Comments on: War Nerd Update: Yo Ho Ho and a Tanker of Crude

By: JSJ

JSJ — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 16:26:17 +0000

These Somali pikers wouldn’t pick a fight with a warship… not that they’re scared, just that they aren’t stupid. No speedboat can compare to any nation’s ship-o-the-line. No way, no how.

Carriers have HUNDREDS of armed sailors and Marines on board. No way a boatful of Somalis would last ten seconds… and if it was an American ship it has Phalanx, which my asshat former bro-in-law used to manufacture for GD and I can guaran-damn-tee it would leave nothing behind but pink mist if any hostile small craft happened into the immediate vicinity.

Pirates are just wet guerillas, but the cool thing about them is that they are wet guerillas.

By: Oboe

Oboe — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 10:17:48 +0000

Those Somalis don’t look typically African; they look almost like Italians, or Jews w/ really dark skin and kinky hair.

By: RPG Cunthair

RPG Cunthair — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 06:51:05 +0000

Don’t fuck with Sammy. They fucked you white boys before and they will fuck you again. In fact every sand nigger has fucked you up the ass. Go back to your video games already. And you russies: Send down some o’ that white poon since you have forgotten to fuck.

By: Mar C

Mar C — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 20:18:29 +0000

What if they piss into the crude before giving it back?

By: Jeff Albertson

Jeff Albertson — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 00:11:04 +0000

I wonder, if someone “accidently” torched a tanker, would the resulting mess be bigger than the Exxon Valdez spill?Would most of it burn? Not that I care about the environment; I just like big fires.

By: marty

marty — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 01:54:34 +0000

How’s about a Pirates ‘n Indians article Gary?

By: shMiller

shMiller — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 21:29:39 +0000

Some anti-ship Missiles would spice things up a little. Some C-802s like Hezbollah has would do very nicely, but I guess they have a dependence on radar, which is asking too much…

Nevertheless, nice to see the underdogs send a couple navy ships to the bottom … just to further the cause of anarchy at the margins and generally mashing the fingers of the smug and dumbly incredulous everywhere.

By: Kavuye Toon

Kavuye Toon — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 18:33:57 +0000

This is a beautiful article. Thank you Gary

By: John Smith

John Smith — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 19:35:39 +0000

I read in the USA today that Blackwater was getting in on this.

By: Jelly Roll

Jelly Roll — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 06:00:57 +0000

This is every Marines & Call Of Duty players wet dream! I’m suprised Blackwater isnt charging it’s employees bribes to be assigned this mission.

By: I. Susanin

I. Susanin — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 22:18:57 +0000

They are rotating their ships after the “Tabar” has used up its supplies and must return to port.

By: mombasa

mombasa — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 21:01:56 +0000

now another indian warship the mysore joins the party.

http://www.deccanherald.com/Content/Nov212008/scroll20081121101992.asp?section=updatenews

By: I. Susanin

I. Susanin — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 20:36:31 +0000

A perfect opportunity has arisen for Mr. Brecher to analyze the effectiveness of Russian built Warships(Missile Frigate “Tabar”) in the Indian Navy in fighting “poor fishermen” with an improvised fleet and an extensive Criminal Network(according to East Africans themselves).

By: Pyotr Stepanovich Verkhovensky

Pyotr Stepanovich Verkhovensky — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 19:11:16 +0000

Wanky O’Shea,

The area that stretches from Congo to the Horn of Africa was the world’s dead nigger storage long before the first missionaries moved in. If you can blame the Europeans for anything, it’s for putting up the signs and maybe killing a few people here and there.

Kind regards,
Peter

By: mombasa

mombasa — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 18:56:39 +0000

so it took the indian navy to kick the pirates’ a$$ !

too bad for you gary seems your dream is coming to an end. better concentrate on the bangladesh-burma naval war !!!!!!!!!!

By: Snidely Wachovia

Snidely Wachovia — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 15:59:28 +0000

I love Somalians.

By: Matt

Matt — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 13:56:12 +0000

1000 kg is 2204.6 lbs, which is not a world of difference to the lon ton’s 2240 lbs – at least not for the kind of back-of-the-envelope calculations we’re looking at here.

I’m really curious to see how this pans out – there’s a lot of money at stake and the Saudis tend not to be too picky about the general public’s view of their problem-solving approaches…

By: John Smith

John Smith — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 11:27:53 +0000

#6, interesting point, but this is an oil tanker rather than a container ship. I suppose it could still have had an interesting little gizmo on board, which has since been removed by some nation state ally of the pirates, but it seems no more likely than the plots of any of a dozen less recent, less “respectable” international thriller novels featuring big boats and pirates.

A supertanker holds about 500,000 “deadweight tons”, which today probably means 1000 kg rather than the old 2240 lb “deadweight ton”, so that’s about 500 million kg of crude oil. A gallon of crude oil weighs about 3.15 kg, so that *is* probably a bit over 100 million gallons, as well as about 100 million dollars worth.

Another way to do this is to say that a barrel of oil is 42 US gallons, and this ship was carrying about 2 million barrels, which suggests it’s about 84 million gallons.

By: Lord of War

Lord of War — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 10:21:30 +0000

Now that the skinnies have a taste of the good life, they won’t want to go back.

It will be fun to watch and see how high they can tech-up their arms to keep the pirate business going.

Eventually these downloaders are going to have to actually kill a crew or sink a ship to maintain the credibility of their threat. it’s all fun and games ’til the Stingers come out–

By: Boris Pavlov Grozny

Boris Pavlov Grozny — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 23:32:50 +0000

This needs a British solution, an old British solution, burn everything within 50 miles of the coast – or get the Ethiopians or Egyptians to do it.