Fair Game (29 page)

‘So they wait until the ship has stopped.’

‘But they don’t stop, not unless they’re in port. The ships are always moving because any time they’re not moving they’re losing money.’

‘What about the stern, then?’

‘In theory that’s possible, there isn’t as much wash directly behind the ship, but then they’d be right over the propeller and that’s ninety tonnes of brass and steel whirling around. One mistake and it’s mincemeat.’

‘But possible?’

‘I’ve never heard of pirates boarding a ship that size while it’s moving,’ Giles said. ‘And remember that twenty-four knots is its cruising speed, it could probably get up to thirty-five knots with the engine full ahead.’

‘I’m told that there’s no security on board. Can that be right? The ship alone must be worth millions and there’s the cargo on top of that.’

‘Shipowners are always trying to cut costs, but they’re obviously not going to risk losing a ship,’ said Giles. ‘They’ll simply be taking the view that the chances of a ship that size being taken are so remote that there’s no reason to pay for extra security.’

‘You said it was only five thousand dollars a day.’

‘Sure, but they’d have to be on board all the time they were in pirate waters. Four or five days, maybe. But they might have a dozen ships that size. And they might all be passing through the Suez Canal every couple of months. It soon mounts up, and as in all big businesses there are always accountants sniffing around looking to cut costs. Don’t get me wrong, security is a good idea for the smaller ships, but a ship that size is in a whole different league.’

Shepherd frowned as he sipped his cappuccino. ‘So talk me through what could happen if a group of pirates were to go after a ship like this.’

Giles nodded. ‘OK, well, first of all the vessel will be in open sea, miles from shore, so the pirates will have to have a mother ship, a base from which they operate. Often that’s a ship that they’ve seized in the first place. They’ll tie their inflatables or skiffs to the mother ship and then head out to sea. The mother ship will have radar so they can use that to spot bigger prey.’

‘So they’re not targeting specific ships?’

‘Generally not, it’s usually opportunistic. When they spot something on the radar they head off on the smaller boats for a look-see. If it looks like a reasonable catch then they’ll try to get on board. Their boats are usually fitted with powerful outboards which means that they burn fuel like nobody’s business, so if they haven’t managed to board within forty minutes or so they’ll usually give up and go back to refuel. If they can, they’ll run alongside and use ladders to get aboard, so they want ships that are low in the water.’

‘And what do the crew do? Presumably they don’t just sit and wait to be boarded.’

Giles laughed. ‘No, I don’t think anyone wants to be held by pirates for months at a time, do they?’ He stretched out his legs. ‘OK, the first line of defence is vigilance. On a clear day you can see to the horizon, so twenty miles or thereabouts. You keep an eye out for any traffic visually and on the radar, and you use the ship’s identifiers to see who’s close to you. Anything without an identifier, or even if they have an identifier but seem to be heading in the wrong direction, is a red flag. You have to remember that pretty much all traffic is going from port to port, so anyone not going with the flow is either a tourist or up to no good.’

Giles sipped his mocha. ‘So you stay vigilant, that’s basically your first line of defence. If you see something untoward, you can take evasive action. Steer away from the trouble and up your speed. Say you spot a skiff heading your way and it’s doing forty knots. You head away at full speed, maybe thirty knots. At a ten-knot difference it’s going to take him the best part of an hour to reach you and that means if he doesn’t board you he’s going to run out of fuel with no way back to the mother ship.’

‘So they’ll give up?’

‘Yeah, probably. They know that if the mother ship doesn’t come for them then they’ll die on the ocean. Fuel isn’t a problem for the big container ships, they carry enough to be able to go right around the world without refuelling. But the pirates can’t run at full speed for more than an hour or so, even with extra fuel tanks on board.’

‘What about at night? Can’t they get closer without being seen?’

‘Radar still works at night and the pirates are carrying guns and radar reflects off anything metallic. Also it’s harder for the pirates at night. Boarding at sea is dangerous enough in daylight, it’s a hell of a lot harder in the dark.’

‘So they don’t attack at night?’

‘That’s not a hard and fast rule, but it’s certainly a lot easier during daylight. And if the crew know they’re under attack they can use the searchlights to dazzle the pirates. Sounds simple, I know, but it works. Ships have very powerful searchlights and they’ll temporarily blind anyone who gets too close. In the daytime the crew can use the fire hoses to keep them at bay.’

