When you see massive transit ships they must have a huge amount of investment in security and they’re mostly steel, they’re so tall and big, must have quite a few crew on board, and surely have lockable containers inside, and the pirate ships are motor boats with a handful of individuals, how does that little boat with a few people take over such a large steel container with so much money behind it?
EDIT: such interesting replies! My question is now, eli5: with everything you all have said, why aren’t there more pirate ships?
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Cargo ships have tiny crews for their size
It takes only a very small number of pirates in boats to outnumber the crews of huge civilian ships.
The Ever Given, the largest container ship in the world that became briefly famous a while back when it blocked the Suez Canal, only has a crew of 25 people.
The USS Gerald R. Ford, an US aircraft carrier which will be smaller than such a cargo ship will have almost 5000 people on it and it is more automated and requires fewer crews than older carriers.
Cargo ships are run to be as cheap as humanly possible with as few people on board as possible. They generally don’t contain armed personal to repel boarders. Just a bunch of people half of whom are asleep at any given moment, because they work in shifts trying to run enormous vessels.
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