[QUOTE=tengineer1;167259]Terror and the protection from the perceived danger has become an industry that feeds itself. A self licking ice cream cone. Companies have to protect themselves from loss from piracy just like they do from fire and sinking but irrational fear is something sold by the anti-terror industry; not true risk assessment.The risk of loss from piracy is not that great just more dramatic and newsworthy than fire or sinking. When’s the last time a ship fire or sinking not involving paying passengers made the headlines on CNN?[/QUOTE]
I agree with your remarks in general with regards to the U.S. reaction to terrorism.
However with regards to piracy, while the risk of an attack overall may have been less then the risk of another emergency overall, when the ship was actually transiting piracy areas the risk of an attack was higher then was the risk of other emergencies.
I made several transits through the GOA during the height of the problem. On the nights where conditons for attacks were favorable attacks could be heard occuring on the VHF. The next morning the updated piracy report would reflect that a ship in our area had been taken. Not to mention the tales we heard from the pilots of ships arriving with bullet holes in the wheelhouse.
As far as the reacton, some mariners overreacted and some under-reacted. Some were very confident their ships could not be boarded becaused of speed and freeboard, some captains quit rather then make the run.
For my part I absorbed as much informaton available as I could and more or less followed the recomended procedures.
One thing I noticed was that attacks would take place outside the “box” where precautions were to be taken and the next update would have a bigger box. I would start precautions before crossing the official boundary and maintain them after leaving.
It was also true of the speed/freeboard rules. At first it was the “low and slow”. Only ships under a certain speed were being taken. Ships with high freeboards and high speed were considered safe. But, same as the box, when a ship with a speed over the previous safe transit speed was taken the rules would change. Over time the speed where ships were considered safe got higher and higher as the box got larger and larger.
Each time the pirates expanded the understood parameters of which ships were at risk of attack the so called experts were taken by surprise. This was true when the first VLCC was taken, the first PCC, and it was true when the first containership over 18 kts was taken.