The movie Pirates of the Caribbean is filled with excitement, adventure and romance.  However, today’s real life pirates are terrorists and thugs who prey on ships entering "their" waters.

On April 25, 2009 the MSC Melody was sailing from Durban, South Africa to Genoa, Italy when a small speedboat carrying 6 Somali pirates armed with assault weapons approached the side of the ship and opened fire.  MSC Cruises immediately informed the Italian Government foreign office, The Maritime Security Center in London and the Coordination Center for Security in Dubai  Captain Pinto Cira took evasive action and started a zig zag maneuver.  The Melody's security staff returned fire surprising the pirates and averting a possible hijacking. Thankfully no one was injured.

This incident has now caused a controversy among many who believe the Melody should not have returned fire.  To their everlasting credit MSC officials, knowing they would be sailing in pirate waters, wisely took the precaution of arming their ship with a qualified security staff for the protection of all their passengers.  Can we ever be too prepared?  We all learned the hard way on 9/11 to be prepared for any situation. 

There is no excuse for inaction and unpreparedness when it comes to the safety of passengers.  The CEO of MSC has stated that they will no longer be sailing the Red Sea and Suez Canal.  Perhaps, this will put pressure on neighboring countries that depend on cruise tourism to stop the piracy in their area.   Hopefully it will also send a signal to would be terrorist-pirates who might be thinking of operating in other areas of the world.

This piracy is now limited to an isolated area of the world and cruising still remains the safest way to travel and enjoy.  My husband, The Crabby Old Guy (a name he gave himself) and I will continue to cruise.  We believe cruise lines and the experienced Captains and crews they employ are well prepared to deal with these matters. Most importantly we do not want terrorism to grab a strangle hold on our freedoms and our lives.

MSC WE SALUTE YOU! 

What do you think?