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What cruise ships have been attacked by pirates?

In 2005, Seabourn Spirit was about 100 miles off the coast of Somalia when pirates fired AK-47 machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades in an attempt to highjack the ship. They failed. An April 2008 pirate attack on Le Ponant, a French luxury sailing vessel, was more successful.



While modern piracy rarely results in the loss of a vessel, several high-profile cruise ships have faced attacks, primarily off the coast of Somalia and in the Gulf of Aden. One of the most famous incidents occurred in 2005 when the Seabourn Spirit was targeted by pirates using machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades; the crew successfully repelled the boarders using a Long Range Acoustic Device (LRAD) to blast painful sound waves at them. In 2009, the MSC Melody was attacked by six armed pirates in a speedboat; however, the onboard security team and passengers (who reportedly threw deck chairs at the attackers) managed to hold them off until a nearby warship arrived. Other notable encounters include the Le Ponant in 2008, which was actually hijacked and held for ransom (though only crew were on board), and the Nautica, which outran a pirate skiff in late 2008. These events have led most major cruise lines to employ elite security teams and utilize sophisticated radar and "zig-zag" maneuvers to ensure that such incidents remain rare and non-fatal for passengers.

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Only six of the 230 recorded attacks were against cruise ships. None have resulted in capture. A well-known incident occurred in 2005 when the Seabourn Spirit was fired at in a hijack attempt. The attempt was unsuccessful but is famous largely because of the footage of the event.

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How many ships are captured by pirates each year? In 2022, there was a decrease in pirate attacks against ships worldwide compared with the previous year. While 132 ships were attacked by pirates in 2021, the number of ships attacked dropped to 115 in 2022.

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Indonesia's 17,500 islands and their surrounding waters now take the title as the world's most heavily pirated.

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In 2005, Seabourn Spirit was about 100 miles off the coast of Somalia when pirates fired AK-47 machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades in an attempt to highjack the ship.

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In 1997, the vessel entered service for MSC Cruises as Melody. She ended her career as an accommodation ship Qing, during which she sank in storm at her berth, and was scrapped in 2019.

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When cruise ships DO need to go relatively close to areas where pirates are active, they will often have a military style escort ship to keep others at a distance. There are a whole variety of other things going on that also protect cruise ships and their passengers.

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Yes, cruise ships have brigs, which is the nautical term for a jail on a vessel, including a cruise ship. The term comes from the word brigantine, which is a type of two-masted sailing ship formerly used to house criminals.

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Tourists on board a luxury cruise sailing through the Arabian Sea and Suez Canal were subjected to a “dusk-till-dawn” black out for ten days as the captain of the ship implemented a strict code to prevent any pirate attack. The cruise ship, Sea Princess was carrying 1,900 passengers on a 104-day trip.

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Are cruise ships safe? Let's cut right to the chase: Yes, cruise ships are generally safe as long as you use common sense and remember that vessels are not impervious to accidents, illness or people who just don't know how to behave.

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Carnival is one world's largest cruise lines, but since it has existed, only one of its vessels has ever sunk, the Costa Concordia in 2012. Although Costa is an Italian cruise ship company, it is owned by Carnival Corporation. From its fleet of Carnival brand cruise ships, none have ever sunk or capsized.

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Tortuga, a tiny island off the northwest coast of Haiti, became one of the most notorious pirate settlements in the Caribbean when French and Spanish buccaneers set up shop in the mid-17th century. Serious pirate historians put the island high on their travel to-do lists.

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