Hey, it's great to finally hear a post from someone in the Merchant Navy on the front page!
I too was fortunate enough to be able to experience travelling through the suez canal last summer as a deck officer cadet on a Taiwanese container ship!
I can see from your pictures that your on a bulk carrier vessel, which are reasonably fast vessels (although not as good as containerships with a top speed of 20+ knots!)
In terms of what I saw when on watch (and I went through the Suez canal 4 times in one trip so also the pirate area) was sadly not a lot. We saw one suspicious looking fishing boat with 3 Somalian's on it with what was possible to be carrying guns. The boat approached on our port beam but just simply couldn't catch up and got thrown around in our wake!
If anything is to happen, don't worry the amount of attacks has gone down massively in the past 5 years (especially in China where pirate attacks are almost entirely gone! ) One of my lecturer's said might have something to do with a major pirate boss in Somalia retiring!
If anything is to happen you'll be happy to hear that there are lots of militia naval ships of all nationalities within 30 nautical miles and as soon as the bridge team contacts them a helicopter is dispatched immediately to attend to any goings on!
On our ship we had our own pirate defences and got to assist in putting up the razor wire all around the ship (this is razor wire not barbed wire, I have a scar on my leg from how sharp it is!) The boson (maintenance guy on ship) might also put on hoses around the weather deck which fire's pressured sea water out as well to make the pirate's life harder.
The whole of the superstructure of the vessels (the part the crew, officers, engineers live and sleep in as well as the bridge and galley) should be locked down so no one can get in from the outside. The bridge team as you mentioned is in strict watch (I as a cadet spent 4 hours straight pacing up and down without stopping and was told to constantly check RADAR, ECDIS systems and ARPA.)
This is usually done until out of the charted hot spot but you should be happy to know that a lot of companies give their officers and engineers a small bonus for operating in these areas! The amount of time and precautions are up to the Master's discretion but trust me you're in great hands (as long as your officer's and Master are competent!) Enjoy the sun! We never really got to see our engineers come out on deck!
TL:DR- Currently a 21 year old deck cadet who's served on a containership giving his salty sea knowledge on pirate watches.
blame_the_parents13 karma
Hey, it's great to finally hear a post from someone in the Merchant Navy on the front page!
I too was fortunate enough to be able to experience travelling through the suez canal last summer as a deck officer cadet on a Taiwanese container ship!
I can see from your pictures that your on a bulk carrier vessel, which are reasonably fast vessels (although not as good as containerships with a top speed of 20+ knots!)
In terms of what I saw when on watch (and I went through the Suez canal 4 times in one trip so also the pirate area) was sadly not a lot. We saw one suspicious looking fishing boat with 3 Somalian's on it with what was possible to be carrying guns. The boat approached on our port beam but just simply couldn't catch up and got thrown around in our wake!
If anything is to happen, don't worry the amount of attacks has gone down massively in the past 5 years (especially in China where pirate attacks are almost entirely gone! ) One of my lecturer's said might have something to do with a major pirate boss in Somalia retiring!
If anything is to happen you'll be happy to hear that there are lots of militia naval ships of all nationalities within 30 nautical miles and as soon as the bridge team contacts them a helicopter is dispatched immediately to attend to any goings on!
On our ship we had our own pirate defences and got to assist in putting up the razor wire all around the ship (this is razor wire not barbed wire, I have a scar on my leg from how sharp it is!) The boson (maintenance guy on ship) might also put on hoses around the weather deck which fire's pressured sea water out as well to make the pirate's life harder.
The whole of the superstructure of the vessels (the part the crew, officers, engineers live and sleep in as well as the bridge and galley) should be locked down so no one can get in from the outside. The bridge team as you mentioned is in strict watch (I as a cadet spent 4 hours straight pacing up and down without stopping and was told to constantly check RADAR, ECDIS systems and ARPA.)
This is usually done until out of the charted hot spot but you should be happy to know that a lot of companies give their officers and engineers a small bonus for operating in these areas! The amount of time and precautions are up to the Master's discretion but trust me you're in great hands (as long as your officer's and Master are competent!) Enjoy the sun! We never really got to see our engineers come out on deck!
TL:DR- Currently a 21 year old deck cadet who's served on a containership giving his salty sea knowledge on pirate watches.
View HistoryShare Link