Bob
New member
Two yachts attacked by pirates with automatic weapons off Yemen. Fortunately, the cruisers are safe but the same cannot be said of the pirates.
Full report: FIRST-HAND REPORT
Full report: FIRST-HAND REPORT
Red Sea piracy attack - First-hand report.
- Thread starter Bob
- Start date
GazzaUK
New member
A nice rocket flare in the face is what's needed.....
Sybarite
Well-known member
I wonder if the fact that they were (or least one was) American boats had any bearing ?
John
John
Das_Boot
New member
I am sure they were South Africans. We are all tough. They should have shot a few flares into the boats once they were disabled just for good measure maybe a bit of diesel just to help things along.
TheBoatman
New member
Whats the betting that if they had been British registered skippers/boats that they would have found themselves up before the beak on a murder charge and told to go back and hand over the boat(s) to the reletives of the pirates for loss of life and compo, that they had infringed the pirates civil liberties to conduct their business without hinderance and as a minority group we should be applying possitive discrimination?
If the account is true, I say good on 'em might make the pirates think twice!
If the account is true, I say good on 'em might make the pirates think twice!
Das_Boot
New member
Actualy I dont think they wanted the Pirates to think twice I think they wanted the Pirates to cease thinking permanently.
GazzaUK
New member
"they wanted the Pirates to cease thinking permanently. "
Which is no bad thing.....
Which is no bad thing.....
jhr
Well-known member
[ QUOTE ]
might make the pirates think twice!
[/ QUOTE ]
...Or might make them decide to open fire next time at the earliest possible opportunity, and do their best to ensure that they kill everybody on a boat before they board?
Not running to the pirates' defence myself; just a thought.
might make the pirates think twice!
[/ QUOTE ]
...Or might make them decide to open fire next time at the earliest possible opportunity, and do their best to ensure that they kill everybody on a boat before they board?
Not running to the pirates' defence myself; just a thought.
GazzaUK
New member
As opposed to politely stepping on board and asking nicely for your valuables as they do atm?
jhr
Well-known member
Point taken, but doesn't this incident increase the likelihood of them wanting to leave no survivors rather than, as in the case of Bambola (who was attacked by Pirates in the Red Sea) taking his possessions, but leaving him alive?
GazzaUK
New member
Aaah, you're probably right.....but the genie's out of the bottle now...
Das_Boot
New member
These Pirates according to the report opened fire first.
Alastairdent
New member
Ey, Das-Boot is correct - the pirates were already firing. Wonder what the yachts were made of, one of them rammed a pirate boat and nearly cut it in two. Steel, mayhap?
Wierd account, actually, 'cause it says the pirates were firing into the cockpit of one boat - I would expect some hull damage from this, even a little 9mm bullet would prob make a hole in a grp hull.
Wierd account, actually, 'cause it says the pirates were firing into the cockpit of one boat - I would expect some hull damage from this, even a little 9mm bullet would prob make a hole in a grp hull.
Das_Boot
New member
I was wondering about that too even a steal hull would have been holed at close quaters. Anyway the wish is usually father of the thought. Too bad if it is not true. I hope it is.
CharlesM
New member
Re: Red Sea piracy attack - First-hand report.
perhaps you failed to read the article which stated they were shot at from a distance as the boats were closing?
perhaps you failed to read the article which stated they were shot at from a distance as the boats were closing?
G
Guest
Guest
Very interesting, but a few oddities. Nothing impossible, but just odd. First, if these guys were firing at the cockpit with automatic weapons they must have been rotten shots not to hit anything worth mentioning, especially if they were close enough to be at ramming distance. Our hero on the other hand seems to have been a prodigious marksman. He kept up a wonderful rate of fire for a shotgun, presumably not one of these double-barrelled jobs used to shoot crows with?
Second, why did a high speed, highly manoeuvrable motor boat allow itself to be rammed by a slow moving sailing boat? Thirdly, how did it manage to be nearly cut in half - what was it made of? Fourthly, how did someone with a shotgun do so much damage? - at the range of 100ft quoted would not I would have thought have been close enough to do more than pepper the enemy with shot in a very painful manner, though I'm not sure what this 00 guage stuff is?
Second, why did a high speed, highly manoeuvrable motor boat allow itself to be rammed by a slow moving sailing boat? Thirdly, how did it manage to be nearly cut in half - what was it made of? Fourthly, how did someone with a shotgun do so much damage? - at the range of 100ft quoted would not I would have thought have been close enough to do more than pepper the enemy with shot in a very painful manner, though I'm not sure what this 00 guage stuff is?
jhr
Well-known member
Re: Red Sea piracy attack - First-hand report.
I read and understood the article. Like a couple of other people on here, bits of it sound a little odd to me, but I wasn't there...
I don't think it invalidates what I was saying about the likely knock-ons from this incident. I'm not being critical, or a bleeding heart, but, as a simple matter of speculation I think it's likely to make Pirates in that part of the world more gung-ho, and less likely to want to leave any survivors.
I read and understood the article. Like a couple of other people on here, bits of it sound a little odd to me, but I wasn't there...
I don't think it invalidates what I was saying about the likely knock-ons from this incident. I'm not being critical, or a bleeding heart, but, as a simple matter of speculation I think it's likely to make Pirates in that part of the world more gung-ho, and less likely to want to leave any survivors.
