I can't be alone in noting the cocked up punchline?
It's the "Arrrr" rate, not "ArrrGH"! It doesn't work with the latter
You did a good enough job of that yourself, no need for outside assistance
The joke, such as it was, was not addressed to the people you mention, and their misfortunes are therefore irrelevant. People have made jokes about war, pestilence, AIDs, divorce, and almost but not quite anything you care to think of (not cancer or child abuse for example). People will go on making jokes and some of this will be black humour. It is how people learn to cope and to develop a robust nature. No-one would make a joke in the face of someone who had experience trauma or tragedy, but this is an open space where censorship is abhorred and potentially more harmful than the occasional lapse of taste.
I'm all in favour of a cruising shoot. Many years ago I took my air rifle with us on the Blackwater and pooped off at balloons, or it may have been empty cans. This was in the days before disposing of rubbish was, rightly, frowned on. In fog, you could tell if you were following a Thames Barge by the trail of cans on the water.
Clearly, you were well prepared for pirate attack.
