The Pirate of Panther Bay Pirate Blog

Pirate of Panther Bay Cracks Top 100 at Kindle Store

2012-04-18T01:11:25Z

The ebook version of The Pirate of Panther Bay cracked the top 100 books at the Kindle store in the category of children's books on self-esteem and self-respect today! This is a notable achievement, particulalry since the novel has been out for more than five years at this point!

And, I love the category because Isabella's discovery of herself is central to the action and plot. So, her character is all about developing and embracing self esteem and self respect.

(My only quibble, an ongoing one, is classifying young-adult books as children's books; they aren't.)

Thank you readers!

For more on the ranking and my evolving writing style, see my post on the same topic over at my blog on the business of writing, "Adaptation".

Martial Arts as Self Defense Against Pirates

2012-01-02T18:42:00Z

I recently visited Hong Kong on a business trip, and during an afternoon break I took a tour along the Ping Shan Heritage Trail. The trail provides historical insight into the settling and farming of the Pear River Delta by the Tang Clan, including visits to various temples and a museum that was the first colonial outpost for the British.

As readers of this blog (and visitors to Pantherbay.com) know, the Pearl River Delta, which includes Hong Kong and Guangzhou (formerly Canton) in Guangdong Province was a hotbed of piratical activity. At one point, a confederation of pirate clans amassed fleets that included a thousand ships, junks and coastal boats, and as many as 50,000 pirates to prowl the South China Sea (about five times the number plowing the Caribbean Sea at its height). (See the biography of Cheng I Sao, or Mrs Cheng on the pantherbay.com web site.)

Well, to defend themselves against the pirates, the Tang Clan trained themselves and villagers in the martial arts. Since they had limited access to "modern" weaponry, the focused on hand to hand combat the practical use of applying everyday farming implements as weapons.

I think it's interesting that martial arts were important for defensive purposes, not sport and offensive tactics as they are thought of in the West.

For more, see my video on Youtube filmed from Victoria Harbour in Hong Kong.

Trailer to the Next Pirates Movie!

2011-04-02T12:51:00Z

I just ran across the trailer for the next "Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides" movie and you can see the 2:15 minute video here. You can catch the same trailer plus still photos at Hollywood.com.

The Pirate-Terrorist Connection

2011-03-30T13:41:00Z

One particularly interesting spin on modern pirating activity off the coast of Somalia is the link to Islamic terrorist organizations. Jon Bowermaster has a useful overview of the main argument/concern, noting in a recent article,

"Increasing evidence links the mafia-like Somali clans that run the pirating to the Al-Shabaab Islamist insurgent group, which controls most of southern and central Somalia. Both the U.S. and the U.N. accuse Al-Shabaab of having links to al-Qaeda.

"The rag-tag pirates who are grabbing small private yachts and cargo boats loaded with lawn tractors may be providing a working model for terrorists interested in hijacking tankers loaded with chemicals and cargo boats carrying weapons.

"The pirates' increasingly brazen successes can only be encouraging to others hoping to follow suit."

The situation seems to be spinning increasingly out of control. Yet, the activity and threat of piracy is remarkably concentrated off the coast of East Africa and the western reaches of the Indian Ocean.

At some point nations will have to recognize the pirating problem as a threat on the same scale as a war, similar to the way the British viewed Caribbean pirating in the 17th and 18th centuries.

US and UN Block Private Anti-Pirate Effort

2011-03-28T12:36:00Z

As dozens of vessels are attacked by pirates, and thousands of sailors are held hostage, the United States government and United Nation's have blocked a shipper-backed group from providing private security for ships and cargo. According to the web site Strategypage (accessed on March 25, 2011):

March 16, 2011: The United States and UN has persuaded Puntland [in Somalia] to withdraw backing for a thousand man coast guard force, trained and led by foreign mercenaries hired by shipping companies. The UN feared that the mercenary trained force would violate the arms embargo against Somalia, and that a more effective combat force in Somalia might fall under the control of a warlord seeking to become the new dictator of Somalia (the last one was driven from power two decades ago). Actually, the training contract in Puntland is only "suspended", as local officials want the mercenary trained coast guard force, as it appears to be the only way to control the thousands of gunmen working for pirate gangs and warlords. The UN is unable to get many countries to supply peacekeepers for Somalia either.

