Two American flagged tugs will soon depart for Saudi Arabia transiting through pirate waters. The Crosby Moon and the Crosby Marlin, both 145 foot tugs with barges in tow will leave Charlotte this week for the Persian Gulf.They are to pass off the coast of Somalia in 4-6 weeks at a top speed of 5-7 knots.
One might think that they are an easy target for the recently created Somalian Navy, (ehhemm…) pirates?
Not so. Prior to entering dangerous waters they will each receive a detachment of 11 Special Forces types from Blackwater. When the Blackwater security liaison toured the tugs prior to departure he asked the C/E if he had a high pressure fire hose onboard. The Engineer replied “To repel boarders?” No, BW replied, “So I can wash their bodies off the deck”.
You want an answer to the pirate problem? There it is. If a Bayou tug operator can afford to place 22 members of a security force on two tugs, At 15,000.00 per man, per day. Why can’t shipping companies?
With all the previous posts about the pirate attacks, I thought some of you would find this interesting. Hopefully, the guys on the tugs will not become a banner on CNN or HNN in mid July. But, if I were making the trip, I would feel much more comfortable with a couple of heavily armed, motivated, pirate killers sitting across from me at the galley table.
I’'d bet that that folks from Blackwater will kill to get off when the pirates show up! 11 more bodies on a 135 foot tug…yikes!! Wonder if they will bring their sound proof bivy sacks for sleeping on deck!
Safe travels to them all!,
MTSKIER
Where the hell are they gonna sleep? We used to carry a couple of Marines on the MSC barge run from Pearl Harbor to Kawaihae on the Big Island. They had to sack out down in the forepeak, swimming in their own vomit. Marines get seasick, I learned.
For $15,000 a day there’s a lot of things I’d do and a few I wouldn’t, depending on the duration of the contract and the situation and circumstances. I’ve done some stuff for a lot less that should have paid a lot more.
I’ve just got to be fully clothed…that’s all I require. I do have limitations. And “a man’s got to know his limitations”.
Thank you for t y p i n g s l o w for me. forgot that there was going to be a security force on both ships,
were did you hear this and do you have an article we can read,
you can hire a private security force a lot cheaper that the stated rates,
I have been in the position to have a security force of 6 onboard a private yacht, all armed, several with auto in various parts of the world, they were ‘FOR HIRE’ and did not come close to the money you are suggesting is being paid
this is a reply from a friend in hte same type of security business NO OFFENSE MEANT TO ANYBODY
Not sure the whole thing is not a hoax; 15k per day could be a typo when he meant 1,5k per day, but indeed what about accommodations?
Importantly what about the legal aspect? It is one thing to shoot pirates out of the water it is another when the survivors claim they were authentic fishermen and instead of talking to good old boys the captain is talking to Egyptian authorities and end up in jail before he can spell his name. There is no immunity out there, and BW had a few problems with legalities when covered with immunity, not sure they would do well without.
Finally a long time ago the name was changed from BW to Xe to drop all the luggage BW had accumulated. Xe was chosen because it means Jesus in ancient Greek; I wonder what treatment the “Jesus” boys will get if prisoners when this is getting known by their fundamentalist Islamic enemies. Better keep a bullet for oneself!
The whole thing sounds like a coonass dream of doing target practice on the pirates.
I worked for Crosby for a couple of years until recently. My buddy is the Engineer on one of the boats. He was there when the guys came to look around and spoke with them. I said BW, don’t know if it is accurate. I could or could not have heard it in the conversation I had with ny guy. My intention was not to deceive I am not that well versed spec warfare types. Where the 15 K number came from was my Engineer buddy. Don’t know where he got it but he is not one that I have ever heard or suspected is the lying type. As far as reading about this, I doubt it is something that they would make public. Most likely they would not be happy that I had, but WTF? They are gone so I can’t get any info from him but maybe some others I know will know something. i’ll get back to you.
$1500 a day is/was the going rate in Iraq/Afghanistan for someone with the correct background. This was as per an ex-SEAL who had gotten an offer from Blackwater. Might have been a decimal point error. Security guards in the Gulf of Aden from Securewest are making much, much less. And they are unarmed.
The company announced on February 13, 2009, that it would operate under the new name “Xe”. In a memo sent to employees, President Gary Jackson wrote that the new name “reflects the change in company focus away from the business of providing private security.” A spokesman for the company stated that it feels the Blackwater name is too closely associated with the company’s work in Iraq.<sup id=“cite_ref-14” class=“reference”></sup> Spokeswoman Anne Tyrrell said there was no meaning in the new name, which the company spent over a year to arrive at in an internal search.
Google BLACKWATER USA, BLACKWATER WORLDWIDE and it directs you to U.S. Training, an Xe company.
Wikipedia says:[B]Xe[/B] or [B]XE[/B] may refer to:
[ul]
[li]Xenon[/li][li]A gender-neutral pronoun[/li][li]XE.com, the currency and foreign exchange rate website[/li][li]X-Entertainment, a website devoted to 1980s and 1990s pop culture[/li][li]Chi Epsilon (XE), a national civil engineering honor society[/li][li]ExpressJet Airlines IATA code[/li][li]The XE series home computers of the Atari 8-bit family (including the 65XE, 130XE and 800XE)[/li][li]Xe (company), a security firm formerly known as [I]Blackwater[/I][/li][li]Xe!, a typical Valencian interjection.[/li][/ul]
No Jesus mentioned.
<sup id=“cite_ref-15” class=“reference”></sup>
