A pirate whose gang attacked the aid ship told the Associated Press Wednesday that his group was targeting American ships and sailors.

"We will seek out the Americans and if we capture them we will slaughter them," said a 25-year-old pirate based in the Somali port of Harardhere who gave only his first name, Ismail.

"We will target their ships because we know their flags. Last night, an American-flagged ship escaped us by a whisker. We have showered them with rocket-propelled grenades," said Ismail, who did not take part in the attack on the Liberty Sun.

The heavily insured cargo vessels make easy pickings.

In small, unlit boats, the pirates sneak up to hulking ships at night, fling grappling hooks over the side and swarm aboard. They have learned that if they treat their hostages well, they can ransom the boats for millions.

Indeed, the BBC reported there are special pirate restaurants in Eyl to feed the kidnapped crews.

To the Somalis, where the average family lives on less than $1 a day, the lure of the black flag is intoxicating.

These are not the rum-drunk, eccentric, peg-leg pirates of yesteryear: The modern corsair is well-organized, disciplined and toting a satellite phone. They even have publicists to handle media calls.

“I want to be very clear that we are resolved to halt the rise of piracy in that region,” Mr. Obama said. “And to achieve that goal, we’re going to have to continue to work with our partners to prevent future attacks. We have to continue to be prepared to confront them when they arise. And we have to ensure that those who commit acts of piracy are held accountable for their crimes.”

In a brazen show of defiance, Somali pirates hi-jacked the merchant ship MV Irene E.M. The attack was a night attack.

Somali pirates hijacked a Greek-owned ship Tuesday in a rare night attack that showed their determination to continue striking shipping in the area's strategic waterways.

The brazen capture of the MV Irene E.M. was a clear sign the sea gangs had not been deterred by two raids in recent days by U.S. and French special forces that killed five pirates.

NATO Lieutenant Commander Alexandre Fernandes said the Portuguese warship NRP Corte-Real had received a distress call from the St. Vincent and the Grenadines-flagged bulk carrier as it travelled through the Gulf of Aden.

"There was only three minutes between the alarm and the hijack," Fernandes told Reuters aboard the warship.

"They attacked at night, which was very unusual. They were using the moonlight as it's still quite bright."

Two of the captors had poked their heads out of a rear hatch of the lifeboat, exposing themselves to clear shots, and the third could be seen through a window in the bow, pointing an automatic rifle at the captain, who was tied up inside the 18-foot lifeboat, senior Navy officials said.

It took only three remarkable shots — one each by snipers firing from a distance at dusk, using night-vision scopes, the officials said. Within minutes, rescuers slid down ropes from the Bainbridge, climbed aboard the lifeboat and found the three pirates dead. They then untied Captain Phillips, ending the contretemps at sea that had riveted much of the world’s attention. A fourth pirate had surrendered earlier.

Perhaps even more disturbing is the sense of entitlement from the pirates. Again, according to the times,

While the outcome was a triumph for America, officials in many countries plagued by pirates said it was not likely to discourage them. Pirates are holding a dozen ships with more than 200 crew members, according to the Malaysia-based International Maritime Bureau.

In Somalia itself, other pirates reacted angrily to the news that Captain Phillips had been rescued, and some said they would avenge the deaths of their colleagues by killing Americans in sea hijackings to come.

“Every country will be treated the way it treats us,” Abdullahi Lami, one of the pirates holding a Greek ship anchored in the pirate den of Gaan, a central Somali town, was quoted by The Associated Press as saying in a telephone interview. “In the future, America will be the one mourning and crying.”


We have a long way to go before the pirates will be stopped.

Going north from Tobago, the pirates took a Portugueze ship and two or three sloops; Fern again tried to quit the crew in one of these ships and was killed by Captain Phillips in accordance with the articles. On the 25th of March they took another two ships. Taking several more ships, including a sloop and schooner in early April, they made their way to Newfoundland, where they planned to take on more crew. Along the way they replaced their ship with sloop out of Cape Ann.

It was at this time that several of the crew, anxious to be done with pirating, mutinied and tossed several of the officers over the side. Taking control of the ship they changed course for Boston, where they arrived the 3rd of May. As there is no mention of John Phillips being tried with several others of the pirate crew, it can only be assumed that he died during the mutiny on April 18th, 1724.


Once again, the case of Mr. Phillips shows that pirating was a short-term profession. Few pirate careers lasted more than a couple of years, even for the most successful and notorious.

Of particular interest to history buffs will be the Articles for their pirate ship The Revenge under the command of Philllips. Mr. Stapleton has posted the ARticles here, and they are a quick interesting read.

Shimmer is a speculative fiction magazine . This means that your story should have a speculative element at its heart. On the other hand, we have been known to accept non-speculative stories - but realize the odds are heavily stacked against you. We do not accept fan fiction or any fiction that features trademarked characters - we want to read original work. Our favorite stories have both solid storytelling and vivid, compelling prose.
 

Pirate enthusiasts who are a bit academically inclined will find this post by Lynda on her blog Give Me a Moment (23 January 2008) interesting. She has a number of interesting references, as well as a few insights into the social order of pirates.

Here's a sample:

This idea of the subversive interests me in that I am considering Bakhtin’s idea of carnival and how it influences social protest and counterculture as an area of study for my doctoral degree. I am both amused and intrigued by Hobsbawm’s and Christopher Hill’s Marxists analyses of “social banditry.” I’m only amused because the idea of socialist pirates sounds so peculiar and extreme. But Hobsbawm’s explanation that pirating evolved from the transition from “peasant economies to capitalism” and reflected a “desperate response to upheaval,” posits a new take on pirates for me, and if we consider the 1960s message music movement in conjunction with the civil rights and anti-war protests, we can definitely view pirates as 17th century versions of counter-culture rock stars.

Go Lynda!

Author S.R. Staley will lead a workshop for aspiring writers at Borders Books at Deerfield Town Center in Mason, Ohio on Saturday, 9 February 2008. Staley's book The Pirate of Panther Bay has received rave reviews since its publication in 2006, calling it "a swashbuckling tale of piracy, action, and romance," "expertly written," and a "grand high seas adventure any teen would love; many adults as well."

Staley's workshop will give insight into the writing and publishing process, drawing on more than 15 years of experience working with book publishers and writing fiction and nonfiction.

"We all want to be best-selling authors," Staley said, "but what do you have to do to get there?"

The workshop will cover topics such as the writing process, how to go about getting your book published, and the "brave new world" of marketing using the internet and worldwide web.

Check out www.pantherbay.com for more details as the workshop approaches.