Inside View of Somali Pirates Set to Debut in May

2011-03-26T17:16:00Z

One of the great things about being young is we have no fear. And that certainly is true for Mohamed Ashareh, the former Canadian college student who set out two years ago to film a documentary on the Somali pirates.

According to the Toronto Star (March 25, 2011): "As well as recounting Ashareh's near-death experiences, The Pirate Tapes tells the story of Somalia's multi-million-dollar piracy business, shedding light on the history and political corruption that turned fishermen into violent vigilantes."

Unfortunately, Ashareh fell out with the production company, Palmira PDR, so he's not part of the current release strategy. (It sounds like Ashareh has also learned a few unfortunate things about contracts and the business of film production along the way.)

Hot Docs bills itself as North America's largest documentary film festival and is set to take place from April 28th through May 8th in Toronto. Details of the Pirate Tapes can be found on the web site, including a trailer.

Here's the Hot Docs description:

A tale of violence, piracy and environmental disaster spirals into a life-threatening situation when Mohamed, a young Somali-Canadian, joins an armed pirate cell with a hidden camera. But when a rival clan murders the pirate boss, Mohamed ends up in a horrific jail in danger of execution. Interspersed with riveting never-before-seen footage of pirates organizing a hijacking, the film peels back the layers of civil war, history and corruption that turned once-peaceful fishermen into marauders. Massive illegal fishing by Asian and European ships decimated fish stocks, international corporations made secret deals with warlords so they could dump their nuclear wastes off the Somali coast, and politicians siphoned foreign aid into their personal accounts. But the moral justification of retaliation has morphed into a violent, complex, money-driven operation, one that both pirates and politicians expose as a multi-million-dollar business funded primarily by foreigners who reap most of the profit.

Time to Take Another Look at Private Sector Role in War Against Pirates

2011-03-17T13:22:00Z

As nation's across the globe continue to ramp up their interest and resources to fight pirates off the East Coast of Africa and western parts of the Indiana Ocean, the role of privately funded security needs a fresh look. I found this 2009 article from The Economist magazine quite useful in framing the debate. A sampling of the analysis:

Deterrence, or at least stopping attacks at the earliest stage, is always best. These are areas in which the private sector (both shipowners and their security advisers) must play a role. America has also encouraged small countries with large shipping registries such as Liberia, Panama, the Marshall Islands and the Bahamas to mandate prudent self-protection by vessels.

Already, the line between peaceful merchant ships and naval ones is blurring a little. These days, maritime-security providers operating off east Africa almost always make some use of weapons, says Didier Berra, a French army veteran who has worked for Secopex, a naval-security firm based in Carcassonne in France.

Draconian force is seldom necessary, adds Mr Berra. Attackers often give up when 12.7mm machineguns are fired into the water, creating a big splash. The head of another European security firm says many outfits sidestep bans on weapons in port by tossing them overboard. Yet a show of firepower is increasingly necessary because pirates are getting blasé about “non-lethal” defences like water hoses and sonic blasts, says David Schewitz, whose California-based company, RSB International, helps protect ships.

Navies are also starting to deploy seamen on merchant ships, something hitherto rare unless the cargo was military. The French navy, for example, has been sending sailors to protect the country’s tuna-fishing ships in waters around the Seychelles. Such assertiveness at least marginally reduces the opportunities for private firms; a few games really are zero sum.

The article also notes that poltiical stability and economic growth will be essential for reducing the allure of piracy. That may be true, but a lot can be done now to increase the penalties of engaging in piracy. And here is where private actions to defend vessels and people may be the most effective, even if it is only addressing a symptom of the larger problem.

Pirates Indicted for Murder of American Sailors

2011-03-15T13:03:00Z

For those following the legal aftermath of the terrible murder of the two Seattle-based seafaring couples shot by their pirate captors in February, the fourteen captured pirates were indicted in Virginia on Tuesday, 8 March 2011.