RickMoss
New member
Re: Red Sea piracy attack - First-hand report.
00 shotgun cartridges (aka LG's) normally contain 9 individual 9mm/0.33" lead balls. They're often used for shooting foxes up to a distance of 40 yds. The foxes rarely return fire though.
00 shotgun cartridges (aka LG's) normally contain 9 individual 9mm/0.33" lead balls. They're often used for shooting foxes up to a distance of 40 yds. The foxes rarely return fire though.
ongolo
New member
Re: Red Sea piracy attack - First-hand report.
It does not appear that the pirates were trying to take prisoners. Weapons were in all probability Ak-47 or AKM in 7.62x39 that has at best a pentration of 8mm on mild steel, but only if shot at right angles, at an angle of 45 degrees and a distance of 100m the Ak 122gr Bullet might dent but rarely penetrate a 3mm mild steel plate, but the bottom of the dent may show a crack.
Then even if there is a penetration or partial penetration of the mild steel, a bullet or fragment will need at least 80m/s to penetrate skin. Now, shooting at a cockpit, te way steel boats are constructed, you would have to penetrate the hull outside and the cockpit inside, that will make 2 layers of 4mm (hull) and 3mm (cockpit). This means, it is virtually impossible to use an AK to kill somebody lying in a cockpit of a steel boat.
Further, it proves again a point I have argued many times, I will not go without weapons. And yes, it all has the stamp of south africans on it.
Why it as possible to ram the one boat I understand, it may just been the experience, that if they put a boat across the bow of another (say fibre glass )boat, likely, the owner would stop.
I have published a 512 page book SMALL ARMS, SHOOTING AND BALLISTICS and have been technical expert witness on ballistics and weapons for some time in my life. Not trying to sell my book here, just explaining how come I know these things.
If it had been me, I had gone back and finished the job once the boats were disabled. No bodies - no crime. That way, the buddies of the pirates could have wondred and nobody on the pirates side could have learned anything.
It has been suggested to fire a flare, but I am a lousy shot with a flare, but with a pump action, it is hard to miss, and one can fire one shot every 1 or 2 seconds.
Now you can attack me for wanting to finish the pirates off, but they would give us no quarter, why should we?
So go for me if you feel like.
Ongolo
It does not appear that the pirates were trying to take prisoners. Weapons were in all probability Ak-47 or AKM in 7.62x39 that has at best a pentration of 8mm on mild steel, but only if shot at right angles, at an angle of 45 degrees and a distance of 100m the Ak 122gr Bullet might dent but rarely penetrate a 3mm mild steel plate, but the bottom of the dent may show a crack.
Then even if there is a penetration or partial penetration of the mild steel, a bullet or fragment will need at least 80m/s to penetrate skin. Now, shooting at a cockpit, te way steel boats are constructed, you would have to penetrate the hull outside and the cockpit inside, that will make 2 layers of 4mm (hull) and 3mm (cockpit). This means, it is virtually impossible to use an AK to kill somebody lying in a cockpit of a steel boat.
Further, it proves again a point I have argued many times, I will not go without weapons. And yes, it all has the stamp of south africans on it.
Why it as possible to ram the one boat I understand, it may just been the experience, that if they put a boat across the bow of another (say fibre glass )boat, likely, the owner would stop.
I have published a 512 page book SMALL ARMS, SHOOTING AND BALLISTICS and have been technical expert witness on ballistics and weapons for some time in my life. Not trying to sell my book here, just explaining how come I know these things.
If it had been me, I had gone back and finished the job once the boats were disabled. No bodies - no crime. That way, the buddies of the pirates could have wondred and nobody on the pirates side could have learned anything.
It has been suggested to fire a flare, but I am a lousy shot with a flare, but with a pump action, it is hard to miss, and one can fire one shot every 1 or 2 seconds.
Now you can attack me for wanting to finish the pirates off, but they would give us no quarter, why should we?
So go for me if you feel like.
Ongolo
Stemar
Well-known member
Re: Red Sea piracy attack - First-hand report.
While I rejoice in the demise of the pirates, I have to agree that it does make a no survivors policy more likely next time pirates attack a yacht, and that's a worry. In a few years, next time might be me.
As far as accuracy is concerned an automatic weapon sounds like an Uzi or similar. AFAIK, and I'm not an expert by any means, they're designed to spray a room at close range rather than pick off targets from afar, so their accurate range in the hands of an excited pirate is likely to be not much more than the lethal - or semi-lethal range of 00 buckshot. Except at close range, a steel boat would stop, or seriously reduce the power of a bullet from something like that, but on a GRP boat about the only thing that'd protect you is the engine.
While I rejoice in the demise of the pirates, I have to agree that it does make a no survivors policy more likely next time pirates attack a yacht, and that's a worry. In a few years, next time might be me.
As far as accuracy is concerned an automatic weapon sounds like an Uzi or similar. AFAIK, and I'm not an expert by any means, they're designed to spray a room at close range rather than pick off targets from afar, so their accurate range in the hands of an excited pirate is likely to be not much more than the lethal - or semi-lethal range of 00 buckshot. Except at close range, a steel boat would stop, or seriously reduce the power of a bullet from something like that, but on a GRP boat about the only thing that'd protect you is the engine.