‘What about guns? The crew have access to guns, right?’

‘Absolutely not,’ said Giles. ‘There are no guns on merchant vessels. There might be the odd rogue master who keeps a weapon hidden away for a rainy day but it’d be a sackable offence to have a gun on board.’

‘But searchlights and hoses, it all sounds very basic.’

‘It is, mainly. But so are the pirates. Most of them are teenagers, some of them are fishermen, but we’re not talking Mensa members here. They’re looking for easy pickings. Think of them as street muggers, prowling around for victims. If they see a big guy who looks like he can take care of himself, they keep well clear. If they come across a group of guys, they walk on by. But when they see an old lady or a kid with an expensive mobile, that’s when they strike. That’s why I was asking you about the quality of your intel. They don’t usually pick their targets in advance.’

‘Like I said, the intel’s good, or at least I’m told it is,’ said Shepherd. ‘Maybe we’re looking at this the wrong way. I’m asking you how the pirates operate when what we should be doing is asking ourselves how they would seize a hundred and thirty thousand tonne vessel.’

Giles ran a hand through his blond hair. ‘It’s a toughie.’

‘I guess I’m asking you to think like a pirate,’ said Shepherd. ‘If it was you out there, how would you take a vessel of that size?’

Giles sighed and sipped his mocha. ‘OK, well, first of all you need to get the vessel to stop. Or at least to slow right down.’ He nodded slowly. ‘Stand and deliver would probably work. Pull a Dick Turpin.’

‘Hold them up at gunpoint?’

‘The pirates have RPGs. AK-47s. I’ve heard tell of hand grenades.’

‘But an RPG or a hand grenade isn’t going to destroy a ship that size, is it?’

Giles smiled. ‘They don’t have to destroy the ship, just threaten to damage it. You’ve got to remember, this is all about money. A damaged ship is as useless to the owner as a hijacked ship. In fact a damaged ship is worse because it’s got to be taken away and repaired, whereas a seized ship is on the move again as soon as the ransom has been paid.’ He leaned forward, an eager glint in his eyes. ‘OK, this is how I’d do it. I’d use a pincer movement, come in from two directions to cut down on his options. Off the starboard bow and the port side simultaneously. It wouldn’t be easy and it would take some planning but it’s doable. Once the two skiffs are in close he can’t outrun them. All he can do is to keep on going at full speed and hope that they give up. So if I was a pirate I’d fire a few warning shots at the bridge, just to show him that I mean business. Then I show him the RPG. Might even call him up on the radio, if he’ll talk to me.’

‘And then he’ll stop?’

‘Probably not,’ Giles said. ‘By this stage the master’s looking at his watch and trying to work out how much fuel I’ve got left. He’s hoping that I’ll give up if he doesn’t show any signs of stopping. So then I fire an RPG across his bow and then he stops looking at his watch. He knows that an RPG isn’t going to sink the vessel, but it could disable the bridge, or if a shell hits the right container it could start one hell of a fire. But he’s weighing against that the fact that if the pirates damage the ship too much then they’re not going to be able to move it. Then they’re stuck on a drifting ship and by then the master has already put out a mayday call so help is probably on its way. He has to work out in his own mind if the pirates really are prepared to damage the ship so much that it becomes inoperable. So then I reload my RPG and point it at the bridge. Maybe he thinks I’m getting angry, maybe angry enough to shoot whether or not it makes him stop. And then he starts to wonder what the shipowner is going to say, because by not stopping the master is putting the lives of his crew and the safety of his vessel on the line. It’s a tough decision for anyone to have to make.’

‘So what does he do? What would you do?’

Giles grinned. ‘Me, I’m navy through and through. I’d never give up my ship, but then I’d like to think that I wouldn’t have got my ship into that position in the first place. But the captain of a container ship isn’t in it for queen and country, he’s in it for his salary and his pension so he’s not going to fight just for the sake of it. Every decision he makes is based around cost. And the point might be reached where he realises that the cheapest option is to surrender his vessel and wait for the company to pay the ransom. If he does that, he doesn’t get blamed, the company will just write it down to bad luck. But if he tries to run and the ship is damaged, then the company is likely to blame him for making the wrong decision and that could be the end of his career. Like I said, it’s a tough decision.’

