10 breeds of pirate – Somalis to Vikings to Japanese Pirate Ninjas

by Justin Delaney on

A yacht carrying a quartet of Americans was recently seized by Somali pirates, the latest in a string of hijackings that reaches back millenia. According to MSNBC, the seized yacht, the “S/V Quest,” is owned by Jean and Scott Adam – a couple on a worldwide quest distributing bibles. While they no doubt expected to spread the word far and wide, they were certainly not expecting to be boarded by Somali pirates off the coast of Oman in the Arab sea. The waters along the horn of Africa are a hotbed of piracy, and travelling by boat in this region is about as reckless as booking a 2 week holiday in Mogadishu.

The Somali pirates are the modern day face of an enterprise that has existed for centuries. Piracy has been part of seafaring culture since man first took to the open water. As early as 1400 BC, Lukka sea raiders from Asia Minor began committing acts of piracy throughout the Mediterranean. These early pirates were known simply as the “Sea Peoples.” Aside from these early innovators of seaward sabotage, many groups and clans have sailed under the banner of terror on the high seas. The Vikings innovated the craft, the Barbary corsairs elevated it to an art, and the pirates of the Caribbean made it famous. Many other groups, operating in the shadows of history, took to piracy on the high seas. From dark age plundering to modern day terrorism, some of these groups of pirates include:The Vikings
Hailing from Scandinavia, the Vikings pillaged much of western Europe and northern Africa. The Norsemen covered a range from Russia to Newfoundland in their graceful longships, and pioneered piracy in the middle ages. They were the original world explorers – helmeted plunderers with a thrist for adventure.

The Wokou
Around the same time Vikings were wreaking havoc in Europe, these Japanese pirates, known as Wokou, began terrorizing the Chinese and Korean coast. Most of these pirates were Ronin, merchants, and smugglers. Allegedly, some were even ninjas, throwing a paradoxical spin on the classic “pirate versus ninja” debate. Why choose when you can just be both?

Barbary Corsairs
In response to the moors being ran out of Europe, many took up residence in northern Africa. Some of these displaced seamen became pirates and raided towns and vessels in Spain, Italy, France, and beyond. The infamous Redbeard, Oruc Reis, was a notable Barbary Corsair, and sacked many coastal Italian towns.

Madagascar Pirates
Off the eastern coast of Africa, Madagascar was a lawless place during the golden age of pirateering. Since no European countries colonized Madagascar, the island was an ideal spot for pirates to lay low and plot the next heist. Allegedly, the pirate utopia of “Libertalia” was located on Madagascar. According to pirate lore, “Libertalia” was a communist colony governed by pirates for pirates, where all shared in the booty.

Orang Laut
Originally from the Spice Islands and settling in modern day Malaysia, these sea gypsies began raiding the strait of Malacca over 500 years ago. Eventually, they fell into a protective role, policing the waters for the Sultanates of Johor and Malacca. Unlike many pirates that called solid ground home, the Orang Laut lived exclusively on the water.

Classical Carribean Pirates
The pirate cliche is the Caribbean pirate, and the spokesperson is Johnny Depp’s character in Pirates of the Caribbean. The Caribbean pirate era began when Aztec gold bound for Spain was seized by pirates in the early 16th century. This escalated into the golden age of pirateering in the 17th and 18th centuries. Most Caribbean pirates came from European origins.

Bugi Pirates of Sulawesi
The term boogeyman originated from the orchid shaped island of Sulawesi in Indonesia. The Bugi pirates of southern Sulawesi were so feared that Dutch and English sailors brought home tales of horror to scare misbehaving children. The Bugianese were among the first to explore Papua New Guinea and northern Australia.

Sea Dayak of Borneo
Notorious headhunters, the sea dayaks terrorized the waters of the South China Sea, targeting vessels passing from Hong Kong to Singapore. In the mid nineteenth century, James Brooke and an army of Malays wiped out many of these pirates. Today, these people are known as the Iban and live in the old rainforests of Borneo.

Chinese Pirates
The most powerful pirate ever was a Chinese woman. In the early 19th century, an ex-prostitute named Cheng I Sao commanded a fleet of more than 1,500 ships – larger than many navies. According to CNN, she was an adept business person and controlled her fleet via a proxy named Chang Pao. She developed spy networks, created economic agreements with mainland farmers for supplies, and generally revolutionized the piracy business model. Her crews stalked the waters of the South China Sea.

Somali Pirates
The modern pirate hails from Somalia – a crossroads of the derelict. With more warlords than laws, Somalia is a disaster state. The government has been more a fleeting idea than a real thing for the last 20 years, and it shows. Warlords control fleets that operate out of coastal towns, amassing ships, arms, and wealth. The pirates use small boats and assault rifles to board both passenger and cargo ships, taking hostages, booty, or both.

