OFF THE SHELF: a Book Review

Terror on the Seas: True Tales of Modern-Day Pirates by Daniel Sekulich (Thomas Dunne Books, St. Martin’s Press, 2009).

Piracy is much in the news these days, and with good reason. It costs the world economy an estimated $25 billion a year in lost and stolen goods, ransoms paid, higher insurance premiums and damaged or sunken ships – not to mention the cost of preventive measures. More importantly, it can often lead to loss of life or serious injury (both physical and psychological), and its demoralizing effect on mariners has been previously well-documented in the pages of MarEx. Many seafarers give up the sea entirely after an encounter with pirates.

And yet despite all the killing and plundering and kidnappings, there remains this romantic image of piracy and of pirates themselves, who are often viewed in the popular imagination as modern-day, happy-go-lucky Robin Hoods, robbing from the rich to pay the poor. Hollywood has been especially responsible for this, and one need look no further than the recent hit movie, “Pirates of the Caribbean,” to see why.

For savvy MarEx readers, there is a better alternative. Terror on the Seas, a new book by Daniel Sekulich, will give you the real story. Sekulich, a documentary filmmaker and reporter for the Toronto Globe and Mail, goes on a round-the-world journey to uncover the root causes of piracy and to meet and interview real-life pirates and their victims. No Johnny Depp-like characters here, no sir. Applying his investigative reporter’s skills, Sekulich begins his quest in London, at the International Maritime Bureau (IMB), which maintains the most comprehensive records on piracy in the world. “Why does someone become a pirate?” asks the IMB Director, Pottengal Mukundan, “Well, purely for financial gain. Everything that we see is economic piracy and most of the incidents take place in countries with economic problems. As long as there has been maritime commerce, there has been piracy.” And therein lies the rub. As long as there is poverty and inequality on the one hand and ships laden with riches on the other, there will be pirates. If not the oldest profession, it ranks right up there.

Execution Dock

The IMB office in London is within sight of Execution Dock, where pirates of old like Captain William Kidd were hanged for all to see. Sekulich takes note of this and throughout the book sprinkles his narrative with fascinating geographical references and historical flashbacks. In Singapore there is the Dragon’s Teeth, and in Madagascar the utopian Libertalia, a perhaps mythical paradise where pirates inhabited their own private republic. There are frequent references to the wonderfully titled A General History of the Pyrates, written by Captain Charles Johnson in 1724 (and originally thought to have been written by Daniel Defoe). In Johnson’s 1728 edition of The History of the Pyrates, we are treated to this vision of Libertalia: “He told his Men, that this was an excellent Place for an Asylum…that they might have some Place to call their own; and a Receptacle, when Age or Wounds had render’d them incapable of Hardship, where they might enjoy the Fruits of their Labour, and go to their Graves in Peace.”

From London Sekulich makes his way to all the pirate hot spots – Somalia, Nigeria, the Strait of Malacca, Indonesia and Malaysia, the Philippines, Sri Lanka. He spends so much time travelling that even the reader begins to get jet lag. In Kuala Lumpur we meet Noel Choong, head of the IMB’s Piracy Reporting Centre, a small, three-person operation that is somehow supposed to monitor pirate activity worldwide. In Singapore we meet the mysterious “Mr. Lee,” a reputed organized crime figure with alleged links to pirates. Back in the States we meet Joe Casalino, a former seafarer who endured humiliation at the hands of Iraqi pirates while sailing under the auspices of the Maritime Security Program. And finally, in Singapore again, we meet a real pirate, an Indonesian fisherman named Musso, who turned to piracy in a desperate attempt to secure employment and feed his family.

The nexus between fishermen and pirates is a recurring theme throughout the book. In many parts of the world, the two professions are closely linked, which helps explain how pirates can blend back into the local landscape at a moment’s notice and why they are so difficult to identify and capture. Fishermen one day, pirates the next. The skills required are interchangeable, with a few extras thrown in for pirates.

Pirates and Terrorists

Are pirates terrorists? In most cases, no. Have terrorists functioned as pirates? Yes, except their aim is not to rob or hold for ransom but rather to kill and destroy. For evidence of this one need look no further than the Al Qaeda-directed suicide attacks on the guided-missile destroyer USS Cole in 2000 and the French supertanker MV Limburg in 2002. Sekulich points out that terrorists have been using the sea for decades to promote their political agenda. He cites the 1961 hijacking of the Portuguese cruise ship Santa Maria by a radical group of Spanish and Portuguese exiles and the more famous 1985 hijacking of the Achille Lauro by members of the Palestine Liberation Front. Fast forward to the explosion and sinking of the Manila SuperFerry 14 in 2004, with the loss of more than 100 lives, and the ongoing predations of the Tamil “Sea Tigers” off the coast of Sri Lanka, and you have a pattern of maritime terrorism that is easy to spot, but hard to prevent.

Among the more fascinating details in the book is the distinction between piracy and privateering. A privateer is a pirate operating with the approval of his government. He has the legal right to seize and commandeer ships of other nations, and he and his crew get a percentage of the take. Among the more famous privateers of old were the aforementioned Captain Kidd, Sir Francis Drake and Sir Henry Morgan (after whom a well-known rum is named). Like fishermen and pirates, privateers and pirates are often two sides of the same person.

Terror on the Seas will immerse you in the history of piracy and its modern-day rebirth, as told through the eyes of an investigative reporter determined to get answers on a topic about which few are willing to talk. In addition to a very useful bibliography, index and notes section, the book is an eloquent plea for action on the part of governments everywhere. Sekulich concludes his journey by saying, “Our failure to address piracy will only prove a grave mistake, bequeathing to future generations a problem that should be dealt with today.” We couldn’t agree more. – MarEx

Jack O’Connell is Senior Copy Editor of The Maritime Executive.