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Luxury Seabourn cruiseliner attacked by pirates
Pirates attached the luxury cruise liner Seabourn Spirit with machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades, Saturday off the East African coast by Somalia.
The pirates tried to board the Seabourn Spirit, but the ship outran the two-armed boats, in addition to use a sonic weapon to help ward off the attackers developed for the military after the 2000 attack on the USS Cole in Yemen as a way to keep operators of small boats from approaching U.S. warships. The device blasts earsplitting noise in a directed beam.
The 151 passengers, mostly Americans with some Australians and Europeans, were gathered in a lounge for their safety after being woken by the sound of the gunfire. The only injury was to one crewmember that was injured by shrapnel.
Seabourn Cruise Lines will re-evaluate whether to continue cruises off the coast of Somalia following the attack. President Deborah Natansohn said: “We’re obviously evaluating the situation now and we’ll take that decision at a later point.”
She told CNN: “We do know, of course, that the Indian Ocean is an area that we have to be more alert, and we were traveling through the area in a high state of alert.
“We train for all kinds of emergencies on cruise ships so we are prepared for anything,” Natansohn added.
The Spirit was en route to Mombasa, Kenya, on a 16-day cruise from Alexandria, Egypt. Seychelles in the Indian Ocean and Singapore are the other scheduled stops.
Several ships a month are attacked or hijacked of the Samalian coast, with valuables stolen and crews held for ransom.
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