I believe the wanton killing of the Americans signals a new chapter in the war against the Somali-based pirates. Most of the hostages and vessels prior to this event were commercial in nature. These Seattle-based couples were pleasure sailors and their deaths were unnecessary. Moreover, their capture and subsequent murder shows the true hazard that piracy presents: They new the dangers and took the right precautions, including traveling in a convoy. They were captured when they became separated from their convoy.

The question now is what strategies will be used to bring piracy under control.

Piracy's Modern Costs: $12 Billion Annually

2011-03-13T20:31:00Z

A report by the Internatonal Chamber of Shipping/International Shipping Federation and the One Earth Future Foundation called "The Economic Costs of Piracy" estimates that the cost of piracy amounts to $12 billion per year.

In the ship-owner supported report, Costs of Piracy by the One Earth Future Foundation, economic hits include $31-million to prosecute pirates (750 of them in 11 countries); $2-billion borne by ship owners who hire security services, and the purchase of passive defences like barbed wire, flood lights, piracy mapping software and other protective kit. Ransoms worth $240-million were quietly paid out in 2010 for safe crew returns and ships that spent an average of 150 days in captivity.

Lloyds Market Association puts excess insurance costs due to Somali piracy at up to $3.2-billion per year, while re-routing “slow and low” ships costs upwards of $3-billion.

Cargoes stolen and diverted from Kenya and Yemen, Suez Canal fees lost by Egypt as vessels reroute, lost fishing and tourism to Mauritius, The Maldives and Seychelles add up to $1.25-billion a year, the report says.

Vast Swaths of World's Seas Threatened by Piracy

2011-03-12T19:41:00Z

In 2009, vessels sailing in open waters between India and the East Coast of Africa were advised to travel in convoys. That hasn't been much help, as Somali pirates now travel up to a thousand miles off shore for hostages, boats, and merchandise that can be ransomed.

The extent of the spreading piracy threat was clea in a recent Yachte.com.au (11 March 2011) story:

The U.S. Coast Guard strongly advises against all operation of and travel by U.S. yachts and sailing craft, or by U.S. citizens on foreign registered yachts and sailing craft, on the Gulf of Aden, Arabian Sea, Somali Basin and the western parts of the Indian Ocean.

That's a big chunk of territory. And it's unlikely to end soon (from the same article):

As per 07 March 2011, 20h30 UTC, at least 49 foreign vessels plus two barges are kept in Somali hands against the will of their owners, while at least 784 hostages or captives - including a South-African yachting couple as well as a Danish yacht-family with children - suffer and have not been released.

Even EU NAVFOR [European Union Naval Force Somalia unit], who mostly only counts higher-value - often British insured vessels - admit now that many dozens of vessels were sea-jacked, despite their multi-million Euro efforts to protect shipping.

Having come under pressure, EU NAVFOR's operation ATALANTA felt compelled to publish its updated piracy facts for those vessels, which EU NAVFOR admits had not been protected from pirates and were abducted.

EU NAVFOR also admitted in February 2011, for the first time, that actually a larger number of vessels and crews are being held hostage, than those listed on their file.

EU NAVFOR admitted in 2008 that piracy off Somalia had started in earnest and it has now completely escalated. Only knowledgeable analysts recognised the link.

Participants in yacht races and rallies in these high risk areas are at great risk of attack. These events are often publicised and could draw attention from pirates, despite the security and safety measures that might be put in place. The U.S. Coast Guard strongly advises mariners not to participate in events that will require transit through high risk waters.

2010 Pirate Attack Roundup

2011-01-04T14:14:00Z

A quick review of summary data from the International Maritime Bureau suggests a couple of interesting facts.

Successful hijackings aren't quite as common as headlines might suggest. Just 11.5% of the pirate attacks worldwide in 2010 resulted in actual hijackings.
While Somalia is the center for most pirating incidents, half of all pirate incidents occur in other regions of the world.
Somali pirates may be the most successful, accounting for 92.1% of all hijackings.

This suggests that most piracy incidents are probably mostly about robbery and theft, not physically taking ships and hostages. The economics of piracy around Somalia, however, makes hijacking the most lucrative goal for pirates in that region of the world.

My resolution for 2011: Do a better job of bloggin on piracy outside of Somalia.

