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It's time to end Indian Ocean "Adventures"
With news that seven Danish sailors, including three children aged 12 to 16, had been captured by Somali pirates in the Indian Ocean on Thursday, February, 24, it's time to reevaluate the legacy of four Americans shot to death by pirates in those same waters off eastern Africa just two days before the Danes issued their distress call.In the obituaries of the four Americans killed aboard their sailing boat in the Indian Ocean this week each was praised for being "adventurous," "great sailors," having a "zest for life" and "passion for the high seas." They were not "thrill seekers" and "knew the risks involved and accepted them."
While not wanting to intrude on the mourning of their friends and relatives, having spent time in the Indian Ocean at the height of pirate season two years ago, watching cargo boats and tourist boats being wrapped in broken glass and razor wire and armed to the teeth with mercenary gun crews, all I could wonder when I first read the account of the "Quest" and its crew being taken hostage was ... What were they thinking?
Apparently headed for Djibouti, the four sailors knowingly sailed alone – rather than in a pack or "rally" of private yachts, which they had previously joined – into the most dangerous waters on the planet. Two hundred and seventy five miles off the coast of Oman they were caught and boarded by a mother ship carrying 17 pirates. Despite the arrival of a U.S. Navy ship, within 24 hours the four were shot dead.
With monsoon season over, the Indian Ocean is calm again, making this prime time for piracy. The four sailors aboard the "Quest" could not have missed the news that ships are being hijacked in that part of the ocean on a weekly basis. There are currently more than 800 hostages still being held, most crewmen of freighters and oil tankers. Private yachts are increasingly being attacked; a British couple was recently released after one year in captivity and a $1 million ransom paid, raised by friends back home.
Private boaters have been warned repeatedly by the world's navies to stick to designated shipping lanes and to travel in groups. At any given time there are 30 warships patrolling the northern Indian Ocean – from the European Union, the United States, China, Japan, Russia, India and other nations – and still the pirates are thriving. Sponsored by mafia-like gangs onshore, the mother ships and attack boats are manned by the equivalent of street gangs: Impoverished young men with little hope, armed with increasingly sophisticated electronics, boats and weaponry.
Catching them and putting them on trial, whether in Nairobi or New York City, doesn't seem to be slowing them down.
Which brings me back to why did these four think they could skirt danger when so many before had failed?
I am the first to encourage "an adventurous life." But good adventuring includes knowing your limits and possessing some kind of personal radar to help recognize the boundaries between adventure seeking and foolhardiness. That the "Quest" was heavily loaded with tons of Bibles, which the retired couple who owned and sailed the ship had been distributing at stops around the world during the past six years, was not enough to save them from an "adventure" gone very, very bad.
One of the four passengers was quoted as saying, "If anything happens to us on these travels, just know that we died living our dream."
Really? That's your dream? To sail into the most dangerous waters on the planet, be kidnapped by a gang of thug pirates and shot to the death in the galley of your sailboat? In retrospect, of course, the dream sounds far more like a nightmare.
[flickr image via Gui Seiz]
With monsoon season over, the Indian Ocean is calm again, making this prime time for piracy. The four sailors aboard the "Quest" could not have missed the news that ships are being hijacked in that part of the ocean on a weekly basis. There are currently more than 800 hostages still being held, most crewmen of freighters and oil tankers. Private yachts are increasingly being attacked; a British couple was recently released after one year in captivity and a $1 million ransom paid, raised by friends back home.
Private boaters have been warned repeatedly by the world's navies to stick to designated shipping lanes and to travel in groups. At any given time there are 30 warships patrolling the northern Indian Ocean – from the European Union, the United States, China, Japan, Russia, India and other nations – and still the pirates are thriving. Sponsored by mafia-like gangs onshore, the mother ships and attack boats are manned by the equivalent of street gangs: Impoverished young men with little hope, armed with increasingly sophisticated electronics, boats and weaponry.
Catching them and putting them on trial, whether in Nairobi or New York City, doesn't seem to be slowing them down.
Which brings me back to why did these four think they could skirt danger when so many before had failed?
I am the first to encourage "an adventurous life." But good adventuring includes knowing your limits and possessing some kind of personal radar to help recognize the boundaries between adventure seeking and foolhardiness. That the "Quest" was heavily loaded with tons of Bibles, which the retired couple who owned and sailed the ship had been distributing at stops around the world during the past six years, was not enough to save them from an "adventure" gone very, very bad.
