ship crew safety abroad

[mtb]

It occurs to me that their must be a need for fire arms in certain places while afloat ,so how does that work if you land in a country where they require certificates .
Do their customs hold them for you while their or is it not viable to declare them .
Mick

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/boats
I want a big steel ex trawler / tug v / cheap or swap for tug

 

[ccscott49]

It is much safer not to carry firearms, for numerous reasons, like, are you prepared to kill someone, are you sure he was trying to rob you, do you want to spend the rest of your life in an Ethiopian jail (or any jail)? they are more likely to kill you if you resist etc. Do not carry arms, very difficulot to get licences for and difficuylt to explain to foriegn customs, even more so if you hide them and they are found!!

 

[Trevethan]

While living in the states I looked at some none lethal devices to fend off "pirates".

I am not a huge fan of firearms myself, and as pointed out, licencing them outside the US is a nightmare and hiding them is asking for trouble. Boats do bad things to guns anyway thanks to the damp/salt conditions

Once device that I did like was a CO2 gun. It comes in two sections and more or less looks like a length of pipe. You screwed the thing together, then gave it an additional twist which pierced a CO2 bulb. The CO2 then propels a hard rubber "cork" about an inch and a half across at high speed at the boarder. The impact was supposed to be enough to knock someone back off the boat, hurt like hell but not kill. In adition once fired you then had a handy two and a half foot length of pipe to encourage others to leave.

The chandelry I saw it said a lot of boaters paint them bright red and mark it "distress tool" or "flare launcher" or similar and even the most curious official would not give it a second glance.

Again, I wouldn't recommend resisting boarders - Peter Blakes recent death illustrates the point, but if you feel compelled to carry a weapon, this seemed like a good solution. Of course I am sure they are not available in the UK and no I can't remember the manufacturer.

 

[Dreamers]

If you were convinced they were not inocent and your really wanted to stop them boarding wouldn't a hand held flare pointed directly at them work as well, and be perfectly acceptable to have onboard - or would it do too much damage (to various things)?

 

[Seafort]

I seem to remember reading that since the change in law here (UK), you can't get a licence for firearms aboard a UK reg' small ship.