Somali Pirates Take on the Wrong Ship This Time

Earlier this year we had the drama of the Maersk Alabama and the three pirates who entered paradise simultaneously thanks to the coordinated efforts of Navy snipers. You'd think the pirates would have learned to leave that ship alone, but not so:

Somali pirates attacked the Maersk Alabama on Wednesday for the second time in seven months, though private guards on board the U.S.-flagged ship repelled the attack with gunfire and a high-decibel noise device.

A U.S. surveillance plane was monitoring the ship as it continued to its destination on the Kenyan coast, while a pirate said that the captain of a ship hijacked Monday with 28 North Korean crew members on board had died of wounds.

Pirates hijacked the Maersk Alabama last April and took ship captain Richard Phillips hostage, holding him at gunpoint in a lifeboat for five days. Navy SEAL sharpshooters freed Phillips while killing three pirates in a daring nighttime attack.

Four suspected pirates in a skiff attacked the ship again on Tuesday around 6:30 a.m. local time, firing on the ship with automatic weapons from about 300 yards (meters) away, a statement from the U.S. Fifth Fleet in Bahrain said.

An on-board security team repelled the attack by using evasive maneuvers, small-arms fire and a Long Range Acoustic Device, which can beam earsplitting alarm tones, the fleet said.

I believe they were broadcasting that CD of Obama's speeches that the president gave then Queen during his visit to London.

If you've ever seen "Whale Wars" you've seen those acoustic devices. The Japanese whaling fleet used them with great effectiveness against the econuts on the Sea Shepherd. They can be quite unpleasant.