Unfortunately, piracy is still big business in many parts of the world - mostly Africa and the Singapore Straits.
It is strongly suggested that
all ships entering Singapore
anchor overnight somewhere else rather than approach the Strait in the dark - hence the incident described in an earlier thread entitled "anchoring problems".
We were shown endless
videos about piracy and how to defend the ship - and none of them included guns. The best repellents seemed to be:
1. Don't go through pirate-infected waters at night.
2. Make sure you're well lit.
3. Block off all entry points to the ship and
4.
Rig fire hoses (to keep the baddies from getting close).
We were told that guns increase your chance of being killed. If you co-operate and don't play the hero, they'll usually chuck you overboard in the
dinghy (or
liferaft).
It seems that most pirates want the ship and the cargo and usually choose container ships, tankers or other large craft that have small crews and are easy to board unseen - unlike passenger liners or private vessels - but if they're bored or want a challenge I suppose anyone is fair game..