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How completely mad is this. I hope everyone is ok.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/afri
A cruise ship sailing off Somalia has beaten back gunmen in speedboats who opened fire on it in an apparent pirate attack which terrified passengers.
At least two boats closed in on the Seabourn Spirit, firing automatic weapons and rocket-propelled grenades at the cruise liner.
But crew took evasive action, repelling the attackers without returning fire.
One crew member was lightly injured in the early-morning incident in waters notorious for pirate attacks.
'Rocket hit ship'
The Bahamian-registered ship was carrying 302 passengers and crew, most of them are believed to be Americans as well as some Britons.
"My daughter saw the pirates out our window," passenger Edith Laird from Seattle in the US told the BBC News website in an e-mail from the ship.
"There were at least three RPG that hit the ship, one in a stateroom four doors down from our cabin," she said.
Fellow passenger Norman Fisher, 55, from Hampstead Garden Suburb in London, said he had seen some of the attackers.
"One of them clearly had a rifle. Later I realised that two of them had rifles and one had some kind of rocket launcher.
"They were firing the rifle and then fired the rocket launcher twice. One of the rockets certainly hit the ship - it went through the side of the liner into a passenger's suite. The couple were in there at the time so it was a bit of an unpleasant experience."
The attack happened about 100 miles (160km) off the Somali coast.
The crew used an on-board loud acoustic bang to deter the gunmen, making them believe they were under fire.
A scheduled stop in Mombasa, in neighbouring Kenya, has been cancelled and the cruise, which began in the Egyptian port of Alexandria is now due to end in the Seychelles on Monday.
Attacks common
David Dingle, a spokesman for the Miami-based company Seabourn Cruises, said passengers were "somewhat surprised and shocked" when they woke to find the ship under attack at 0530 (0230 GMT) on Saturday.
"The passengers were mustered in a public room, told what was going on and reassured that we were fighting off the attack," he said.
"They were shocked but no passengers were injured whatsoever.
"We are extremely pleased that all the measures worked."
He added that the company had no reason to believe it was a terrorist attack and all the evidence pointed to pirates.
It appears to be the first attack on a luxury cruise liner in the area.
The Seafarers' Assistance Programme (SAP) is due to discuss the incident and its implications for tourism in the region on Monday, Kenyan SAP official Andrew Mwangura told AFP news agency.
SEABOURN SPIRIT FACTS
Displacement: 10,000 tons
Length: 134m (440ft)
Width: 19m (63 feet)
Speed: 18 knots
Passenger capacity:208
Crew: 150
Source: Cruiseweb
At least 23 hijackings and attempted seizures have been recorded off the Somali coast since mid-March, according to the International Maritime Bureau (IMB), which has warned ships to stay as far away from the coast as possible.
Two ships carrying aid for the UN World Food Program were among the vessels attacked this year.
"The southern coastline is among the most dangerous in the world," said Mr Mwangura.
Somalia has been without a functioning central authority since 1991 when warlords took power after Mohamed Siad Barre was ousted.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/afri
A cruise ship sailing off Somalia has beaten back gunmen in speedboats who opened fire on it in an apparent pirate attack which terrified passengers.
At least two boats closed in on the Seabourn Spirit, firing automatic weapons and rocket-propelled grenades at the cruise liner.
But crew took evasive action, repelling the attackers without returning fire.
One crew member was lightly injured in the early-morning incident in waters notorious for pirate attacks.
'Rocket hit ship'
The Bahamian-registered ship was carrying 302 passengers and crew, most of them are believed to be Americans as well as some Britons.
"My daughter saw the pirates out our window," passenger Edith Laird from Seattle in the US told the BBC News website in an e-mail from the ship.
"There were at least three RPG that hit the ship, one in a stateroom four doors down from our cabin," she said.
Fellow passenger Norman Fisher, 55, from Hampstead Garden Suburb in London, said he had seen some of the attackers.
"One of them clearly had a rifle. Later I realised that two of them had rifles and one had some kind of rocket launcher.
"They were firing the rifle and then fired the rocket launcher twice. One of the rockets certainly hit the ship - it went through the side of the liner into a passenger's suite. The couple were in there at the time so it was a bit of an unpleasant experience."
The attack happened about 100 miles (160km) off the Somali coast.