Here are the statistics reported by IMB for 2010 as part of their Facts & Figures page:

Worldwide Incidents: (updated on 29 December 2010)
Total Attacks Worldwide: 440
Total Hijackings Worldwide: 51

Incidents Reported for Somalia:
Total Incidents: 218
Total Hijackings: 47
Total Hostages : 1001

Current vessels held by Somali pirates:
Vessels: 26
Hostages: 617

Pirates and Slavery

2011-01-02T16:39:00Z

This year (2011) marks the 150th anniversary of the start of the US Civil War . Many people may be surprised that a substantial amount of controversy still exists in some quarters (most notably the South ) about the causes of the war. Most historians recognize the critical issue was slavery. Southern states had an economy and culture built on plantation-style slavery. Northern states were more manufacturing oriented and agriculture was rooted in smaller, free hold land farms. Norther states were also becoming more populated, and this helped fuel anti-slavery sentiment to the point it became a breaking point. States' rights were at issue, but the tinderbox that ignited the war was slavery. (And absent slavery, it's unlikely civil war would have erupted although this is also disputed.)

The question of slavery is also central to the plot underlying Isabella's quest for her own identity in the The Pirate of Panther Bay . The backstory, as readers know, includes Isabella as an escaped slave. She is a pirate because she has little choice. If she were captured, she would be returned to the sugar plantation or, more likely, executed. (The classroom guide can be found here .) Here relationship with Juan Carlos pivots on her identity as an independent person. Juan Carlos's resistance to Isabella is based on his traditional understanding of Isabella as a woman and as a slave. (Recall the scene in El Morro when Juan Carlos is confronted by Maria.)

Historically, Isabella's background as an ex-slave is not without precedent. Slave traders were frequent targets for pirates. Peter Leeson's research in The Invisible Hook notes that Africans, presumably ex-slaves or men destined to be slaves, made up 25 percent to one third of some pirate crews.

Of course, we know the end of the US Civil War: The northern states won and slavery (thankfully) was banished from the freest nation on earth after hundreds of thousands died on both sides. The fact that the historical legacy of slavery continues to stir emotions nearly 150 years after its abolition is a telling sign of its impact on the human character and how we define ourselves in the modern era. In this sense, Isabella, despite being a pirate, is very much a modern woman.

Mary Read: Coming to a Stage Near You

2010-12-31T18:58:00Z

In need of a pirate themed stage play? Check out this musical stage play titled "Mary of the High Seas ." The playwrite describes it as:

"...a historical action-adventure drama musical, set in the turbulent world of the back streets of London, the battlefields of Flanders and the action and adventure of the high seas. Raised as a boy to hide the truth of her brother’s death Mary’s romantic life is complicated, making passion all the more critical to this true story.

"The course of the musical takes Mary from a selfish young tomboy with a huge chip on her shoulder, to gregarious young war hero, to a self-reliant pirate with the heart of a lion… in the body of a woman… disguised as a man."

It looks like the first production will be in the summer of 2011 in England.

Can Modern Navies Fight Modern Pirates?

2010-12-27T18:07:00Z

I ran across a recent editorial in the Bangkok Post lamenting the ongoing piratical activities off the cost of Somalia and in the Indian Ocean. Despite the efforts of the European Union and contingents of naval forces from many nations, including the Thai navy, four Thai vessels and 77 Thai seamen are still the hands of pirates awaiting ransom. Overall, the pirates now hold 25 vessels and 601 hostages.

So far, the successful interventions disrupting pirate activities seem to be sporadic and ad hoc, not systematic. To be fair, finding pirates is like looking for a needle in a haystack. But the problem remains real and persistent.

This begs the following thought: At the end of the day, it may be up to the shipping companies to staff their vessels with a real deterrants such as private security forces that can confront the pirates directly and effectively. A coordinated, top-down strategy may not be the most effective one. Rather, a decentralized approach at the ship-level may be the only way to create a meaningful deterrant. Mobilizing frigates and destroyers may create a substantial visible presence in ports of call, but a few well armed security forces on a ship may be more effective.

This approach has other advantages. Shipping companies can choose the strategies that they seem would be most effective. Some companies may want to convoy ships. Other comapnies may want to stay with individualized or ship-level customized security arrangements. Still others (and I'm not advocating this) might decide they are just willing to pay the ransom given the risks.

