Imagine going on a luxury cruise on Cunard’s Queen Anne which holds more than 3,350 passengers and fares for its first-ever world voyage begin at $16,379 per person, only to be ordered to hide on the ship for two days when passing through the Sulu and Celebes seas? Would you knowingly sign up for this?
The promotional info for the cruise didn’t mention that the passageway has a long history of piracy and maritime crime. I doubt that few cruise guests understood the potential risks that they were sailing into. One cruise passenger, lillydapink, posted a video on TikTok saying: “I didn’t know there were pirates around this area. We are crossing from Darwin to Manila . . . ”
A pirate attack on this ship filled with wealthy passengers would be like hitting the lotto for potential pirates.
A number of newspapers, including Business Insider and the New York Post, report that on Cunard’s Queen Anne, cruise passengers received an unexpected announcement on one of the nights of the voyage. The surprised cruisers were ordered via loudspeaker to turn off all cabin lights, shut their curtains and stateroom doors and avoid open decks or external windows as the ship traveled through the western Pacific Ocean to the Philippines. The ship’s external lighting was also dimmed and there were pressurized fire hoses on the promenade deck in preparation for any pirate attacks.
The captain claimed that the ship and passengers were his highest priority but the ship was sailing directly between the Philippines and Malaysia which has seen several incidents of armed robbery, kidnappings, and hijackings by pirates targeting ships.
One reader wrote on Facebook, “Imagine paying top dollar for a luxury cruise, only to be told to turn off the lights and hide like a zombie apocalypse drill?”
The International Centre for Counter-Terrorism has advised that the body of water surrounding Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Philippines is a “hotbed for crime, piracy, and terrorism.” The last incident in these waters was just five years ago.
Today’s pirates, from countries with economic hardship and political instability, often steal merchandise and take people onboard hostage and then ask for ransom money. They operate small, fast boats and use ladders to climb onboard. Some of the cruise ships have barbed wire barriers to prevent these pirates from boarding the ship. Ships may also have water cannons around the deck, long-range acoustic devices, advanced surveillance systems and security personnel to monitor and prepare for these pirates that target high maritime traffic.
Pirates also target cargo ships, bulk carriers and product tankers. Popular areas for attackers include the Gulf of Aden, the Gulf of Guinea, the Singapore Strait, the Strait of Malacca, the Bay of Bengal and the Sulu and Celebes Sea.
The poster of the TikTok video also commented, apparently in an effort to dispel anxiety of her fellow travelers: “As for as I know it’s never happened to a cruise ship just container ships.”
That’s a nice thought, but, yes, pirate attacks have not been limited to the Maersk Alabama (the tanker hijacked by Somali pirates which was made famous in the $200,000,000 smash film Captain Phillips with Tom Hanks).
In 2009, I wrote “The risk of an attack by pirates, particularly from Somalia is well known. No cargo or cruise line can argue with a straight face that an attack by pirates is unforeseeable. There have been literally hundreds of pirate attacks against a wide variety of cargo ships, cruise ships, and private yachts and sailboats in just the last few years.” See, Cruise Line Liability for Injuries to Passengers and Crew Members Caused by Pirate Attacks.
The captain of the Queen Anne announced that the ship, passengers and crew were allegedly the captain’s “highest priority;” the announcement also claimed that the risk of a pirate attack was “absolutely minimal.”
But yes, pirates have attacked cruise ships in the past. Some of the attacks which we have covered in the past include:
Pirates Love Cruise Ships – Attack Against the Seabourn Spirit
In November 2005, two speedboats full of pirates attacked the luxury cruise ship Seaborne Spirit, cruising about 100 miles off the coast of Africa. They began to board the cruise ship. Security Officer Michael Groves battled them off with a water hose, and the pirates responded with rocket propelled grenades and AK-47’s. Officer Grove’s bravery and grit defeated the heavily armed pack of pirates, and the vessel’s passengers and crew were saved. The Queen of England honored Officer Groves with a medal for his bravery.
Although the story ended happily for the Seaborne Spirit’s passengers who continued on with their luxury cruise, the fact of the matter is that the owners of the cruise ship (Carnival Corporation) had irresponsibly jeopardized the passengers and crew members by sailing into well know dangerous waters with an inadequate number of security personnel who were completely unarmed. Carnival also treated Officer Groves, who himself was injured by the pirates, quite shabbily and refused to compensate him for his injuries.
Pirate Attack Against the Balmoral – Security Guards with Fake Guns
In 2009, pirates reportedly attacked the cruise ship Balmoral. The cruise ship’s security employees were obviously ill equipped to handle the attack. The Sun newspaper reported that the security guards were forced to to fashion “gun-shaped weapons from pieces of wood in the hope of deterring the attackers.”