The crew used an on-board loud acoustic bang to deter the gunmen, making them believe they were under fire.
A scheduled stop in Mombasa, in neighbouring Kenya, has been cancelled and the cruise, which began in the Egyptian port of Alexandria is now due to end in the Seychelles on Monday.
Attacks common
David Dingle, a spokesman for the Miami-based company Seabourn Cruises, said passengers were "somewhat surprised and shocked" when they woke to find the ship under attack at 0530 (0230 GMT) on Saturday.
"The passengers were mustered in a public room, told what was going on and reassured that we were fighting off the attack," he said.
"They were shocked but no passengers were injured whatsoever.
"We are extremely pleased that all the measures worked."
He added that the company had no reason to believe it was a terrorist attack and all the evidence pointed to pirates.
It appears to be the first attack on a luxury cruise liner in the area.
The Seafarers' Assistance Programme (SAP) is due to discuss the incident and its implications for tourism in the region on Monday, Kenyan SAP official Andrew Mwangura told AFP news agency.
SEABOURN SPIRIT FACTS
Displacement: 10,000 tons
Length: 134m (440ft)
Width: 19m (63 feet)
Speed: 18 knots
Passenger capacity:208
Crew: 150
Source: Cruiseweb
At least 23 hijackings and attempted seizures have been recorded off the Somali coast since mid-March, according to the International Maritime Bureau (IMB), which has warned ships to stay as far away from the coast as possible.
Two ships carrying aid for the UN World Food Program were among the vessels attacked this year.
"The southern coastline is among the most dangerous in the world," said Mr Mwangura.
Somalia has been without a functioning central authority since 1991 when warlords took power after Mohamed Siad Barre was ousted.
__Lee__ said:
As a Ex Royal Navy guy, I can say Piracy is still prolific in some regions. Areas around Africa and the Asia still has suffer from huge amounts of piracy.
It is very profitable and not too difficult to take a tanker or cargo ship.
i guess they can't have that many 'crew' on board can they..? are they allowed to employ mercenaries for when they are in interntaional waters? i can see it making sense highjacking a container ship or something because they could sell all the dvd players on ebay..
Ships can employee who they please but you have to remember when you enter another countries seas you are under their laws and as most countries have anti-gun laws you cannot really drive a commerical ship around tooled up!.
Also random searches and customs are the norm, so it probably wouldn't be very long before they got arrested for smuggling weapons!.
Also random searches and customs are the norm, so it probably wouldn't be very long before they got arrested for smuggling weapons!.
BBC said:
One of the rockets certainly hit the ship - it went through the side of the liner into a passenger's suite. The couple were in there at the time so it was a bit of an unpleasant experience."
A bit of an unpleasant experience? "Oh look dear, theres a large rocket propelled grenade cooing into our cabin through the side of the ship...."
I'd call it a bit more than unpleasant!
mk6fiesta said:
I sailed on a LNG boat between Japan and Brunei when I was working for Shell.
From the Phillipines southward we had one AB on constant pirate patrol and we were all briefed on what to do incase of attack. Getting shot by a little Filipino pirate wasnt unheard of actually! Its particularly common around Jakarta and Kuala Lumpa. We used to get fleet wide TELEX's with all the reports of pirate activity on.
My dad was a skipper on container ships and they were boarded in the past with at least one crew member fatality, he was shot.
In this area and malaysia it's also suspected that the police were sometimes the actual pirates as they had fast patrol boats and really modern kit. Ideal for a hit and run attack! They always got away though.
I also heard that the russian ships get left alone because they usually carry weapons.
Boosted.
We all know it was you pidgeon!
very fecking hostile 
We used to have FRC patrols around our wee 'fleet' when off West africa, and in the Red sea when we did a job off eritrea. Wasn't so much for your 'armed-to-the-teeth' pirates, but for boats of robbing barstewards. It was a simple tactic we used. they had pretty crappy little boats, and we had a big Norsafe jet boat (300 bhp cummins diesel 
), and we pretty much used to just drive full pelt at them. When you are in dodgy little dinghy, a big rigid hull jet boat thundering at you at 35 knots would make you turn around!
), and we pretty much used to just drive full pelt at them. When you are in dodgy little dinghy, a big rigid hull jet boat thundering at you at 35 knots would make you turn around! 
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