A recent survey of 110 German shipping companies by PWC (formerly PriceWaterhouse Coopers) found that 12 used private security agencies in some capacity. Ruetten believes this is not nearly enough, and that too many companies rely on improvised defense measures like strapping mannequins to strategic positions on deck to make a ship look like it is being guarded.
I found this article over at Deutsche Welle. It gave a good run down of the German maritime security market and how they view PSC’s in the Gulf of Aden. The quote up top was really interesting, but as per usual, they have some folks here giving some very bad advice about the realities of the high seas.
Max Johns, spokesman for the Association of German Ship-owners is wrong on one of his points he brought up as well. The private security team he is referring to, was not armed and had no means of protecting themselves or the boat other than with the pathetic less than lethal crap they had. So his point that PSC’s are a bad idea because they are not dependable is wrong.
Unarmed PSC’s are a bad idea, and I am sure if these folks had a means to defend themselves and the crew, the outcome would have been far different. It is dorks like this spokesman who continue to promote this myth that less than lethal is an appropriate defense against pirates armed with RPG’s, PKM’s and AK 47’s. It is this same myth that creates this mindset that companies should just roll the dice, or pay the ransom if their vessel is taken. Meanwhile, every ransom paid just increases the size of the piracy problem. It is a simple equation–paying ransoms fuels piracy.
And those PSC companies that continue to tell shipping companies that being unarmed in those waters is a good idea, are equally to blame. It’s as if you are selling a company on the idea that you can magically protect them without using lethal force. Your strategies might work for some cases, but they will not cover the instances where a pirate force actually understands how to defeat your less than lethal measures (like using binoculars to tell if you have mannequins on the deck) and/or evasive maneuvers (ransom money allows investments in faster boats).
Just wait until pirates start coming aboard with cutting torches or shaped charges to open the doors of safe rooms or bridges/engineer rooms? Or when they start contracting captains and crews that know how to command these ships? The pirate is not dumb and they are learning and evolving as their industry is fueled by the profits gained by ransoms.
The point is, losing control of your ship is ‘losing control of your ship’. Having armed and competent security on a ship will at least give the crew and captain a fighting chance. Having a strong defense is also a crucial element in taking care of your people, which I would certainly hope a captain or the owner of a company would actually care about?
As for the German company IBS mentioned, I haven’t a clue as to who they are or what they are all about. If any of my German readers have anything to add, feel free to comment below. –Matt
Anti-piracy measures for sale in Hamburg
By Ben Knight
October 25, 2010
The hijacking of two ships over the weekend highlights the difficulties Western navies face combating piracy off the coast of Somalia. Many shipping lines are turning to private security firms for protection.
When it comes to global shipping, there is no avoiding the Gulf of Aden, which leads between the failed state of Somalia and Yemen – a nation security analysts describe as at-risk. These waters carry a significant share of the world’s wealth, including 11 percent of the world’s seaborne oil.
The 25,000 cargo ships that pass through the Gulf of Aden every year are tempting targets for heavily armed groups in Somalia, who claim overfishing by foreign vessels has robbed them of their livelihoods.
Earlier this year the International Maritime Bureau warned that attacks on merchant shipping are on the rise. European defense officials say Somali pirates are currently holding 20 ships and more than 400 crew for ransom off the Horn of Africa.
More attacks, more attention
With media attention snowballing and insurance premiums sky-rocketing, more and more shipping companies are turning to private security firms for protection.
One of them is International Bodyguard and Security Agency (IBS) – a company founded by Horst Ruetten, formally of the German navy.
From his office in the port city of Hamburg, Ruetten delivers an impressive sales pitch: “We offer everything from risk assessment for ships through to advice about equipment – razor-wire and bullet-proof blankets, everything that can help protect the crew – all the way to training.”
Ruetten also sends out teams of between five and seven men to guard the ships personally. They are armed with what he describes as “lethal” and/or “non-lethal” weapons, depending on the shipping company’s wishes. These teams cost several thousand euros a day.