‘And what happens then? Once he’s stopped the ship?’

‘Then the pirates board, which is simple enough if the ship’s not moving. Not without its dangers, mind, but it’s doable. The first thing they’ll do is to secure the vessel. They’ll probably keep the captain in the bridge but everyone else will be locked away below decks. If they know what they’re doing they’ll switch off the ship’s AIS.’ Giles grinned when he saw Shepherd frown. ‘AIS, Automated Identification System, the device that identifies the ship for what it is. If they switch it off then the ship will still be visible on radar, obviously, but no one will be able to identify it. If they’re really smart they might change their AIS details and pretend to be a different sort of vessel. Then they’ll move it from its present position. If it was a smaller ship then they’d maybe take it into Somali waters and maybe even dock it, but that’s not an option for a ship the size of the one you’re talking about. They’ll take it away from the shipping lanes, somewhere quieter, while they start negotiations.’

‘They can’t make the ship invisible, though,’ said Shepherd. ‘Even if they switch off the AIS planes can spot it, satellites, radar.’

‘Yes, but they’re not hiding,’ said Giles. ‘Once they’ve taken a vessel it’s very difficult to reclaim it by force. It’s happened, the Americans did it once, so did the French and the Russians, but any show of force puts the lives of the hostages at risk. At the end of the day it’s all about money. Provided the ransom is paid then the ship and the hostages are released unharmed. And generally the ransom is affordable.’

‘But what about the CTF you talked about in your office?’

‘They’re prevention rather than cure,’ said Giles. ‘Their job is to stop the pirates taking vessels, not to drive them off a ship they’ve already seized. They’re not geared up for that. It’s also a legal minefield because the seizures take place in international waters most of the time. The ship you’re looking at, what flag is it flying under?’

‘British.’

‘So if anyone would take on the pirates it would have to be the SAS or SBS. Now, they could do it, of course they could, but with the hostages down below decks under armed guard there’d be risks. And just to make it more complicated, even though the ship is flying under a British flag there’s every chance that the officers and crew would be from other countries. The crew would almost certainly be Filipino, the officers could be Polish, Croatian, French, who knows? So if the SAS do go in with guns blazing and people get hurt, how’s that going to look? British special forces try to rescue a British ship but foreigners get caught in the crossfire.’

‘Messy,’ said Shepherd.

‘Very messy,’ said Giles. He raised his eyebrows as he thought of something. ‘There’s one way that special forces can go in,’ he said. ‘That’s if the ship has a panic room. That changes everything. Does the ship you’re talking about have one?’

‘I don’t know. I’ll check. How do they work?’

‘Same as they do in a house. A secure room that the occupants can retreat to in case of attack. Some of them have duplicate controls so that the ship can be run from the room, others are just safe places and the crew disable the engine before they lock themselves in. If special forces know that all the crew are out of harm’s way they can go in and basically shoot everything that moves. The Russians did it a while back, killed all the pirates and retook the ship.’

‘But you’re saying if there’s no panic room, they won’t go in?’

‘It’s too dangerous, too many ways that the crew can end up dead. It would be a different ballgame if this was happening out in South-East Asia and it was Chinese ships being taken. The Chinese would just blow the pirates out of the water and to hell with public opinion. Once a ship is taken the CTF will monitor what’s going on but it’s up to the shipping company to negotiate and pay. And that’s what they do.’

Shepherd nodded thoughtfully.

‘Is that any help to you?’ asked Giles.

‘It gives me an idea of how this is probably going to play out,’ said Shepherd.

‘This might sound like a stupid question, but if you know that the pirates are going to target a particular ship, why don’t you just warn the shipowners?’

‘That’s a good question,’ said Shepherd.

‘But I get the feeling you don’t have an answer.’

‘It’s complicated,’ said Shepherd.

Martin O’Brien joined the immigration queue, put his bag on the floor and stretched. He was a big man and even a British Airways business-class flat bed didn’t offer much in the way of comfort, not compared with the king-size bed that he normally slept in.