Prepare to repel boarders!
It’s not often that I get asked, “What gun should I use against pirates?” According to the fine people working the Pirates of the Caribbean ride at Disney World in Orlando, Fla., a cutlass and blunderbuss are a minimum, and a good brass cannon if your schooner can support such a thing. However, I make room for the possibility that this person was asking about the more current pirate scourge faced by people sailing by the Horn of Africa, in which case a cutlass will probably get you laughed at by a group of illiterate Somalis holding AK-47s and RPGs.
First, a disclaimer. I’m not a sailor, so I’m a boat noob. After researching the issue a little, I can tell you that whether or not to carry a weapon aboard your vessel is a decision you’re going to have to agonize over. There are so many considerations you have to take into account, and at the end you, and you alone, have to decide whether it’s worth it.
The Considerations
If you’ve ever tried to drive a handgun through New Jersey, you know that no matter what your hometown thinks about firearms, there are places where they are feared and highly illegal. That’s just driving from one state to another. When you’re sailing you’re often going from one country to another, and unfortunately the 2nd Amendment is a very American concept not looked favorably upon from distant shores. So it’s on you to do some research. Is your gun going to be legal at your destination port? Is your gun going to be legal if you have put in somewhere for repairs? Is your gun going to be legal if you’re transiting another nation’s waters? The staff at Maritimesecurity.com put it this way:
“…a vessel with no firearms aboard, cruising in an area that prohibits firearms, is at risk only from the natural and criminal elements in the particular locale. Yet a vessel that has a firearm aboard in an area that prohibits firearms is at risk from natural, criminal, and law enforcement elements. Your effort to protect your vessel with a firearm has just INCREASED the level of risk to the vessel and crew significantly because you are now breaking the law.”
Is there a threat out there that Somali pirates could take your ship and hold you for ransom? Sure. But there’s also a threat that some other country’s coast guard could take your ship, arrest you and toss you in jail for five years. The difference between the two scenarios is that in the second possibility, no SEAL team is coming to rescue you. Their act is legal and justified if you’re caught breaking their laws.
Another consideration is the financial burden you might face in the way of insurance costs. Again, it’s on you to find out from your insurance company what their policy on firearms is. Some companies will not pay if the incident in question included a firearm.
The Weapon
So you’ve weighed the considerations carefully and have decided you want to carry weapons aboard your vessel. Okay, so now you have to decide what to carry. Again, there are considerations to weigh here. First and foremost is the environment. Salt air will eat a firearm down to nothing. According to MaritimeSecurity.com you want your weapon to be stainless steel or have a corrosion-resistant finish on it.
Your next consideration goes back to what we talked about earlier in regards to legality. Here in the U.S., it’s nothing to go into a store and walk out with an AR15 that’s only a part or two away from being the same weapon carried by the U.S. Army. In another country, the mere presence of such a thing could be grounds for calling out a SWAT team. Handguns have the same problem. In a lot of countries and even some states in the U.S., handguns are verboten.
So what are we left with?
The blunderbuss…. er… shotgun. A shotgun like the Mossberg Mariner has a lot of things going for it in this situation. First as the Noonsite article, Practical and Legal Implications of the Carriage of Firearms, points out, shotguns are not prohibited by a majority of countries as long as they’re declared and locked up safely. Shotguns don’t give people panic attacks the way assault rifles or handguns do (unless they’re pointed in their specific direction), so they’re more tolerated. After all, pistols and assault rifles are designed to kill men. Shotguns are designed to kill geese. The fact that they kill men just as well as geese doesn’t seem to factor. For this reason, you should resist the urge to “tacti-cool” your shotgun. If it looks like a regular old shotgun, you might get hassled less. One is a tool for hunting. The other is a weapon of war. Know the difference.
The other significant advantage is in ammunition. A shotgun’s greatest strength is its diversity of ammunition whereas a rifle gives you considerably less options. A rifle will shoot through walls where a shotgun can be loaded with lighter loads that won’t. Considering that there’s an ocean on the other side of your wall, this is a very good option to have. If you have to shoot further, you just load in rifled slugs and you have a weapon that can shoot out to a hundred yards and punch holes in hulls.
A shotgun is easy to use, easy to maintain, and models are made specifically for maritime use. Attend safety classes and learn about the laws surrounding use of force where you live and travel. Knowledge of the law and knowledge of safe employment are critical.
Conclusion
Whether or not you decide to carry a weapon aboard your vessel is a choice you’re going to have to make after weighing all the considerations. Should the time come when you are faced with an attack, I would ask you to turn your ship and run. Find out where the nearest warship or coast guard vessel is cruising and start yelling for help from the onset. You have to remember, for you a gun battle on the high seas is something you think might happen to you someday if you’re very unlucky. For the pirates on the other side of that engagement, it’s a way of life. It’s their version of putting on a suit and tie in the morning and driving to the office to file TPS reports. Their boats are faster. Their weapons will be more powerful. And they will have more experience using them. If you’re breaking out the shotgun, you are already in a trouble you have never known.
Fair winds and following seas.
TJ
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