Operation Atalanta
There is of course a state military presence off the coast of Somalia – Operation Atalanta, the official EU naval mission that occasionally makes the news when it storms hijacked ships and arrests pirates. But Juergen Strohsal, of the Hamburg-based cargo brokering company Teutonia, says that the political will behind this intervention is too weak.
“There is support, but not sufficient,” he told Deutsche Welle. “There are no results. If they get some of the pirates, no-one really punishes them, and they come back in force. I think the politicians have to do more about this, especially in our country.”
Horst Ruetten agrees, and points out something seldom mentioned in media reports about captured pirates: Atalanta’s official mission is to protect World Food Program ships carrying aid to Africa. It is not meant to be a nautical police force for the Gulf of Aden, and generally intervenes only once a hijacking has taken place. This has undoubtedly had a preventative effect, but prevention is not its purpose.
“In the anti-piracy conferences that happen every now and then, a lot of Atalanta spokesmen have told shipping companies ‘You have to do something about it. We can’t be everywhere at once,'” Ruetten says. “So the shipping companies have to ask themselves what they can do. That doesn’t happen enough.”
All mannequins on deck!
A recent survey of 110 German shipping companies by PWC (formerly PriceWaterhouse Coopers) found that 12 used private security agencies in some capacity. Ruetten believes this is not nearly enough, and that too many companies rely on improvised defense measures like strapping mannequins to strategic positions on deck to make a ship look like it is being guarded.
But the official line in the shipping industry is very cautious. Max Johns, spokesman for the Association of German Ship-owners (VDR), says that shipping companies are advised not introduce armed escorts on to their ships.
“By the law of the sea, only military personnel should act against pirates. That is the first point,” Johns says. “Secondly we don’t know these private security teams. We don’t know how good they are, and we don’t know who to trust and who not to trust. They might have a fire-fight with the pirates – our crews are not trained to act in a military or semi-military conflict.”
The fear is that if a security guard killed an innocent Somali fisherman, it would cause a damaging legal headache for the shipping industry. Johns also questions how effective mercenaries really are when push comes to shove.
“They haven’t proven successful,” he says. “There were quite a few of those teams on board ships, and we had some incidents when those ships were boarded by pirates, and those people didn’t help at all.” “
“They didn’t make any difference. They even jumped overboard, because they didn’t want to get caught by pirates, and they were picked up then later out of the water by the navy.”
Johns is optimistic that vulnerable merchant vessels will soon have EU military personnel on board, but until then Ruetten and his team of professionals will continue making profits by running the gauntlet in the Gulf of Aden.
Story here.
I hate to read stuff like this from people that haven't spent one day at sea doing this job. Obviously he has never taken the time to read the international law of the sea and does not know what the Master can and cannot do when attacked. Mercenaries? He doesn't even know what the definition of a mercenary is….and we are certainly not mercenaries. There is a saying in Texas that "You can put boots in the oven but it doesn't make them biscuts".
Bottom line: No ship that has had an armed security team aboard has ever been hijacked.
Comment by Jim J — Wednesday, November 3, 2010 @ 7:05 AM
Jim,
It kills me to hear these guys talk as well, because their advice is actually making the problem worse. Take care. -matt
Comment by headjundi — Wednesday, November 3, 2010 @ 9:09 AM
obviously Johns doesn’t want to pay for anything that’s why he’s looking for a cop out
get guys like Ruetten to take care of wannabe pirates
arm them with 50. cal machine gun with schmidt & bender scopes
the german government doesn’t have the b**** to do anything about this problem
So !! let the PMC do it they have the B****
Comment by Eric — Sunday, April 24, 2011 @ 8:24 AM
I can assure you that Mr Horst Rütten knows what he is talking about. His company has a very professional reputation as do his employees. He has established himself very early on in Anti-piracy protection and the equipment he selects for his teams is not about cost , its all top drawer stuff, or “erste Sahne” as a German would say.
