A map of 2008 pirate attacks may be of interest to y’all. It’s pretty cool, you can click through to the detailed report. I love how our world is filled with data!
Notice the complete lack of pirates in the North Atlantic and North Pacific, for example. And many of the pirate attacks are quite banal, for example, the first one I clicked through on:
Vessel Type: Vehicle Carrier
Location: PORT AU PRINCE ANCHORAGE
Incident details: 18.06.2008: 0530 LT: 18:34.2N – 072:24.2W, Port Au Prince anchorage, Haiti. Robbers boarded an anchored vehicle carrier via the anchor chain. They stole ship’s stores from the forward station and escaped.
If we filter out these types of unarmed robberies, the map would look pretty empty, I believe, except in the Gulf of Aden and Straits of Malacca, and perhaps a few other places. These attacks are the equivalent of someone stealing your car stereo – not pleasant, but not the sort of life-threatening horror that would render the seas uninhabitable.
