David Pickard is showing 12 tough-looking men how to use a strange-looking tripod-mounted speaker. The equipment, known as a long-range acoustic device, will deafen and disorient anyone subjected to its high-volume sound. The men banter with Mr Pickard but could soon be using such devices in earnest, to scare pirates away from vulnerable ships.

The men, all former military personnel, are attending an anti-piracy course being held in the south coast port of Poole. Run by Drum Cussac, a Jersey-based security consultancy, it concentrates on the problem in the Gulf of Aden between Somalia and Yemen, which saw more than 110 pirate attacks last year and 40 hijackings. The course aims to leave participants equipped to escort vessels more safely through the highest-risk areas.

The surge in hijackings - the highest-profile of which was of the Sirius Star, a very large crude oil carrier, in November - has highlighted how shipowners need to plan ahead. They should not only seek to minimise the risk of attack, according to experts, but also plan for any ransom negotiations.
The choice of advice and escort personnel remains crucial. As Iraq has grown more stable, many security guards have moved from there to maritime work. Not all have the know-how to operate safely and legally at sea.

How shipowners can take the wind out of pirates' sails

A slowdown in attacks this month should not breed complacency among mariners, according to Michael Howlett, assistant director of the International Maritime Bureau, which collates piracy information. A new vessel was seized only yesterday. "What they really need is to be aware," he says. "It still is a pretty bad area."

Shipowners' first decision is whether to seek outside advice or try to mitigate risks themselves. There is a range of consultancy services, from written risk assessments of routes to the supply of security personnel.

Some companies offer armed guards, although Daren Dickson, a senior Drum Cussac manager, says his company refuses. "The scenario that hasn't been acted out yet is where a ship has armed guards, there's a firefight and a pirate gets killed," he says. "If they still get on board, what happens then?"

Drum Cussac tries to put advisers aboard ships well before they reach the high-risk zones, to familiarise themselves with the vessel, its routines and how best to seal doors and gangways.

Martin Slavin, a former British Royal Marine who has made many transits of the high-risk area and fended off one attempted hijacking, points out that 200 vessels a day transit the Gulf of Aden. It may consequently take little effort to put pirates off.

"If we can make our ship less appealing, they'll take another one," he says.

Consultants are loath to discuss precise protection techniques. But they are known to include using firehoses to form a curtain of water down ships' sides and rigging up electric wires round the deck-edge rails. Even once pirates are approaching, a stepping-up of such measures can help. Mr Pickard, the course instructor, says switching on an extra pump on a ship's firehoses can deter an attack. "The attackers know the ship has seen them and is responding to them," he says.

Vessels can also change direction sharply, so that their wash capsizes pirate launches. At close quarters, long-range acoustic devices can be highly effective. In the attack Mr Slavin faced - on a small chemical tanker - such tactics held the pirates off for 25 minutes. Then the pirates overheard a radio conversation suggesting a naval helicopter was coming.

"We gave our position and they said there was something en route," Mr Slavin says. "That seemed to take the wind out of their sails."
In attacks that end in hijackings, however, different calculations apply. If owners agree terms too quickly, that can imply more money is available. The pirates might hold out for a second ransom. A single crisis committee should appoint a single spokesman to reduce confusion, Drum Cussac recommends. The owner's ransom offer will generally be put up in gradually decreasing increments, to signal that the owner's room for financial manoeuvre is diminishing.
Finally, a boat is usually needed to deliver the ransom in cash, often along with fresh fuel and food supplies. To avoid the risk of piracy against the ransom boat, ransoms can be dropped by air, as in the Sirius Star case.

"This has been going on for a period of time now," Mr Dickson says of the piracy problem. "This is a process they have to go through."
Yet, with earnings for some classes of ships having collapsed by 90 per cent or more in less than a year, shipowners seem increasingly attracted to a simpler solution. Many are leaving vessels idle, diverting round the Cape of Good Hope or trading exclusively within Europe or Asia. That avoids the expense of the Suez Canal and piracy insurance for the Gulf of Aden.

The trend is hitting Drum Cussac's business, according to Mr Dickson. It could soon start to choke the life from the goose that laid the pirates' golden egg.

"We get lots of inquiries and proposals accepted," Mr Dickson says of the present position. "But as soon as the charterers start speaking to the insurers things are turned off. A lot of it is the cost of insurance - or they go another route."

By Robert Wright
Published: January 30 2009