Where Were These Guys 10 Years Ago!

Now that I’m Married, have a baby, and no longer go to sea this has very little appeal to me:

The MNG Resolution may not immediately catch the eye but it is one of many floating arsenals, moored in the Gulf of Oman. The shipping container it is carrying is full of weapons, to be used by private security firms protecting ships from pirates. But as BBC Africa editor Mary Harper reports, these maritime armouries could be a security risk.

The explosion of piracy off the coast of Somalia, which reached its peak between 2008 and 2010, led to a similar explosion in the maritime security industry.

…Initially, most weapons were stored in state-run, land-based armouries. But governments, such as that of Sri Lanka, became increasingly uneasy about having such large quantities of arms, ammunition, body armour, night-vision goggles and other military equipment on their territory.

And so the floating armouries were born. Tugs, patrol boats, de-mining craft and other vessels have been converted by private companies into floating arms stores.

Most are based in international waters around the edges of the Indian Ocean.

…Private maritime security companies can, for a fee, keep their weapons on board, ready to be collected and transferred onto merchant vessels when required. Some floating armouries also offer weapons for hire.

“It’s not the Hilton,” said Mark Gray, a director of the British company MNG Maritime, who has a floating armoury in the Gulf of Oman.

I say “Little Appeal”, that does not mean “No Appeal”

“As well as storing their weapons, we provide hotel services for security guards who are between jobs. We have bunk beds in cabins, the kind of accommodation they were used to during their military careers. Plus two chefs, a gym on deck and the ever essential WiFi,” he told the BBC.

Looking at that sun and calm seas, and knowing I could lift weights, eat good food, and still surf the web. I can’t say “No Appeal”.

Plus I don’t have much of a desire to kill another human being…but a pirate is just BARELY a human being…

BLNN Logo

This entry was posted in Biology, Freedom, Guns, Safety, Self Defense. Bookmark the permalink.

One Response to Where Were These Guys 10 Years Ago!

  1. McThag says:

    It wasn’t until everyone in the world decided to omit that barely a human being from their thinking that they were able to end the second golden age of piracy in the Caribbean.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *