Saturday, October 31, 2009

An old profession offers new opportunities … Arrrgh

Tom Sawyer would be happy to see the present-day possibilities in the pirate trade. There is piracy all over the globe, though most commonly off the Horn of Africa and on into the Indian Ocean. Here is a Slate story about the Brits negotiating with Somali pirates who've grabbed a British couple.
And here is the Weekly Piracy Report from ICC Commercial Crime Services.
And if you want to see the geographical distribution of piracy, here is a map of pirate attacks. You can click on the pointers and get details of attacks. A lot of it sounds like petty thievery carried out in port.
Better future in piracy than print journalism, plus there remains some public regard for pirates.

5 comments:

Edith Ann said...

My oldest is almost 30, and he wants to be a pirate. He's not mean, he is just adventurous. Fancies himself buying and sailing a pirate ship one day.

I think he needs to stick with his day job, but I appreciate his dreaming.

Pilot said...

Right under my nose all along hmm......guess it's the old can't see the forest for the trees, or if it had been a snake it woulda bit me.
I'm gonna need a bigger boat and a crew though.

Edith Ann said...

I'll tell my son...

River said...

Check out John McPhee's book "Looking for a Ship" (if you haven't already). Or at least the chapter where he lists a single day's pirate attacks around the globe. A little dated now, probably 15 years or more, but still pretty scary stuff.

The Loon said...

Mike – You can sign EA's son as crew. Might try raiding oyster boats in the **Adrift harbor. A million of them down there.
River – I'll keep one eye out for the McPhee book; I generally like his stuff.