The Shipcraft Group shipping company, whose vessel narrowly escaped being hijacked last week in the Gulf of Aden, has decided to hire private armed guards for its vessels.

“We have a duty to protect our crews and ensure that help is near when the pirates attack. As a result we are putting armed guards on board – also to ensure that the pirates are kept at a distance until helicopters can get to the scene. Their presence will be preventive and to scare off pirates by – in the worst case – firing warning shots if necessary,” Shipcraft CEO Per Nykjær Jensen according to a report in Fyns Amts Avis.

He adds that powerful loudspeakers will also enable the guards to warn pirates who approach company vessels that there are weapons on board.

Not soldiers
“The guards will not be taking over the jobs of the soldiers by shooting at the pirates or their vessels. The agreement with the security companies will clearly show that,” Jensen says.

He says that costs for the armed guards will run to some DKK 200,000 per navigation through the Guilf of Aden.

Jensen says he would prefer coalition naval forces to be able to put armed guards on board.

“But we have found that there are problems of coordination between the forces in the area,” Jensen says adding that it is unfortunate that naval vessels in the area do not target pirate mother ships in the region.

Bad idea
Chairman of the Maritime Managers Association Peer Bøje Brandenborg says Shipcraft’s move is not a good one.

“This will only escalate the violence and if guards shoot at the pirates, they will shoot back. So the situation can develop much too violently,” Brandenborg tells Fyns Amts Avis.

The Danish Shipowners Associaition Deputy Director Jan Fritz Hansen told politiken.dk recently that shipowners were reluctant to put private armed guards on vessels for fear of escalating violence.

“We could accept marines on board if they are under the control of naval forces that we trust– that is there’s a government behind them and they are secure and well-trained. What we have been very reluctant to do is to embark on a development where we buy private guards or gunslingers to protect our ships. I think that would escalate the conflict unnecessarily,” Hansen says.