Recently I had the distinct pleasure to read a book titled “The Pirates of Somalia: Inside Their Hidden World”, by Jay Bahadur. I realized then that I had not thought about Somalia in quite some time, nor had I heard much in the news about the country that most people only know from the movie “Blackhawk Down” or from the Southpark episode “Fatbeard” in which Cartman gets it into his mind to move to Somalia to become a pirate. Shortly after having this epiphany two stories about Somalia cropped up on the online news channels that I peruse on occasion. The two stories mentioned a US Air Force UAV that had crashed in the Seychelles that had been used to keep watch on the piracy coming from Somalia and a BBC story that talked about new hope for Somalia since the Gov’t has apparently been able to take more control of Mogadishu than previously.
After putting some thought to the problem of piracy in that area of the world I believe that I have come up with some solutions that could alleviate some of the problems in that part of the world.
Q-Ships! Unless you are a history or nautical buff like myself you probably can’t recall anything about Q-Ships. They are basically cargo ships that have been outfitted with weaponry but are camouflaged to look like your average harmless cargo ship. The idea behind it in World War I and World War II was that a U-Boat would try to get close to the ship to inspect it before sinking it and that time would allow the crew on the ship to lower the sides of its hidden compartments and then blast away at the U-Boat with cannons. It had mixed success in both wars but did cause the U-Boats some pause as to so called harmless cargo ships and did on occasion manage to sink a U-Boat or two.
In my opinion the idea of Q-Ships could once again be used in the fight against piracy in the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean. The US Navy could procure a cargo ship or two and have them outfitted with the latest weaponry and electronics and then camouflage it to look like your average cargo ship. These Q-Ships could travel between Mombasa and Muscat to give the appearance of an actual cargo ship. Heck the ship could even go so far as to actually take on cargo and deliver it, not sure of the legality of a US Navy ship doing this but the legal section of the Navy can take a look at that. The purpose would be to entice pirates to attack the Q-Ship and once the pirates exposed themselves for what they are we could fire upon them. I know this wouldn’t catch every pirate but hopefully enough would be dissuaded from attacking cargo ships.
Another item from history we could take a cue from would be Fire Ships. In the past these were ships that we loaded with pyrotechnic and explosives and set adrift towards the enemy in the hopes that the ships would explode near enemy ships and do damage. My idea is to take old yachts and load them up with explosives and leave them in the same shipping lanes that pirates are known to frequent. Using UAV’s from somewhere like Seychelles or Djibouti we could keep 24-hour live coverage on the craft. Then we would sit and wait in the hopes that pirates would try to board the craft. Upon boarding a message could be relayed via satellite for the yacht to explode. Care would have to be taken to ensure that no innocents would try to board the ship (i.e. other cargo ships or yachts), but if the pirates start to think that all yachts are potential bombs then they will start avoiding them.
Finally, so people don’t think I am only advocating violence to end piracy, here is a final non-violent suggestion. The US and the EU should recognize the government’s/countries of Somaliland and Puntland. I know that most world organizations/gov’ts only recognize the Transitional Federal Government, but the TFG only controls a small portion of Mogadishu and Somalia. Overall they are an ineffective government that cannot be counted on to control piracy coming from their shores. However, both Puntland and Somaliland have had fairly effective governments since the 1990s and could be counted on to control piracy in their areas. If recognition were forthcoming then both governments could receive aid from the UN, EU and the US. This aid could take the form of financial or military aid or a combination of both. Both governments need help in training and financing an effective coast guard. Once an effective Puntland and Somaliland Coast Guard are established the rate of piracy should drop. This wouldn’t be cheap but it is probably a lot cheaper than the budget for all the warships stationed in the area and the cost of ransoms for the crews that are taken hostage. Just ideas off of the top of my head, hope someone who makes the big decisions reads them and maybe implements them successfully.
Jay Bahadur, “The Pirates of Somalia: Inside Their Hidden World”, HarperCollins
Blackhawk Down, Sony Pictures
Trey Parker, “Fatbeard”, Comedy Central
Jennifer Svan, “Air Force investigating cause of drone crash in Seychelles”, Stars and Stripes
Barbara Plett, “Somalia’s rare window of hope”, BBC News
“Q-Ships (Anti-Submarine vessels disguised as merchant vessels)”, Naval Historical Center
James Lowell Coggeshall, “The Fireship and its Role in the Royal Navy”, University of Texas at Austin
Somaliland profile, BBC News
Puntland profile, BBC News