Letters of Marque and Reprisal

[Rheged]

        Assume that some of the  protocols of the 1856 Declaration of Paris  were found to be invalid.  This  permits the granting of Letters of Marque and Reprisal by the monarch. 


      Given the current situation in the Indian Ocean;  convoys of  merchant vessels  escorted by "Her Majesty's Licenced Vessels"   could become commonplace.     Other similar vessels might be  detached to act as hunters, to claim the bounty on each pirate originally awarded by the Board of Admiralty in the 1750's.   


    Given this scenario, what would these vessels look like?   Is there a modern  Q ship  hiding here?   Would the escorts carry their defences openly?  Is this just a bit of boring nonsense?   Should he just shut up and try to be sensible for a change............?

[deathjester]

   Should he just shut up and try to be sensible for a change............?
[/quote]
NEVER!!

What an excellent idea!  The privateers wouldn't be hamstrung by rules and regulations like the regular naval forces are - would be attractive to governments too, in repsect of 'deniability'.

I think a modern 'Q' ship would have its weapons concealed, so as to lure pirates in, and to avoid unwanted publicity in and around ports.  Agood starting point might be an icebreaker!

[NARSES2]

         Should he just shut up and try to be sensible for a change............?

Never 

How about some ex deep sea trawlers brought out of retirement ? Some of these were pretty big things so could take a fair bit of armament and have good range. Wouldn't need much speed or particularly fancy weaponry to begin with - might latter on if the "pirates" entered into an arms race, but unlikely in my view. Could crew them with ex trawlermen, ex RN & RM's ? Maybe the crews could be under clandestine "Wavy Navy" authority ?

[rickshaw]

Oh, dear.  Would we see a repeat on the high seas of the "Private Military Contractors" in Iraq and Afghanistan?  Assuming that such groups are not being "bound by the same rules as conventional naval forces", well we've seen where that leads, haven't we?

I think it would indeed be more sensible to institute a convoy system but I see no point really in creating Privateers to protect them.

Might be easier and cheaper to "set a thief to catch a thief".  Lets find a Henry Morgan amongst the Somalis. 

[sequoiaranger]

You may have seen the funny bit making its rounds on the Internet about a special Somali cruise ship that baits pirates and then defeats them--by the passengers! The come-on of the cruise is that trigger-happy customers sign up and are given various military weapons depending on their pricing "status", and then the pirates are lured into range and...!

And let's not quibble with international protocol niceties. "Badges? We don't need no stinkin' badges!" *

*(memorable line from Bogart's "Treasure of Sierra Madre" movie)

[Rheged]

I agree that the  excesses of Private Contractors  should be curbed  which is why the Letters of Marque lay a country open to legal action if their contractors do not conform to an agreed code.    


In 18th and 19th  century, privateers were supposed to be bound by these terms, and vessels sent in to a prize court for adjudication.  The brief extract  below might explain:-


"Being privately owned and run, privateers did not take orders from the Naval command. The letter of marque of a privateer would  limit activity to a specific area and to the ships of specific nations. Typically, the owners or captain would be required to post a performance bond against breaching these conditions and they  would  be liable to pay  considerable damages to any injured party."


Any misbehaviour    and the letters are rescinded, making the  miscreant a common pirate .

[tigercat]

They'd have to revise how the privateers were paid as I get the impression they wouldn't be getting much money for the Somali pirates ships as they seem to be equipped  with dinghys and motorboats  with attitude and presumably the only people wanting to snap them up in the prize courts would be more pirates.

Whans this years pirate GB arghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

[Weaver]

My suggestion on another forum was to have parties of PMC-types who join ships as they enter the danger zone and leave them as they exit it. You'd need permission from harbor/airport-owning governments at both ends to operate boats/helos/biz-jets full of armed men in order to re-position the mercs of course, but it should be a relatively simple operation. It also has the merit of limiting the "unrestrained" mercs to defending their own ship, rather than aggressively going after pirate "mother ships", many of which are themselves hijacking victims and have hostages on board.

[Maverick]

I have to agree with Brian's (Rickshaw) comments. 

PMCs are allegedly subject to various conventions, but that doesn't stop them being cowboys.  Regardless of rules or restrictions, putting them at sea would end up with either gaudily clad tossers trolling about the place or a bunch of equally irresponsible individuals dressed in ACU or tigerstripes on board a ship.  Mercs of any breed can go 'off the rails' rather smartly as has happend in various areas recently.

Regards,

Mav

[Rheged]

I have to agree with Brian's (Rickshaw) comments. 

PMCs are allegedly subject to various conventions, but that doesn't stop them being cowboys.  Regardless of rules or restrictions, putting them at sea would end up with either gaudily clad tossers trolling about the place or a bunch of equally irresponsible individuals dressed in ACU or tigerstripes on board a ship.  Mercs of any breed can go 'off the rails' rather smartly as has happend in various areas recently.

Regards,

Mav

I'm afraid that the idea of  licenced privateering seems to be a real-world non starter. Sorry, folks, I thought that I might be on to something here. There's always a group of loons that will ruin a basically sound  proposition by their excesses. 

However, in Whiffworld, we can assume gentlemen (and ladies too, if they wish) who will abide by the terms of their Letters of Marque .   Given acceptable behaviour from those involved, how do they protect defenceless merchantmen? Their own vessels?  Detachments on board? Non-lethal devices? ........or in the words of my 3 year old godson does someone go  "Spanking the naughty mens" ?

[Mossie]

The PMC approach already happens.  The increase in piracy has pushed merchant shipping to find there own ways of protecting their trade.  Google 'Ship Protection' or 'Ship Security' & you'll find PMC's offering anti-piracy services & job offers, anything from unarmed ship riders to marine assault squads.  Merchant ships have been lightly armed & even cruise ships may carry non lethal weapons such as LRAD's.

[rickshaw]

I'm still in favour of "setting a thief to catch a thief".  Find a Henry Morgan amongst the pirates and make him the Governor of the coast.  Pay him to control the pirates and make it worth his while to make sure that the pirates can't buy him.

[Weaver]

I'm still in favour of "setting a thief to catch a thief".  Find a Henry Morgan amongst the pirates and make him the Governor of the coast.  Pay him to control the pirates and make it worth his while to make sure that the pirates can't buy him.

Trouble with that is:

1. The pirates who'd want to buy him have now got a LOT of money, so you'd have to pay him even more,

2. In that part of the world, setting anybody up with that kind of money makes him a de-facto local warlord (in fact he'd have to be to survive). What do you do when he goes off the rails, and journalists are pointing cameras at mass graves and abuse survivors and asking who paid for it all?

[Mossie]

Again, that's kind of what's happened with the PMC's.  They don't always operate entirely within the law & sometimes go looking for trouble.  There have been deaths & some quite 'controverisal' occurences & a general turning of backs to such happenings.

[Weaver]

Which is why the "armed guards on standard ships" idea is best: the PMCs CAN'T go looking for trouble, chasing pirate ships and endangering innocents. All they can do is defend the ship they're on if it gets attacked.