I mean it was pretty rough when they killed all the pirates aboard the vessel. Reminds me of an incident on a unnamed containership, that also took the law into their own hands. The second mate was on watch following standing orders of running at a
fuel conserving speed of 17 kts in heavy
fog. The second mate noticed on his
radar a vessel on a converging course that they would be intercepting. Turns out this vessel was pirates. The pirates hailed the second mate over
VHF, instructing him to slow down for boarding. This happened close to 10 years ago and in those days all the pirates were after was the cash in the captain's safe. Old maritime law stipulated that every vessel had to carry enough cash to be able to pay the crew in entirety at any given port. Of course the pirates also want all the cigarettes they could carry from the duty-free. The second mate did not respond to the order to slow down, and because of that the pirates started shooting the windows of the bridge. He called the old man to come to the bridge and when he did he relieved the second mate, called for full ahead sea speed. The
captain was furious, when he took the
helm. This particular containership has a top speed of 24 kts. He ordered a Williamson turn, which is used for man
overboard drills and entered into the logbook that a man
overboard drill was taking place. It wasn't long that lumbering containership got up to speed, pulled away from the Pirates, and was executing the Williamson turn.
Some of you are probably familiar with the
radar systems we have aboard large ships, and are employed for
collision avoidance. The same
software program that allows you to plot a course and speed of vessels around you on your
screen so that you can take evasive actions can also be used to ensure a
collision. In the heavy
fog that is what the
captain intended to do. He was successful, destroyed the Pirate's vessel and presumably killed all on board.