Pirates don't like loud noises

The pirates have been reported to have grenade launchers -- how can the acoustic devices that you use prevent a grenade attack?

You can't prevent a grenade launcher attack, and that's just something that we need to live with. Ninety percent of the grenade launchers when they launch them will bounce off the ship, or they're not very accurate or they don't get close enough in order for their effective range to work. Yes, we've been shown the RPGs [Rocket Propelled Grenade launchers], but they don't themselves want to get into a gunfight, they don't want to get into an armed battle and they have no idea whether we're an armed vessel or an unarmed vessel because of all of us, both the armed military coalition vessels as well as various vessels with coalition forces embarked upon them. It's very difficult for the pirates to differentiate between those that do have weapons and those that don't.

Has there ever been one situation that sticks out in your mind as particularly dangerous that you've had to go through?

Not really. The name of the game is vigilance and preventive measures and good coordination with the master and the ships' crew. All situations are dangerous. It's more dangerous putting the ship up to full force speed and pulling evasive maneuvers when there are 200 ships in close quarters around you because sometimes you can get fairly close to other ships by the time you get back on track. So it's a big team effort. But no real sort of scary times other than ricochet of bullets off of the superstructure when they do fire at you.

That sounds scary.

That can sometimes be a bit entertaining. We're OK. All the guys have got Kevlar vests and helmets and stuff; we use the same military kit that the coalition forces do. They don't have anything more or less than us. All of my guys are ex-Special Forces or Marines, so they all follow the exact military procedures. We're in constant communication with the coalition forces and they are aware of all the ships that my teams are embarked upon.

The pirates usually don't fire first when you're approaching them?

Sometimes they fire a few warning shots, but to be honest with you, as soon as you've activated all of the procedures with regards to the acoustic and the water cannons, and the zigzagging, they know it's not worth it going any further. So they quite often just come up and shout and scream at you and sort of wave and then turn south to the next vessel.

Can you talk a little bit more about the level of sophistication of their operations? They've issued huge ransom demands -- have you ever been involved in handing over a ransom?

We don't get involved in the kidnap and ransom side. That's left to the trained negotiators who are approved by Lloyd's of London to do that, of which there are only three or four companies. Obviously, they use very primitive means to get on board -- they've got a speedboat, a couple of AK-47s and a rope ladder, it's as technical as that. So, they don't use very sophisticated means. Once they're on board, then there's nothing the coalition forces can do. It's not worth trying to fight so you just do as they say. And then the tit for tat starts with demands, counteroffers, demands, counteroffers, demands and it carries on for a week or two months, however long the ship owners want to carry on, and then they settle for a deal that normally is between half a million and one and a half million dollars.

So if they're not overly sophisticated, then why have they been so effective? What are the chief difficulties in combating them?

The prime reason that they've been so efficient is that the ships themselves have been very, I don't want to use the word "lazy," but they've not taken their ships and their crew and vessel security seriously enough to put preventive measures on board prior to them sailing through a known high-risk area. It's almost a case of, oh, it's not going to happen to me, and that's a pretty poor attitude to have so if you don't have the vigilance and the equipment on board to repel and counter piratical attacks in a high-risk area, then I'm afraid the onus is on the ship operator and owner. It's not up to the coalition forces to police the oceans of the world.

The Sirius Star, the oil tanker that was captured on Nov. 15, is the largest ship ever taken by pirates. If you had been aboard, what would you have told them to do differently?

Well, if we'd been on that boat, it wouldn't have been taken. It's that simple. There's no way in the world that that would have happened. They had obviously left the Arabian Peninsula and were heading toward the cape down the Mozambique Channel and they were caught in the only pinch point for known piracy, and I think you have the feeling that you are a far enough distance away from land for there to be no threat. That's not a valid excuse not to maintain vigilance and be aware of other vessels operating within your vicinity.

Has there ever been an instance where a member of one of your crews has been on a boat and a group of pirates has managed to get on it? And if so, would they be authorized to throw the pirates off the boat or counteract them in a more violent way?

No, no pirates have ever gotten on a vessel with our crews embarked. And that's an ultra unlikely scenario. Basically in self-defense, whatever the outcome was, if one did get on board, is what it is. Our men don't have firearms, but like I said earlier, these guys are Special Forces and they know how to look after themselves. And they will have rope knives and/or small combat knives with them.

What is the safest route, whether it's going east or going down past the Cape of Good Hope, for a merchant ship to take? The pirates seem to be expanding outside of Somalia -- they were just caught off the coast of Kenya, which is much farther than they seem to have gone before.

But there's two different pirate groups -- you've got the southern group that took the Sirius Star, not the northern group who have taken all the other ships. You've got two different groups operating and you've got others that are doing copycat because they think, "Well, we've watched how easy it is and how much world media attention the pirates up in the north have had -- if it's that easy, we'll crack on and do it." And that will be the case. In effect, if you sail in the southern oceans you are at threat of a piratical attack and you need to take sufficient countermeasures and provide sufficient deck security to ensure and maintain a good vigilant watch 24 hours a day, on the deck of your vessel.

Prevention doesn't necessarily entail taking a different course than you normally would?

No, absolutely not. Absolutely not. If you invest $100,000 a day to operate a vessel, to put additional deck security aboard is going to cost you $2,000 or $3,000. That's a pretty wise investment in my opinion, if you're operating in the southern oceans, to put up a 24-hour watch with sufficient equipment to repel and defeat what I would call fairly primitive attempts at hijacking.

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