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| | Pirates in Modern Days:
In international law piracy is an international crime committed in open sea, which consists of the illegal capturing, robbery and drowning of merchant and civil ships. Attacking a neutral country’s ships, submarines and Air Force and merchant navy, is also considered as piracy. No country should protect country pirate ships, aeroplanes and their crew. Irrespective of flag hoisted, pirate ships can be captured, by any ship or aeroplane working under a country and respective ship or aeroplanes are empowered to do so by the country’s authorities.
Piracy exists as of today in East and South-East Asia and in some waters of North-Western Africa.
Jolly Roger:
The idea behind sailing under your own flag is potentially dangerous and not endowed with reason, but it serves the purpose to have a moral effect on crew while attacking the ship. Initially, for this intimidation purpose, they used the incarnadine flag, where death symbols - a skeleton or simply a skull were depicted. Precisely, from this flag, according to the most quoted version, originates the expression “Jolly Roger”, which in French sounds like “Joli Rouge” (fair red). While borrowing the expression from French filibusters in the West Indies, the British adapted that expression in their own style; later when the origin of expression was forgotten, then came up with the explanation for the “jolly smirk” of the skull depicted on flag.
Odyssey Marine Exploration, Inc. has been searching the ocean for over 10 years, and finally found crates of gold at the site of a Civil War-era shipwreck about 100 miles east of Savannah. The gold is believed to be from the side-wheel steamer SS Republic, sank during a hurricane in 1865, and is estimated to be over worth over $120 million.
Modern piracy unfolded immediately after the Second World War. In the late 1940s, police in Japan, Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, Philippines, Thailand with combined efforts searched for Madame Wong - "queen of the pirates" of the seas of South-east Asia. Incidentally, she was never caught. The "Black Widow" (her husband was also a pirate) has become a legend, phantom, on whom all the crimes in these waters were associated. One insurance company even specially declared that a premium shall not be paid "for the acts of God and Madame Wong". Still, this woman and her gang and fleet existed in ten different types of ships. And she acted very swiftly - till today, Madame Wong's treasures are being searched for everywhere.
The 1960s and 1970s were marked with the growth of piracy forces near Asia and Africa and the real boom began in 1980s. According to the International Maritime Organization (IMO), since January 1981 till February 1983, 192 pirate attacks were registered on the seas including the Strait of Malacca - 92 and the coasts of West Africa - 82. Between 1980 and 1985, around 3000 people were either abused or abducted and around 1500 were killed on the coastline of Thailand.
In 1981, the world's leading nations agreed to form a special International Bureau (IMB) to supervise the legality of marine shipping and anti-robbery. In 1992, the Piracy Reporting Center under IMB was formed in the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur - it tracks the location of pirate attacks around the world. But despite this, the rise in pirate attacks was observed on the oceans in 1990s. In 1999, IMO has recorded 285 attacks and in 2000 - 471. The difference between 2006 and 2007, also constituted for a 10% rise. Today, the waters of Nigeria and Somalia are considered to be the most dangerous. However, the absolute "champion" is still Indonesia with 43 attacks per year.
The reason for this outburst is explained by the fact that, that existing international rules prohibit arming the passenger, commercial and fishing ships. Their teams are vulnerable to pirates. Who gets scared of a small personal weapon, which is allowed only for captains?
True, if pirates are caught in a ship, it is permitted to immediately destroy them without charges and trial. And captured pirates can be tried under the jurisdiction of the country, in whose waters they were captured.
The main factor that allows the pirates to thrive, is, oddly enough – the high competitiveness of shipping market. Many victims simply do not report the assaults. Owners of ships and cargo vessels prefer to cover the losses at their own expense rather than paying premiums, especially high for routes through dangerous regions. In addition, statements about the attack entail lengthy investigation and related demurrage in port and subsequently, additional port charges (average global demurrage tariffs - 10000 USD per day). And when you consider that 90% of cargo in the world is carried by sea transport, pirates will not disappear on their own. |
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