Piracy causes roughly $15 billion in losses worldwide per year. The most trafficked areas for modern day piracy include the South China Sea, the Gulf of Aden (off the horn of Africa), the Niger Delta, and the infamous Strait of Malacca.

flickr image via cesargp

Somali pirates capture American couple and crew on round-the-world adventure voyage

by Chris Owen on

Putting an abrupt stop to the voyage of a lifetime, a US-flagged yacht with four American citizens on board was hijacked 240 miles off the coast of Oman by Somali pirates Friday.

The s/v Quest, a Davidson 58 Pilot House Sloop, was in year seven of a ten-year around-the-world voyage with American owners Jean and Scott Adam and two crew members.

“S/V Quest was attacked by pirates in the Indian Ocean and the four Americans on board are being held hostage,” Omar Jamal of the United Nations said. “The sailing yacht was reportedly … en route from India to Mina Raysut, the industrial port of Salalah, Oman,” Ecoterra added.

The couple has chronicled the voyage on the their website since 2002. An entry from last December listed their stops in 2011 as “Galle, Sri Lanka; Cochin, India; Salalah, Oman; Djibouti, Djibouti; The Suez Canal; and Crete. That gets us to April.”

Both Scott and Jean Adam are certified by the US Coast Guard with a 100 ton master captains license. Designed by America’s Cup designer Laurie Davidson the S/V Quest is a sailing ship with a backup engine range of 3,300 miles

%Gallery-117152%Their planned course would have taken them into dangerous pirate-infested waters off the coast of Somalia. It is not known if the couple knew of the danger or simply ignored it.

Equipped with satellite Internet access and an Iridium phone for emergencies, the California couple sent an SOS message at the time of the attack. Maritime officials said little, if any, radio contact has been made since then reports MSNBC.

“Djibouti is a big refueling stop,” Jean Adam, a retired dentist, wrote of a stop that they were planning just beyond Somalia. “I have NO idea what will happen in these ports, but perhaps we’ll do some local touring. Due north is the Red Sea where we plan to tuck in when winds turn to the north.”

Earlier on Friday, The European Union’s anti-piracy task force said it appeared that Somali pirates had also hijacked a separate vessel, the Alfardous, and its eight crew members in the Gulf of Adenpire.

The Adams capture also came as Interpol said it would spend $2.17million to help African nations fight piracy reports the Daily Mail.

The first phase of the E.U-funded programme would include a digital fingerprint identification system to make it easier to identify pirates and share information on them.

Earlier this week, British frigate HMS Cornwall has freed five Yemeni hostages held by Somali pirates for three months.

2010 — a record year for Somali pirates

by Jon Bowermaster on

For all the “extremes” of the natural world in 2010 – record-setting rainfalls, droughts, earthquakes and volcanic eruptions – man managed to rack up some big numbers too.

Particularly those persistent Somali pirates who picked up the pace on the Indian Ocean, ramping up attacks on cargo boats, cruise ships and private yachts. According to an end of the year report by the Piracy Reporting Center of the International Maritime Bureau, there were more pirate attacks than ever, despite an ever-bigger presence of international navies.

Many thought that when snipers aboard the “USS Bainbridge” shot and killed three Somali kidnappers holding an American cargo boat captain hostage in 2009 that piracy would slow. Quite the opposite.

Turns out that in 2010 those khat-stoked, RPG-armed pirates in their wooden skiffs managed to outrun and out-maneuver some of the world’s most powerful navies in record numbers, attacking 445 ships and taking nearly 1,200 people hostage.

Already in this New Year, rather than shrink in the face of increased threats from authorities, the pirates have grown even bolder and are traveling even further from home. A week ago they went so far as to attempt to chase down a British cruise ship – the 348-passenger “Spirit of Adventure” – traveling from Madagascar to Zanzibar.While his black-tied passengers were sitting down to dinner Captain Frank Allica spied a speedboat in pursuit and floored the 9,570-ton ship in an effort to outrun what he knew were pirates. They were one hundred miles off the coast of Africa.

The ship’s guests and 200-crew members were ordered below decks, told to sit on the floor and keep doors barricaded as the speedboat pulled alongside.

(The story makes me wonder what those particular pirates were smoking. Even if they caught up with the ship and boarded it, loaded down as it were with more than 500 passengers and crew, what exactly did they think they would do with them all? Take them hostage??)

When the captain was successful at outrunning the pirates, guests were welcomed back to the dining room, their soup reheated. At breakfast the next morning the captain was given a standing ovation.