The newspaper reports that one passenger e-mailed a boyfriend about the attack: “I stood on the deck and watched through binoculars at men in the fishing boat armed with AK-47 rifles and rocket launchers. They were 300-400 metres away. Last night a lot of the passengers – many are in their 70s and 80s – were in tears and frightened to death.”
The passenger also commented: “the security have made guns from wood – like that’s going to help!
Barb Wire and Water Cannons at Sea
In 2008, the Discovery cruise ship, operated by Discover the World cruise line, reportedly confronted a Somali speedboat as the ship sailed from Mombasa towards the Seychelles Islands. The ship was equipped with “rolls of razor wire all over the stern rail (and) bundles of logs to be released to fall on any craft attaching itself to our hull.”
Pirate Attack Against the MSC Melody – Guests Throw Chairs
In 2009, the MSC Melody cruise ship was attacked by pirates. Incredibly, the first line of defense was the passengers’ throwing deck chairs to repel the pirates who were climbing up the side of the cruise ship. In an article entitled “Cruise Passengers Fought off Pirates with Deckchairs,” U.K.’s Telegraph reported how vacationing passengers fought off gun-wielding Somali pirates with deck chairs and tables when the pirates targeted their cruise ship near the Seychelles.
Crystal Cruises Risked Crew Member Lives By Sailing Crystal Symphony Through Strait of Bab el-Mandeb into the Red Sea
In April of last year, the Crystal Symphony transited the dangerous Strait of Bab el-Mandeb and sailed through the Red Sea where Houthi rebels previously fired missiles and struck commercial vessels. The Houthis in Yemen have exerted control of Red Sea to the west and the Gulf of Aden to the south by attacking commercial vessels in the area.
@NoamRaydan, a senior fellow at the Washington Institute (a think tank studying American interests in the Middle East) reported on Twitter (“X”) that the Crystal Symphony came under attack when it was sailing in the Red Sea, according to the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO).
The UKMTO stated that the Master of the Crystal Symphony reported that “they were hailed by an entity claiming to be the Yemini Navy who requested that the vessel turn on its AIS (Automatic Information System). Shortly after the hailing, a crew member of the vessel reported that they heard suspected gun shots.”
When we brought this dangerous stunt to the public’s attention (See, Crystal Cruises Risked Crew Member Lives By Sailing Crystal Symphony Through Strait of Bab el-Mandeb into the Red Sea, Crystal tried to defend its reckless endeavor by saying, among other things, that this just was a repositioning cruise without passengers (but what about the 500 crew members?) and that the ship was allegedly escorted by a U.S. naval warship (since when did the U.S. start risking U.S. military lives by escorting cruise ships flying the flag of the Bahamas?)
Protections Against Pirates
Cruise Critic wrote a surprisingly thorough article claiming that cruise ships generally protect themselves from pirate attacks by using a combination of barbed wire barriers, water cannons, long-range acoustic devices, electronic surveillance systems and security personnel. In the current case of Queen Anne, the TikTok videos show the presence of an acoustic device as well as water hoses (for what they are worth), although there are no images of barbed wire or the presence of security personnel, much less armed security forces.
Depending on the itinerary of the ship and the particular policies of the cruise line, there is often a reluctance to hire additional security personnel or equip them with firearms. Many cruise ships, including Cunard ships, currently have no independent armed, security forces, although Cunard vessels apparently at one time hired “plain-clothes gun units” to accompany the ships while in treacherous water. See, Armed Royal Marines Secretly Joined Passengers On Board Luxury Cruise Ship to Protect Against Somali Pirates (“Crack team boarded Queen Mary 2 as it sailed through treacherous Gulf of Aden. Area has been dubbed Pirate Alley because of number of Somali outlaws there.”)
Many ships have no acoustic (i.e., sonic) devises, although they are required under the 2010 Cruise Vessel Security and Safety Act *See, Pirates Beware: Cruise Line Purchases Acoustic Hailing Device).
Conclusion
The most effective way to protect the passengers and crew from pirates obviously is to avoid high risk areas where pirates have launched attacks in the past. No passenger or crew member should find themselves at sea being told that they are about to enter a high risk area or, in the case of the Houthi controlled Strait of Bab el Mandeb, literally a war zone. Such risks must be disclosed before the cruise is sold and before the crew members are employed aboard the ship.
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Image Credit: Top photos: Queen Anne – Cunard/ Carnival Corporation, and pirate skiff which attacked the luxury cruise ship Seabourn Spirit on November 5, 2005, approximately 100 miles off the coast of Somalia – AP/Azim; Pirates Attacking the Balmoral – News Group Newspapers Ltd., Discovery cruise ship -Richard Snailham via Telegraph.