Regardless, I think a decentralized approach may be more effective than a centralized one given the vastness of the problem and the economics involved.

I Am Not Alone

2010-12-22T13:24:00Z

Peter Worthington , a columnist with the Toronto Sun, apparently has some of the same instincts I do when it comes to dealing with modern day pirates. From a recent FrumForum blog post on dealing with pirates:

"As long as ransoms are paid, piracy will continue. Last year, U.S. Navy SEALS shot and killed three pirates holding the skipper of an American ship, the Maersk Alabama, and rescued him.

"Yet in another incident, the Dutch navy captured pirates and freed 20 hostages – and then let the pirates go. Like Canada, the Dutch felt they had no legal right to hold the pirates – an attitude that hardly dissuades piracy.

"At least the American solution results in three fewer pirates in the Gulf of Aden, and is something the civilized world might consider dealing with in the coming year."

How Modern Day Pirates Treat Their Hostages

2010-12-20T13:12:00Z

In case there was any doubt that moder pirates are simply misunderstood, this article describing the deplorable conditions of their hostages from Agence France-Presse should be sobering. Pirate enterprises are businesses. They ransom their cargo or the vessels. The seamen operating the ships are of little practical value, so they are treated according to what their expected price in the negotiation process--low.

Note this account from the captain of the Iceberg, a Panama-flagged cargo ship captured in March 2010:

"Diseases have appeared among crew members, some have haemorroids, one has lost his eyesight and another has serious stomach problems," the ship's Yemeni captain Abdirazzak Ali Saleh told AFP by phone.

"The water we have is unclean and we have only one meal a day, boiled rice, that's it. The crew is suffering physically and mentally," he said, adding they had been locked up in a room of five metres square for close to nine months.

In October, the Iceberg's 3rd officer Wagdi Akram, a father of four, jumped overboard in a fit of dementia. The pirates fished him out dead.

A video shot last month and obtained by AFP shows two crewmen unzipping an orange plastic casing to reveal the Yemeni sailor's body kept in a freezer with a few bags of ice to keep it cold.

"The body is still in the freezer but we have no diesel to run the generators," the captain said.

The issue is that humans hold little value in this negotiation-drive form of modern piracy.

"When a yacht is caught, the sailors are worth more for the pirates than the boat. But in most piracy cases, the value of the vessel itself and its cargo is what guarantees to the captors that a ransom is paid," Ecoterra explained [an international human rights nonprofit group monitoring piracy].

"The crew's welfare becomes a very low priority, with pirates wishing they didn't have more people to feed and shipowners sometimes wishing they didn't have a crew preventing them from pulling off an insurance scam and sinking the vessel," the spokesman said.

Pirating remains a nasty business when it comes to human.

If Kenya No Longer Prosecutes Pirates, What's Next?

2010-12-20T00:45:00Z

Kenya is a pretty important nation on the east coast of Africa, and its in the center of the piracy controversy. Recently, Kenya's supreme court ruled that its government could not prosecute pirates because their crimes occurred outside Kenyan territory.

Leaving aside the legal validity of the question (which is an interesting one), what might happen if other nations used the same legal reasoning and stopped prosecuting pirates? Right now, shipping companies can rely on the legal systems of the nations with which they do business to prosecute pirates. Without them, these companies would be forced to rely on their own means of protection.

For years, the shipping companies seemed content to pay off the pirates since their activity was little more than extortion. The resulting profitability of piracy allowed these illegal enterprises to flourish. Not surpringly, lots of "entrepreneurs" entered the market to take advantage of "untapped" revenues since the shipping companies seemed unwilling to turn off the spigot.

Now, shipping companies (and high profile cases such as the chandlers ) seem to be turning off the spigot .

Are the pirates better off being prosecuted in nations with established legal systems and rules, or by shipping companies unbound by international law? Something worth thinking about..if I were a modern day pirate.

Is Disrupton All We Can Hope For?

