Science Addiction

Maybe we can blame it on the three Disney movies, but pirates are back in full strength– these days off the horn of Africa.

Nick Davis who, for $30,000, will arrange a team of private guards to travel on your boat and scare away pirates. Without any lethal weaponry.

He runs a company called APMSS- Anti-Piracy Maritime Security Solutions (Non-Lethal). I would have thought they would have gone something cooler, like “Avast Ye Lilly Livered Scallywag“. Alas!

While I don’t know what technology APMSS uses specifically, these are the kinds of things that are used against pirates.

• Long Range Acoustic Device
  This is a crowd-control device that can emit high frequency and high volume sounds that are capable of permanently damaging hearing.
• Magnetic Audio Device
  This can be used as a modern version of the bullhorn in its simplest capacity- to notify, direct or warn the enemy.
• Thermal Imagers
  To see in the dark, through smoke and so forth.
• Night Sun Torches
  Not sure what these are, but they sound like something I’d want.
• Anti-Boarding Systems
  Things like 9000 vole electrifying fences and alarms that will activate floodlights and a siren on detecting pirates. The shock is supposed to be painful but not fatal.
• Finally, knives
  On NPR, when confronted with the possibility that a pirate may get on board, Davis admitted that they may resort to knives. And they are trained Marines and former Special Forces types.

And then, there are the lethal variety of technology. Of course, as Davis said, if they fire first, they are the pirates.