive bomb, place mines in its path, or attack it with a suicide gunboat.

  To defend from those things, you'd probably need adequate radar on board, SAM batteries, enough 75mm guns to keep all perimeters covered with opposing fields of fire, if possible, because if a big whale like a supertanker is hit it has no evasive manouvers. That all costs money, of course. It might just ne easier to loose a tanker and let the insurance take a hit.
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  Celtic

  Do you really have to be so serious? Ruddy streuth mate. lighten up and read the post again yam ruddy great halfbaked balmpot.
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  gitasatsangha

  Oh well. I'll have to take my hook and pegleg back to the store now. I hope I get a refund.

  I'm almost never serious, although I do put up a good front.
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  boa

  hmmmm, how would I defend something longer than a football field, several stories high, dozens of feet wide?

  why, with duct tape actually.

  really, think about it. First you duct tape the whole damn ship cuz the light gray will be just like the navy colour used - its hard ot see the thing against water.

  now, defensive weapons would be sensor touch pads that instantly released hundreds of rolls of duct tape off the ship. Thus, when the shockwave in front of an incoming missile hits the sensor pads, the duct tape launchs and encapsulates it, then shoots away from the ship. The resultant contained explosion actually turns into an awesome sticky mass that hits the attacker rendering them complete useless and immobilized as well. This allows YOU to go on over and raid/pirate THEIR ship - MUHAHAHAHAHA

  the beauty thing about this is method of defense/attack is that if they ever do implement it - BUY shares in 4M right away! YOU'LL BE RICH!

  boa.....obviously has too much time on his hands (among other things)
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  Celtic

  Hmmmmmmm the Celt strokes his chin thoughtfully, - NEXT!!
• 

  Xander

  Errrr....shotguns, actually.

  National government laws do not apply on 'international waters', so you are free to shoot whoever you want with no repercussions (almost no - obviously, a government's navy might get involved if you hurt or kill citizens they are interested in protecting - likely not pirates, though). Rifles or other guns would be a bad idea, though. No sense penetrating the hull and starting a leak.

  If I was a *government* interested in protecting a tanker....well, a submarine nearby is the best way. No escort like an escort the bad guys can't see!
• 

  dh

  you could parachute in and offer the pirates the latest watchtower and awake!