On a blustery afternoon in Dorset, southern England, the green-gray waters of Portland harbor stood in for the sea off Somalia and an electronic engineer called Murray played the part of a ransom-hungry raider.
Then, with a roar, a device aimed at protecting merchant ships from the growing hazard of piracy, called the Buccaneer ship-borne shore launcher, was unveiled.
The idea is that if a pirate skiff approaches, a length of strong rope can be fired into the path of the vessel from the Buccaneer. A parachute ensures the 300m rope flutters down on to the surface of the water and the pirates, unaware that they have been fired on, speed over it and find their propellers hopelessly tangled.
It is a sort of marine version of the spike strip — tire-puncturing devices police use to stop cars — prompting some to dub the Buccaneer the “Somalian stinger.” It is attracting interest from shipping companies around the world.
A problem captains of merchant ships have when faced with pirates is that they are constrained by international laws on what force they can use. In any case, there is a huge risk in firing on pirates who are more than likely to fire back.
“There are problems with arming civilian vessels. It’s not something the marine industry is very happy about doing. As soon as you start putting weapons systems on board a ship you start creating a whole lot of other problems,” said Jonathan Delf, marine sales manager of BCB International, the company that has produced the Buccaneer.
“Take an oil tanker — the last thing you want to have is explosive weapons. For other vessels, too, there’s a danger your own crew will get hurt in an exchange of fire. Leave that to the experts — to the navies that patrol the waters. This is something that provides a ship’s master with time to react and get help fast,” he said.
The company has experimented with firing other non-lethal weaponry such as paintballs loaded with pepper spray, or bean bags, or even golf balls, although it admits such tactics would further anger the pirates.
The Buccaneer certainly did stop pretend pirate Murray Pulman in his tracks. For the demonstration on Thursday in Portland harbor, a launcher was mounted on a harbor workboat.
As Pulman approached in his make-believe pirate skiff, three or four ropes were fired, creating a spider’s web around the boat.
Pulman’s propeller got entangled and he had to be towed back to shore by a friend. It took about 45 minutes to untangle things, by which time his “victims” would have been out of sight.
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