The Quarters That We Showed Them Was To Sink Them In The Tide.

Today I have been keeping up with the saga of the American flagged cargo ship Maersk Alabama. She and her crew of 20 U.S. seamen was taken by pirates 240 miles off the Somali coast. The latest information is that the crew retook the ship, capturing one of the pirates, and tossing the rest overboard. There are reports that the Captain and possibly another crew member of the ship was taken off the ship by other pirates, and are still missing.

The first thing that should be done is that every effort should be made to recover the Captain and crew member. That far off the coast off the Somalia, they should still be on the water, and it MAY be easier to find them rather than to try to locate them once they go ashore.

Then all the ship's crew should be stood to all the drinks they can hold when they return to port. I believe they call Norfolk VA their home port.

I think that the crew did the right thing in resisting the pirates. If ship crews resist, there may be some life loss, but who is to say that if they do surrender, that the pirate wouldn't kill the crew anyway? There have been countless cases where pirates acted on the old saying "Dead men tell no tales".

Some of the talking heads on the tube have been pontificating about what is needed to stop pirates operating out of Somalia. They keep on about how that is the only way the Somali people have of making a living and we just can't do anything to stop this. I beg to differ. My suggestion is to hang them. The very moment they are taken with arms in hand, engaged in acts of piracy they should be hanged. I think it would serve as a damned good deterrent to anyone who was thinking of taking up the trade, and it is a known fact that once a person is hanged, he will no longer be a threat to anyone.

Piracy has been with us since the beginning of time. You can not deal with pirates, nor negotiate with them. You either have to give them what they want or hunt them down and make sure that they are not a threat to anyone, any more. Julius Caesar as a young man was once taken captive by pirates and held for ransom. When he was ransomed, he organized a military force, went back and captured the pirates who had taken him captive. He then crucified them. Of course, there were also the pirates we are familiar with such as Blackbeard and others in the Caribbean. The Royal Navy took care of them. Blackbeard was killed and had his decapitated head hung from the bowsprit of the navy ship that he was fighting against. All these groups of pirates were put down and suppressed by displays of strength and firm will.

I don't know what international law is in these matters, but to a degree, I don't care. I do know that this is the first time since 1804 that an American flagged vessel has been taken in this manner and action should be taken to prevent it from happening again.