The Cost of Piracy - Modern Piracy, Part 3
During a five-year period from 1980-1985, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees estimated that pirates raped 2,283 women and kidnapped 592 people amongst the Vietnamese boat people. In 1992 ten badly burned corpses were discovered in the refrigerator aboard the Hai Sun. Although that mystery was never solved, another was. The Hai Sun was actually the Erria Inge, which had disappeared several months before. Earlier that year, the seven-month-old daughter of the master of the Valiant Carrier was injured when pirates attacked the tanker near Indonesia. Jangay Ajinohon suffered a head wound when two pirates attacked the Normina in 1996. He survived by jumping overboard, but the other nine members of the unarmed crew were killed. In 1997 the fourth engineer aboard the Yi He bled to death after being shot by four armed pirates. When pirates boarded the Fione last year, the captain was injured by a hammer and one of the crew suffered a skull fracture. At the end of February 2000, the Hualien No. 1 disappeared. The fate of 21 crewmembers is unknown.
These incidents demonstrate the human cost of piracy. When the International Maritime Organization released its first and second quarterly reports for 2000, ships attacked by pirates numbered 182. Almost half of the reported incidents that occurred in the South China Sea involved violence or implied violence against the crews. According to figures provided in the Worldwide Maritime Piracy, June 1999 report, 24% of personnel aboard ships who reported being attacked by pirates suffered injuries. In An Overview of Piracy Problems Captain Abhyankar writes: "A total of 202 incidents were reported in 1998. The majority of these attacks were violent. At least 79 persons have been killed and 35 injured during piracy and armed robbery attacks worldwide during 1998. Other figures show that 238 crewmembers were taken hostage. In 45 incidents the pirates were carrying guns and in 39 they possessed knives."
In light of these issues, why aren't all pirate attacks reported? Port authorities are likely to detain the ship and its crew while they investigate the attack. If the cost to do so exceeds the sustained loss, the owners are unlikely to make a report. In 1997 those operating costs amounted to $10,000 per day whereas Captain Abhyankar estimates the average loss per attack at $5,000. Higher insurance costs and salaries for future crews may also be a factor in their decision to keep silent. If local
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