Piracy, Hijacking, Terrorist Threats and Theft..!!
What is Piracy? - "The act of boarding any vessel with the intent to commit theft or other crime and with the capability to use force in furtherance of the act" (International Maritime Bureau definition).
MRM's definition includes, theft of ship (and its cargo) by crew, deviation and theft of cargo by owner, and deviation or concealment of ship by owner to avoid creditors.
Is this really a problem? Yes - the numbers and frequency of attacks continue to grow, threats are escalating, and there is a greater tendency towards violent attack. Many incidents go unreported or unrecorded because of political, security and personal safety concerns.
The incidence of maritime piracy has been growing rapidly over recent years. Much advanced from the 'romantic' 17th and 18th century buccaneering image created by Hollywood films, piracy today is often a fully-integrated business in which ships and cargoes are stolen to order, 'repackaged' and recirculated into legitimate trade. 'Pirates' sit in respectable offices in commercial districts just as much as they board ships at sea and hijack ships.
The profit to be gained from a successful hijack of a ship worth a few millions and a cargo with a value many times the value of the ship often means that the methods adopted by the pirates who go onboard are brutal in the extreme. Many recent cases of piracy have resulted in the massacre of the innocent crew or at least some selective murders and injuries - not to mention the fear and uncertainty of kidnap.
In 1998 we established our Piracy Rapid Response Service, the first proactive service offered commercially to combat piracy. We have built on the skills we developed in our MARAP Maritime Asset Recovery and Protection service in creating this service. These skills include the ability to trace 'missing' ships through a world-wide intelligence network, a capability to recover ships in a hostile situation, initially and primarily by negotiation and diplomacy but ultimately by more intensive methods if necessary.
