Typical Pirate Attack

Location: South East Asia, Indian sub continent, Africa, and Red Sea. Distance from shore varies with mother ship and can extend to over 200nm. The Sirius Star was seized Nov. 14, 2008 at 450nm off the coast.
South/Central America and Caribbean attacks occur primarily at anchorage sites.

Time: Early morning is prime pirate time. Attacks do happen at all hours of the day, and less commonly, at night.

Weather: Pirates favor small skiffs, which means that waves over 1.64 ft (.5m) to 4.1 ft (1.25m) can pose a problem to them.

Equipment: Two or more skiffs capable of reaching up to 25 knots. Pirates have been known to use electronic equipment such as GPS and Automatic Identification System to plan attacks and identify targets. Satilite phones, money counting machines, and machines that detect fake bills have been used for facilitating ransom.

Weapons: Typically AK-47 and RPG-7. Their arsenals are growing with the influx of ransom money.

Target: Merchant vessel traveling under 18 knots, with a freeboard (height above water) of under 26.25 ft (8m) for easy access. Poor lighting, distracted crew, lack of visible defense such as charged fire hoses, razor wire, security guards, and Long Range Acoustic Device (LRAD) are also contributors.

Attack: Pirates may initially use intimidation tactics, small arms fire and RPGs to slow a ship. This attack is most likely to occur at the quarter or stern of the ship, because of its low visibility from the bridge. Pirates have consistently attacked the port quarter in past events. The pirates then board using grappling hooks and lightweight ladders and make their way to the bridge, where they force the ship to slow or stop to allow more pirates on board.

Ransom: This is paid in used $50 and $100 bills. Somali pirates are only happy with bills printed after the year 2000 according to a BBC interview. The money is delivered via armed tugboat or dropped by aircraft. The ransom can hit $9 million, as it did for the Samho Dream in November of 2010.