By: Erica McCauley
This morning, pirates took over the first U.S. container ship off the coast of Somalia. There are 20 U.S. crew members on board the ship. Maersk Alabama was carrying tons of relief aid to the port of Mombasa for the relief of thousands of Kenyan citizens. In the last week there has been over six attacks on commercial and cargo ships sailing off the horn of Africa. Despite the attempt of intimidation by many international states, the pirates prevail and continue to attack ships with innocent people on them. Because this specific offense only happened at 7:30am, there is no word on the 20 U.S. crew members. In addition, there is no word on where the ship is being taken to.
The shipping company derives from Norfolk, Virginia, and is the main shipping company that is aligned with the Department of Defense. However, this trip by Maersk had nothing to do with the Department of Defense, therefore; there is a lot of help being sent to the families of the crew members. Maersk is doing everything in its power to get them back. The ship its self is able to carry over 1,100 20 foot containers. This ship is suspected to be holding as much in agriculture and food for the relief aid.
Since the beginning of 2009 about 50 attacks have taken place off the coast of Somalia, and 16 ships remain in pirate custody awaiting negotiation. There has been an international decision to send patrolling ships into the dangerous pirate-owned waters. 15 international ships, along with three U.S. ships are combing the waters trying to stop the pirate attacks. However, with technology and how fast word spreads today, pirates have caught onto the patrol boats and have expanded to new waters. What are we going to do with all these pirates?
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