However IBS does not have the .50 , no requirement for it , perhaps if “jolly-pirate” armour plates his “skiff”, he might review the situation. Jokes aside though, Johns hoping that the EU will put soldiers on boats is a pipe dream, the piracy problem is a Civil matter and not a military one. If it was a military problem then soldiers would already be on ships!
Comment by Tommy — Thursday, November 24, 2011 @ 10:47 AM
As ridiculous as this sounds, a move towards submersible vessels will completely deter any kind of piracy. Like the re-emergence of airships to transport freight, I believe that at some point in the future, as technology allows, more ‘commercial submarines’ may become viable. As an ex-submariner, I am particularly interested in researching and even have a workable design for a submersible yacht.
Other than the worlds navies deploying their submarine fleets and of course large cetaceans, there is very little else beneath the surface to be concerned about. Even a vessel that can trim down to 25 meters would deter any pirate, plus would also be able to avoid serious weather conditions.
I am sure that I am not the only person thinking below the waves…
Comment by Deebz — Wednesday, January 22, 2014 @ 2:14 PM
…I kind of get a kick out of imagining a scenario whereby it would be just so cool, to even allow the pirates to board – and then dive the boat underneath them, hahaha!
[…remember the hilarious sequence in Disney’s 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea, when the natives boarded the Nautilus and Nemo, unconcerned, merely activated the ‘electro-static deck’ and then dived…?]
Comment by Deebz — Wednesday, January 22, 2014 @ 2:28 PM
i.b.s unfortunately are a company run by a narcissist or two I believe.
Whilst i.b.s have an interesting looking website they try to talk the talk to potential employees, clients or people whom may pull strings for them and know no better.
I can assure you the unfortunate guys (those going out to task and earning his company what looks to be a small fortune to feed this opulent lifestyle) are being treated like his minion disciples.
He who does not bow to the powers that be are down the road and this seems to be a big thing there.
Apparently the owner has a special reward for the lucky recipient by way of a badge of honour to sew on their shirt as a mark of his respect to you! (Next to their making a campfire badge or wrestling a bear medal)
Gained for blowing smoke in the right direction and not saying anything that would otherwise need to be said.
Get past the gloss and USP and there lay the bitter truth…everything is for show.
i.b.s want to be seen to provide the best equipment and reflects a beautiful aura onto i.b.s.
I’ve met & spoken to a couple of their teams…they were purely on stepping stones or looking elsewhere because being paid Euro 130pd wasn’t what was sold to them initially.
They are expected to pay for all their own food whilst away from home in the hotels they also have to fund their own flights from home airports (USA/UK/POLAND/SPAIN/ITALY etc. to i.b.s HQ the day before and again after their tasks are complete.
Deduct these costs from EUR 130 pd and you can see why. That would soon be down to EUR 90 BEFORE deductions for tax & insurance so shall we say EUR 60 take home. I know this for a fact as a friend recently went to see them. Even as a Polak he said he simply had to walk away, unhappy after paying a lot of money to attend.
These guy’s are forking out to attend a spurious process in Germany under a false pretence to find out that the pay falls way below their mutually agreed salary expectation prior to going over.
SHIP OWNERS but mostly CHARTERERS need to look at what they are paying out for in security companies and must wonder why they are seeing their crews handling firearms and having a bit of a shoot up at sea and/or having problems onboard with negligent discharges and or drinking/drugs etc that have been reported over the years
There is a video showing a tin can alley crew shoot on youtube one is i.b.s and another GoAGT allowing crew handle their firearms.
We never allowed this as professionals and yet companies like i.b.s and GoAGT openly do allow this to happen as documented on such video’s.
You wouldn’t expect the U.N or Military unit to give local nationals a go on their weapons if the area was particularly safe at the time would you? Just to relieve the boredom or ‘bonding’, would you?? NO and so when guy’s are allowed to do this by their company you have to question everything.
