Ship Tracking - The Somali Holy Grail?

Windle · 8 Dec 2009 at 20:44

http://www.marinetraffic.com/ais/

Make it nice and easy for Pirates that will!

I knew the channel was the busiest shipping route in the world but *** me that's mad how many ships are in there just now.

antijoke · 8 Dec 2009 at 20:47

That's pretty cool.

Strife212 · 8 Dec 2009 at 20:49

The royal navy has one on their site which shows you where all their ships are in real time, perfect for an ambush :3

Greenlizard0 · 8 Dec 2009 at 20:49

Why don't people play real life Battleships with the pirate vessels in those waters. Would be better than a pair of morons ballroom dancing on a Saturday night.

qqg3 · 8 Dec 2009 at 20:51

English Channel always amazes me with that, stupidly busy

Glaucus · 8 Dec 2009 at 20:56

I odn't understand why

A) there is no more navy presence there
B) why they don't board pirated ships

this whole lets not board it make kill people, means pirates get away with it and do it again. what ever happened to never agreeing to ransom demands.

Burnsy2023 · 8 Dec 2009 at 21:01

I take it military ships aren't shown here?

Windle · 8 Dec 2009 at 21:04

Burnsy2023 said:
I take it military ships aren't shown here?

Might be under "Unspecified ships"?

Edit: Actually they are. Point yourself at the Naval bases on the clyde. RNAB Coulport and Faslane Naval Base

HMS Penzance and a Naval Auxiliary ship are there.

Edit2: There's also a "Law Enforcer" class ship moored at Greenock. Heh

Edit3: The "Fort Victoria" is near Inverkeithing and HMS Bullworth is off Portsmouth

All the naval stuff seems to be under Tug, Pilot etc class

shauncr91 · 8 Dec 2009 at 21:04

AcidHell2 said:
what ever happened to never agreeing to ransom demands.

Governments don't pay the ransoms, shipping companies do. It's cheaper than security, or something like that.

vcl_X1 · 8 Dec 2009 at 21:05

qqg3 said:
English Channel always amazes me with that, stupidly busy

You should try crossing the channel in a small sailboat at night - especially when you have to cross a TSS (Traffic separation scheme) bit like a dual carriageway for ships, can be a lot of fun...not.

Glaucus · 8 Dec 2009 at 21:09

shauncr91 said:
Governments don't pay the ransoms, shipping companies do. It's cheaper than security, or something like that.

yeah but governments could over rule shipping companies and storm captured ships.

shauncr91 · 8 Dec 2009 at 21:14

AcidHell2 said:
yeah but governments could over rule shipping companies and storm captured ships.

I just don't think it's worth the hassle/time/risk. If you storm a ship hostages start getting killed, at the moment they are kidnapped and dumped on an island, then rescued later. If the pirates were routineley executing hostages then it would make sense to intervene with force, but it doesn't atm.

Glaucus · 8 Dec 2009 at 21:15

shauncr91 said:
I just don't think it's worth the hassle/time/risk. If you storm a ship hostages start getting killed, .

And within weeks no more ships are pirated. The bonuses far outway the risk to life.

xb8browney · 8 Dec 2009 at 21:16

Great site.

deuse · 8 Dec 2009 at 21:17

That's very cool

scorza · 8 Dec 2009 at 21:19

AcidHell2 said:
I odn't understand ... why they don't board pirated ships

First reason is that they don't want to be accused of jeopardising the hijacked crew's safety. Second reason is that they don't want Somali pirates claiming asylum on board Royal Navy vessels. Basically no real will to sort out the pirate problem, just willing to make token gestures.

mjt · 8 Dec 2009 at 21:25

great site

they should have one for planes

DoubleCheese · 8 Dec 2009 at 21:25

That is pretty amazing! I wonder how many submarines there are in an around the areas where the pirates operate and how many pirate skifs and ships have been taken out that we don't hear about?

scorza · 8 Dec 2009 at 21:26

DoubleCheese said:
That is pretty amazing! I wonder how many submarines there are in an around the areas where the pirates operate and how many pirate skifs and ships have been taken out that we don't hear about?

I'm pretty certain the answer is ... none

Werewolf · 8 Dec 2009 at 21:33

Strife212 said:
The royal navy has one on their site which shows you where all their ships are in real time, perfect for an ambush :3

You expect it to remain accurate if we are ever at war with anyone with a navy? (or even that accurate now? although I guess with modern technology any country who wants can probably find out fairly easily if they wanted to in peace time)

AcidHell2 said:
I odn't understand why

A) there is no more navy presence there
B) why they don't board pirated ships

this whole lets not board it make kill people, means pirates get away with it and do it again. what ever happened to never agreeing to ransom demands.

IIRC the area is absolutely huge, even if large parts of the US and British Navy were there they wouldn't be able to cover it all with a fast enough response to stop boarding by pirates (it's a mind bogglingly huge area, I think I heard it works out as something like a million square kilometres of open ocean).
You'd need hundreds of ships with fast response times (either the ship itself being fast enough, or carrying fast launches/helicopters).

The best suggestion I heard for dealing with it, is still either tightly defined (and escorted) lanes for shipping (which may just move the pirates along), or a lot more specialist anti piracy ships which we tend not to have these days (as they aren't much good in proper combat roles).