It’s not something that we tend to hear about much in the relatively safe confines of North America, but apparently piracy - not the music/software kind, but that which involves boarding a ship without the captain’s permission and stealing its cargo or the ship itself - is a major problem throughout the world.

This article explains the nature of modern-day piracy, and the details make it sound not unlike the historical version we all know about. A group of nefarious scallawags board a ship during the dead of night (by surrounding it at sea, or scampering onto the deck while it’s at port), threaten any crew-members that get in the way, and then make off with the booty. Sometimes, the crew is killed or set adrift and the ship itself stolen or - occasionally - it is sunk in order to leave no trace of the incident.

What’s alarming is that piracy is apparently on the rise. ICC Commercial Crime Services (an international industry group that keeps track of this sort of thing) published a report in 2003 with some interesting statistics: last year there were 445 reported incidents of piracy, up from 370 the year before, and around 3 times as high as a decade earlier. A disproportionate number of piracy incidents take place in in the Malacca straits between Malaysia and the Phillipines, off the coast of Nigeria and Somalia, and south of Bangladesh. The ICC has also published maps showing the geographic distribution of reported incidents.

Also interesting is that the ICC publishes a piracy report, providing details on recent incidents. Here are a couple:

16.04.2004 at 1630 UTC in posn: 00:50N-105:18E, east of Bintan island, Indonesia.

About ten pirates armed with guns and knives in an orange colour high speedboat boarded a container ship underway. They stole cash, crew personal belongings and ship’s property. Master, C/E and D/O were taken hostage and received minor injuries. After 30 mins pirates left firing their guns in air to deter crew from taking any action.

05.04.2004 at 1500 LT in posn: 03:20n-084: 44W, Pacific Ocean.

Five masked pirates armed with pistols and knives boarded a sailing vessel underway. They tied up the skipper and another crewmember and stripped the vessel of all electronic equipment, documents, charts and crew possessions. Pirates came in an unmarked fishing wooden vessel, 15 to 20 metres long, red bottom paint, black topsides and a white cabin. They had rammed the sailing vessel at port quarter casing damage to radar post.

Even with all the crime we have in this country (and, indeed, the developed western world as a whole), it’s definitely a bit odd to consider something like piracy on the high seas in modern times. It’s a good reminder that outside of the comforts that we enjoy here, there are still portions of the world that are still a bit rough around the edges, and there are still plenty of places out there where there essentially is no rule of law to protect you should someone wish to do you harm.