captain phillips the film

Did notice in the film he was firing a couple of distress flares almost got him as well. Obviously poetic licence taking by the film makers. These flares are designed to be pointed upwards and have very little directional capabilitys. Would of been better of using the schermuley line throwing gun. Or if ship carried a very pistol, are quite accurate up to 50 feet or so, any closer and would probably come out the other side of the body. Still surprised there were no firearms on an American ship though. Thought every american had one tucked away somewhere. JS

I wonder how many skiffs have just been blown up by Russian/ china and nothing reported? must be some..jp

I did a fill in trip on the Ramform Challenger in 2000, one of the mates had broken a leg or something so flew up to Singapore to fill in.She was for that time a very sophisticated Norwegian Seismic Ship and towed either 8 or 12 arrays. Working off the top end of Indonesia just before entering the Singapore straits from the north, a very bad place for ship boardings. The indonesian government put 2 soldiers on board and they spelled each other one sleeping on deck and the other in the cabin. Just the fact there was an armed presence on board was considered sufficient to keep people away. This was on the turn of the century and as everyone ashore was predicting that the ship would come to a grinding halt, as nearly everything engine wise was run on computers.Even had a tug standing by, what an anti climax when nowt happened. A boarding by pirates might have broken the chain of waiting for all hell to supposedly be let loose. Would have been interestin to see how 2 armed men( that is if one bothered to get up) would have handled a situation. Cheers John S

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Originally Posted by j.sabourn

Did notice in the film he was firing a couple of distress flares almost got him as well. Obviously poetic licence taking by the film makers. These flares are designed to be pointed upwards and have very little directional capabilitys. Would of been better of using the schermuley line throwing gun. Or if ship carried a very pistol, are quite accurate up to 50 feet or so, any closer and would probably come out the other side of the body. Still surprised there were no firearms on an American ship though. Thought every american had one tucked away somewhere. JS

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######john wayne would have sorted all that carry on with his 45s but who would have fed his horse at sea .....roger the cabin boy..regards cappy

Never could get over him being called marian. Was sighted years ago in Queensland sporting a pair of tight fitting shorts, and swinging a handbag. Nearly switched my allegiance to Rock Hudson, he however came out of the closet long enough to start off again from the beginning with Donald peers and Wilfred Pickles. Never fancied Mabel though. John S

The Film Captain Philips is being shown tonight at 8.00pm. on Sky Movies Premiere Channel.

John

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Originally Posted by cappy

######john wayne would have sorted all that carry on with his 45s but who would have fed his horse at sea .....roger the cabin boy..regards cappy

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And that my friend was the problem on many a ship, the acbbin boy getting 'roggered'

Just an update the Nigerian Govt supported by BIMCO (Baltic and International Maritime Co-operation Organisation) have made it illegal for Merchant vessels to carry firearms in Nigerian waters, any vessel doing so is likely to be impounded and the Master arrested. BIMCO, who are supposed to protect seafarers and shipping companies interests also state that the carrying of firearms may invalidate any insurance on the vessel, this not only applies to Nigerian waters, but also world wide. To me it would seem that the right is now on the side of the criminal, one can only assume that the inmates are running the asylum and that an organisation supposed to look after seafarers interests is being run by non seafarers who are probably accountants and have no idea what the current seafarer is facing. They are also not affected by the longer routing increasing the cost to the shipowner, who rightfully, will have to increase freight costs to cover additional fuel and war risk insurance, which inevitably will end up as an additional cost at the till, because on their salaries it will have miniscule affect and not alter their life on jot. But as usual seamen are expendable and just another Commercial risk' to be written into faceless legal jargon.

I thought you may like to start Saturday on a happy note!