A few weeks ago, I spread the gospel on International Talk Like a Pirate Day.
I came across this article on the BBC website about a recent incident in the Indian Ocean.
Pirates are not a thing of the past. They still exist and still cost international shipping millions of dollars a year.
Far from being romantic figures of swashbuckling legend, modern pirates are little better than thugs.
It never stopped, jrf. Pirates are everywhere.
ReplyDeleteNo_Pirate_fan, I wouldn't say that pirates are everywhere, exactly.
ReplyDeleteA former Coast Guard officer recently regaled me with true life stories of modern Pirates of the Carribbean. He was very interesting. In a sense, you're right, they never went away. They just changed tactics. I guess it would be hard in the modern age to outfit a privateer with crew and ordnance to waylay and board a freighter.
I hear the Straits of Molucca in the Pacific are particularly rife with pirates.
They are the reason I am hesitant to join my husband in his dream of sailing around the world. I don't really want a gunshot to the head and a watery grave to end my adventures of life...or worse, be kidnapped and sold into sex slavery.
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