Yacht pirates – the new peril

The history of circumnavigation starts with a piracy story. Joshua Slocum, the world’s first circumnavigator with a small sailing vessel, tells us in his book ‘Sailing Around the World’ how Indians from Terra Fuego entered his yacht ‘Spray’ during the night. Next day he placed drawing-pins on deck so the bare footed natives hurt themselves and stopped their visits. This happened in1895. Strange enough, in hundreds of sailing books published since then, only here and then a case of piracy has been mentioned. Obviously this was not a subject to report.

How many pirate attacks happen?

During the last years the number of attacks on yachts has dramatically increased. However, there are few reports about piracy in sailing magazines nor in reports of national cruising clubs like TO (Trans Ocean, Germany), SSCA (Seven Seas Cruising Association, USA) or OCC (Offshore Cruising Club, England). It is a kind of taboo which apparently doesn’t fit into the image of an intact world of bluewater sailors.
The number of yachts being attacked is unknown as is the number of yachts crossing the Seven Seas. Not many sailors believe in authorities being of help so they don’t bother to inform the Police or the Coast Guard. Other skippers and crew suffer from traumatic experiences and are not willing to talk about their encounter with pirates. In addition there is quite a number of yachts that have disappeared and nobody knows what has happened. The estimated number of unreported cases is believed to be high. I reckon that since 1996 the total number of yachts being attacked is approximately 300.

Where do pirates attack?

It is interesting that the regions where pirates go for commercial vessels are totally different from those where they attack yachts. In my book and on this website I only concentrate on sailing yachts.
I distinguish between piracy with a traditional background of hundreds of years and recent piracy due to reasons of poverty. Regions with a traditional background are the Sulu Sea (Philippines), the China Sea, especially the South China Sea around Indonesia, the coastline of Somalia and the Gulf of Aden including the Bab-el-Mandeb.
Areas where piracy developed because of poverty are Brazil, Venezuela, Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemala and Ecuador.

Who are pirates?

A pirate is someone plundering and looting at sea. The encyclopaedia defines piracy as follows: Violence, plundering and deprivation of liberty on the high seas done from one boat against another.
What means “high sea”?
According to the UNCLOS (United Nations Convention on the Law Of the Sea) the high seas start behind the line 30 nautical miles off shore. Based on this definition there would be only few acts of piracy, because more than 99 % of all yachts are attacked in coastal waters. In order to register all attacks on boats, wherever they happened, the ICC (International Chamber of Commerce) makes in their yearly report PIRACY AND ARMED ROBBERY AGAINST SHIPS (commercial vessels and non commercial) no difference between a ship motoring into a harbour or moored in port.
I agree to this definition because a yachtsman organizing his voyage likes to know which region is dangerous.
Due to the massive increasing of piracy the IMB (International Maritime Bureau) and the ICC manage these reports and statistics for commercial boats. There is no comparable organisation who cares for yachts. This is the first time a volunteer organisation starts reporting about the piracy situation regarding yachts.

Pest of the Sea

After doing intensive research on pirates I like to emphasis a warning to glorify pirates being romantic and plucky characters who care for justice like Hollywood made us believe. Pirates are the opposite to this. They go for loot other people worked long and hard for. Pirates do not hesitate to kill. They beat their victims, make them cripples, torture them, rape women and shoot children.
They are a special sort of criminals because they have no honour, no codex, no dignity and no ideology. A sailor wrote: Pirates are the pest of the sea.