2010-12-19T14:34:00Z

I ran across this report on the UK's efforts to control piracy off the Somali Cost. The captain discussed how fufilling the mission was because they disrupted potential pirate activities. From Panorama News:

"Once the suspected pirates spotted the helicopter and boarding team, four of the suspected pirates took one of the smaller boats and tried to flee to shore. The remaining men stopped in the water and when the Lynx helicopter hovered overhead they tried to get rid of their ladders overboard.

"After the Royal Navy boarding team confiscated all the pirate gear, thus ensuring that the gang could no longer pose a threat to merchantmen, they were transferred to the remaining skiff.

"Speaking about the incident, the Commanding Officer of HMS Montrose, Commander Jonathan Lett, said:

"The disruption of a pirate gang in the Somali Basin by a NATO warship was very rewarding. Our actions prevented suspected pirates from heading out to sea to prey on innocent merchantmen. HMS Montrose continues to help keep the seas safe."

But, I have to wonder, is this all we can hope for? A few ladders and rocket propelled grenades are small items to replace when the pirate gangs are getting millions in ransom for their cargo.

Piracy shouldn't just be managed through disruption of activities. It needs to be eradicated as a serious threat to human life and economy.

I think this incident really shows the inherent limits of using the modern military to rein in piracy. Private shipping companies need to step up to the plate and national governments need to let them.

Somalia Considers Private Training for Anti-Piracy Force

2010-12-18T03:54:00Z

Some people in Somalia are apparently getting very serious about thwarting piracy. They are so serious, in fact, that the Mogadishu government is mulliing a proposal to hire a private company, Saracen International, to train a 1,000 person anti-piracy police force, according to an Associated Press report published in the Las Vegas Sun. The intiative is all quite secretive. Saracen is already training a 1,000 member strong police force for the northern part of the nation unrelated to piracy activities. The funding is coming from an "anonymous" donor nation that has "deep pockets."

Hmmm. Here's more from the Las Vegas Sun report:

The Somali government will decide in the next three weeks whether to have Saracen train the anti-piracy force in Mogadishu, Nur said. Another program to train up to 300 men for the presidential guard is also being considered.

If approved, that could mean up to 2,400 men would be trained by Saracen International. The mystery donor also has promised to pay the men and equip them with everything except arms. The total cost of the project is unclear.

A European Union-led program to reform the Somali army is training and paying for 2,000 men at a cost of around $13.2 million, indicating that at such a level of expenditure, the anonymous donor nation has deep pockets.

The donor insists on keeping its identity secret, citing concerns over terrorism, according to a presentation about the company given to Nairobi-based diplomats on Friday and provided to the AP.

Somali pirates have never been known to retaliate against nations that have sent warships to patrol the Somali coast, but the al-Qaida-linked Somali insurgency launched suicide bombings in Uganda that killed 76 people in July. Uganda is a main contributor to an African Union peacekeeping force in Somalia.

The mystery donor is paying for the services of a former American ambassador for war crimes, Pierre Prosper, and a former CIA deputy chief of station, Michael Shanklin. Prosper is being retained as a legal adviser to the Somali government on issues of transparency and anti-corruption, and Shanklin is a security adviser.

Prosper and two other Americans _ former army officer Michael Newton and lawyer Robert O'Brien _ gave a presentation Friday to the international community about the proposed projects.

Supposedly, the Somali government launched a 500 member navy last year to combat piracy, but the status of the program is a mystery (including what happened to the people and guns).

Private Security Increasingly Requested for Piracy

2010-12-12T21:28:00Z

Former South African military forces are increasingly being asked (and commissioned) to provide protection for private and commercial vessels sailing through the Red Sea to protect against pirate attacks. Apparently, national laws limiting firearms are hampering some of these efforts. Citing "national security" concerns, private security forces are having trouble meeting requests for added security in real time.

Of course, every nation has a legitimate right to protect itself, and have laws that protect their soveriegnty, but I wonder how limits on small arms serve this purpose. It seems like a hold over from decades past. Small arms are not used to take over ships in port; they are used to take over ships already at sea. The real threat in ports would be large explosives, not rifles, pistols, or even rocket-propelled grenades (the weapons of choice for contemporary pirates).

Just a few thoughts. Perhaps its time to rethink these regulations in light of two realities: the persistent rise of piracy and the inherent limits of modern navies to patrol these waters with sufficient density to deter the pirates.