One of the four passengers was quoted as saying, "If anything happens to us on these travels, just know that we died living our dream."
Really? That's your dream? To sail into the most dangerous waters on the planet, be kidnapped by a gang of thug pirates and shot to the death in the galley of your sailboat? In retrospect, of course, the dream sounds far more like a nightmare.
[flickr image via Gui Seiz]
Filed under: Activism, Arts and Culture, Learning, Paddling, Africa, Oceania, Transportation, Ecotourism, Consumer Activism
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Nick Mar 24th 2011 2:49PM
I'm glad I'm not the only one who thought it was absolutely insane for them to change course and travel there.
A terrible tragedy, but one that could have been avoided.
vclare Mar 24th 2011 3:53PM
They were friends and fellow yacht club members. I have heard many different versions and all seem to have a different angle, but for the life of me somehow the idea of them splitting off from the group does not quite fit with who they were Sadly, we will never know and some of the details I never want to know. I do not disagree with you at all and when I saw them before Christmas I thought the same myself. Why go?
Jon Mar 30th 2011 5:56AM
I would never suggest an end to 'adventuring' ... but for the moment, since it is a big world, I would certainly recommend private adventures from staying away from the coast of East Africa ... though each season the Somali pirates seem to be roaming further from shore. The Americans were grabbed near to the coast of Oman, and sailboats and dive boats have been hijacked as far south as the Seychelles and off the tip of northern Madagascar.
Gorilla Safaris Mar 24th 2011 3:34PM
I think it was totally adventurous and foolish too for these people. But i must say if we lived in fear of certain harm which can find us anywhere, we could never leave the house we live. We are all bound to die in one way or another for some through foolish means and for others timing. But adventure must continue never the less.
Roz Savage Mar 24th 2011 11:15PM
We need to differentiate between the Arabian Sea, which is where the pirates are active, and the Indian Ocean as a whole. The pirates are ranging up to 1,300 miles from the Somali coast, which covers a large swath of the Indian Ocean, but by no means all of it. About 75% of the Indian Ocean is as yet untouched by piracy.
I am all in favour of mitigating the risks involved in adventuring, but we need to get the right balance between sensible caution and over-reaction. These opportunistic pirates are already causing enough trouble. Let's not give them more power than they merit.
Jon Mar 30th 2011 5:56AM
Understood Roz, you are right on many fronts. But you, unlike some others who have ventured into the Indian Ocean have wisely altered your itinerary to keep you far from harm's way. I'm sure there'll be a day, hopefully soon, when all of the Indian Ocean is free for exploring ... but for now I think it's safe to say there's a very big CAUTION, PROCEED AT YOUR OWN RISK sign drawn north/south through the center of the Indian Ocean.
Roz Mar 30th 2011 9:05AM
I had an interesting meeting with the Australian maritime authorities yesterday. A pirate attack was reported further out into the Indian Ocean, closer to their territory, just a day or so ago. So you are quite right to urge caution.
I just hope that NOT having a big white sail advertising my presence will stand me in good stead....
Luis Mar 25th 2011 4:01PM
These crap people should be chased by air and killed and their pirate boats sunk inmediately, why waist time being so passive at international corts, or human rights organizations, it's time for "an eye for the whole fronhead, a tooth for a full mouth!! and I mean it seriously!!
Nrmlgy4749 Mar 26th 2011 4:30PM
I agree. The pirates do not worry about being caught and tried in court. The answer is to sink them on site and pick up no survirors from the water. Make this their new reality. Somalia is Armageddon. The movie Black Hawk Down only give you a glimpse of what it is like. Take it from a retired Marine. It is like nothing you could imagine. People there have become animals. To many years of having nothing--no government, no infrastructure, no calm, no peace. Constant conflict every minute. No mercy for pirates. Will they continue. Probably. But if you kill enough of them, maybe they will stop.
PAT Mar 26th 2011 7:00PM
a dead pirate is a threat no more....one down and keep on coming til the rest are blown off the high seas. seriously. 4749 is 100% correct. its like the cure for a rabid dog. a bullet. case closed.