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?
In: Other
short answer: Guns.
Slightly longer answer: those huge ships still have fairly small crews (like maybe a 20-30), and rely heavily on automation. Everything is controlled from the bridge.
Thus, if you can get aboard via grapples and such, you storm the bridge and Volia! you control the ship. From there, its just a matter of coercion to get the crew to surrender (I dont know about you, but *I* wouldn’t risk death for a bunch of cargo someone else owns, given the high likely hood of survival and eventual ransom). They then steer (or rather, force the crew to steer) the ship into a friendly port where you can hold it for ransom and/or looting. Given the high payoff of a successful raid, it doesn’t take many to turn a profit, or at least keep people trying (kinda like winning the lottery. not many win, but lots play hoping to score big).
Theirs been a few ships with private security onboard, but that stuff is expensive, and its not that common. even at the height of the piracy off somalia, the amount of trade that passed without problems was sufficient that it was a hard sell to the shipping companies, who’d rather pressure the governments into trying to sort the issues allowing piracy to exist.
The recent Houthi efforts have been different, mind, as they have been using stuff like a full on call of duty style helicopter assault to board one ship, and most of their attacks have been drone and missile strikes intended to damage or sink ships, not to take control.
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