h a l f b a k e r yA few slices short of a loaf.
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Security ports are entered on either side of waters known to be Pirate active where ships are fitted with temporary gun emplacement blisters.
The gun emplacement blister hangs off the side of large ships (with another directly opposite for balance) and are manned by trained Naval personnel.
The
guns are .50 cal anti-aircraft & a small cannon - 3" or so? I don't know the limit of what would be possible in this configuration.
Naval personnel are volunteered by various countries and assigned by the UN to escort shipping concerns by piggy backing their gun emplacements directly on the commercial ships.
I think this would prevent the commercial enterprise from having to deal with legal issues if the Naval escort happened to put several holes in a ship failing to follow their orders to maintain a proper distance, but I'm not sure.
The Escort Blister is removed at the port on the other side of known pirate waters to be transfered to the next ship crossing through them.
This idea was inspired by my recent tour of the USS Texas, a WWI / WWII battleship. I was chilled at the horrifying lethality of it and it last served over 60 years ago, so I know the lethality of battleships has probably not lessened in that time. I imagined that if I were in a ship / boat & was told to do something by someone in control of that ship, I would certainly not hesitate to do what I was asked.
I know there's a kind of amusement with pirates here, and there's also that global warming correlation, but maybe this could be considered as an idea to weed out the dumb pirates.
Q ships
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Q-ship
Baked, WW1 [coprocephalous, Apr 15 2009]
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Annotation:
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I am more of a fan of the "Honey Trap" (or the more vaudevillian "Patsy"). These systems were employed by the Spanish as they carted vast wealth from the south americas to home port. |
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I am of a mind to post a "Rubber-Duckie Pirate prevention program", but I fear the zeitgeist is ahead of the curve on this one. Besides, the full story is not making it to the public RE: Somalian pirates. |
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- and because the freeboard (the height from the surface of the sea to the deck) of some of these large bulk carriers is only a couple of metres when they're fully laden. |
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[ ] ... so what happened to all those merc groups that were around last time I picked up Soldier-Of-Fortune magazine ? |
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<deliberately misunderstanding>If I choose to call in some strap-on escorts, I certainly do not want them to turn up sporting blisters! That's just a tad too niche for my liking...</dm> |
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[hippo], the freeboard issue does seem to present a problem. Maybe these would have to be above deck units. |
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//a tad too niche//
I read it as "Strap-on Escort Bikers" which made a bit more sense... sortof. |
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[copro] Q-ships were part of a "sting" operation to put it in modern parlance. [Zimmy]'s idea is for portable add-on turrets for modern commercial vessels. |
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Why not just build the weapons system into a shipping
container? Then just stack those containers on top. |
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Q-Ships, and "covert" containers are all manifestations of the "Honey Trap" mehod. I am currently reading "Numerati". If anyone wants to know how stuff got shipped through disputed waters, read this book...John Nash, well before John Nash, with a bit of TSP optimisation thrown in. |
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/and because the freeboard (the height from the surface of the sea to the deck) of some of these large bulk carriers is only a couple of metres when they're fully laden./ |
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I must say, the combination of strap-ons, escorts, and blisters made me very curious, because I can see how they might be related, and problematic, but not in the way that this idea suggests. Well titled. |
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[bungston] (& [zen_tom]), I must confess that I did that on purpose. It seemed funny at the time. |
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I really don't get why this wouldn't be more cost effective / tacticly effective than the strategy currently being employed. |
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