The pirate’s success in recent years has had impacts on both the cruise and cargo ship businesses.

Several cruise companies have quit the Indian Ocean completely, including Seabourn – which canceled 15 cruises in 2010 and 2011 — and Star Clippers. Several others – MSC Cruises, Fred Olsen and Hapag Lloyd – have changed itineraries to keep their ships as far away from potential run-ins as possible.

At the same time the cost of kidnap and ransom insurance has gone up for all ships, as have additional security costs, including hiring armed guards and, for some, wrapping ships with razor wire, grease and broken glass to deter potential boardings.

Read more from Jon Bowermaster’s Adventures here.

It’s time travel writers stopped stereotyping Africa

by Sean McLachlan on

Pop quiz: where was this photo taken?

OK, the title of this post kind of gives it away, but if I hadn’t written Africa, would you have guessed? It was taken in Dar es Salaam, the capital of Tanzania. This isn’t the view of Africa you generally get from the news or travel publications–a modern city with high rises and new cars. A city that could be pretty much anywhere. That image doesn’t sell.

And that’s the problem.

An editorial by Munir Daya for the Tanzanian newspaper The Citizen recently criticized Western media coverage of Africa, saying it only concentrated on wars, AIDS, corruption, and poverty. Daya forgot to mention white people getting their land stolen. If black people get their land stolen, you won’t hear a peep from the New York Times or the Guardian. If rich white ranchers get their land stolen, well, that’s international news. And look how many more articles there are about the war in Somalia than the peace in Somaliland.

Daya was objecting to an in-flight magazine article about Dar es Salaam that gave only superficial coverage of what the city has to offer and was peppered with statements such as, “Dar es Salaam’s busy streets are bustling with goats, chickens, dust-shrouded safari cars, suit-clad office workers and traders in colourful traditional dress.”

Daya actually lives in the city and says you won’t find many goats and chickens on the streets. But that wouldn’t make good copy, would it?

Travel writing has an inherent bias in favor of the unfamiliar, the dangerous. Some travel writers emphasize the hazards of their journey in order to make themselves look cool, or focus on the traditional and leave out the modern. Lonely Planet Magazine last year did a feature on Mali and talked about the city of Bamako, saying, “Though it is the fastest-growing city in Africa, Bamako seems a sleepy sort of place, lost in a time warp.” On the opposite page was a photo of a street clogged with motorcycle traffic. If Bamako is in a sleepy time warp, where did the motorcycles come from?

I’m not just picking on Lonely Planet; this is a persistant and widespread problem in travel writing and journalism. Writers, and readers, are more interested in guns than concerts, slums rather than classrooms, and huts rather than skyscrapers. In most travel writing, the coverage is simply incomplete. In its worst extremes, it’s a form of racism. Africa’s problems need to be covered, but not to the exclusion of its successes.

As Daya says, “there is more to Africa than famine and genocide.” There are universities, scientific institutes, music, fine cuisine, economic development, and, yes, skyscrapers.

And if you think Dar es Salaam is the exception rather than the rule, check out Skyscrapercity.com’s gallery of African skyscrapers.

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Piracy reached record levels in 2010

by Sean McLachlan on


Pirate hijackings in the Red Sea and nearby waters reached their highest levels ever, the Associated Press reports.

Pirate hijackings worldwide claimed 1,181 hostages and 53 vessels, a rise of ten percent since 2009. Of these, 49 ships were taken by Somali gunmen in the Red Sea or nearby waters in the Indian Ocean. Somali piracy has been the biggest problem area despite an international fleet of warships trying to stop it. Somalis have taken four more ships so far in 2011 and currently hold 31 ships and 713 people captive.

Somali pirates generally use speedboats to come up alongside freighters, tankers, or smaller ships and then threaten to open fire if the captain doesn’t stop. The pirates then board the vessel and radio in a ransom demand that can amount to millions of dollars. Prisoners are generally not hurt, although eight were killed last year. Usually the ransom is paid.

Because naval vessels have been able to stop some attacks near the Somali coast, pirates have moved operations further into the Indian Ocean where they’re harder to catch. Other problem areas include Nigerian, Bangladeshi, and Indonesian waters.

Somali pirates claim they have been forced into piracy because their fishermen have been pushed out of work by illegal fishing by foreign vessels and illegal dumping of toxic waste by big corporations.

If you’re worried about piracy, stay away from the Red Sea area, and check out our handy tips on what to do if pirates board your ship.

[Photo courtesy Mass communication Specialist 2nd Class Jason R. Zalasky , U.S. Navy.]