Spot And Soak

Supplying technical solutions to shipping has always been big business. Alas the anti-piracy kit locker is filled with the abandoned detritus of false hopes and equipment which sounded wonderful in theory, looked amazing in the brochures, but which simply did not deliver in the face of a withering pirate onslaught.

With piracy reaching yet another all time high, a range of companies have come out with what they see as being the “killer ship security app”.
Samsung Heavy Industries new anti-piracy system, promises to detect smaller boats in the vicinity, and then issue an automatic alert when the ship is approached.

“The alert is issued when an approaching vessel does not respond to usual ship-to-ship radio communications or shows unusual navigating patterns and speed,” the company proudly boasted. That’ll be 90% of the worlds fishing fleet then.

The system also allows watchkeepers to remotely control water cannons on the ship’s deck that can blast up to 70 metres (230 feet) when pirates attempt to climb aboard.