Would a dentist allow a patient to have a go with his drill or extractor on someone else?? Would a lawyer let a defendant borrow his book of law in court to argue with a judge??
Would a surgeon allow you to take his scalpel and give your missus a caesarean section?? I THINK NOT!
So why would a professional protection team give their weapons that fire hard pointy things that travel at high speed towards people?? They wouldn’t.
I don’t subscribe to the “long time at sea” and “bonding with crew” nonsense.
It’s dangerous, illegal and of course against regulations/contractual agreements.
There is a flag on that vessel and that vessel is a floating island of that flag. Just because they are in international waters does not mean its a free for all ging gang gooley.
In my opinion the risk is now so low (in the HRA) they need only a security adviser onboard (as a supernumerary/additional crew member) in case of startled rabbit and light situation when approached.
He would keep a lid on things and ensure all crew are safely inside the citadel, deal with relevant authorities and hopefully the long forgotten skills of defence placements that the crew have newly erected, will slow down the more recent soft approaches/attempts and do their job.
How about unarmed again and using defences properly?
Defences and training is just one roleof the security adviser, he teaches and/or refreshes the crew.
He would be on the bridge and standby during the quiet hours onboard.
Its the 11th hour I’d say regarding vessels not having to take out HRA Insurance. The insurance companies will soon re-evaluate and adjust. During this 11th hour companies should be ensuring crews are fully refreshed in the good old defence system in preparation for the solo runs.
If all security companies were honest right now they would agree that they are still over emphasising the fact for the need for armed teams onboard.
Up until 1-2 years ago I whole heartedly agree on the use of our services in this way and indeed will bet this will come about again. As soon as the threat goes up you address your security measure accordingly.
A continual risk & assessment IS PARAMOUNT. Many companies are taking the buck and misguiding the clients.
A good security company advises the client accordingly and by doing so provides them with optimum cover WHEN REQUIRED and advise when they are in a position that the threat level has decreased and minimal assistance is required. JOB DONE and so a fair days pay for a fair days work. Simple.
Not quite like that unfortunately and most of the larger professional companies now have withdrawn from the Indian Ocean HRA services as a result, some earlier than others as they would simply not lower their standards or rates to play this undercutting or last man standing game
Today the greed has got so bad that companies like i.b.s are just lining their pockets and not giving a proper risk & threat appraisal.
This undercutting culture has turned the security industry into a joke…once good guys on fair pay structure have all been forced to take what crumbs they can offer their family tables or leave.
Proud and professional guy’s inside now feeling totally the opposite and leaving to make way for those less suited talkers to step up and the client hasn’t a clue having trusting the spurious companies to provide them with what they are paying good money for.
The industry is so full that a client thinks he’s/she’s getting experienced seasoned cover but in fact are being looked after by cheap rate guy’s with little experience half the time being kid-gloved by 1 professional maybe.
I’ve worked with guy’s above my level and enjoyed the lessons throughout the years but the latter years it’s gone the opposite as they are leaving to pastures new due to the ratio of inexperienced and take anything guy’s now filling teams and therefore teams are going out and winging it completely out of their depth.
Language barriers and certainly different action on drills can make a situation worse and we are seeing more and more of the desperate companies utilising an experienced team leader with 2 or 3 third country nationals.
This is the undercutting behaviour and as I mentioned earlier, at this moment in time not required. Companies are desperate to remain boyant and by doing a classic sales pitch are fooling their clients, clients that one day will realise and when this piracy rears its ugly head again, they will remember who has been ripping them off and go elsewhere.
I have left the maritime industry, I am embarrassed at the unscrupulous behaviour of companies and seeing good guys from what was once world renowned protection to very inexperienced guy’s being taken on to mark up their profits knowing the threat is such that they will never be tested.
Many companies are preferential with potential job seekers that “have left the forces within the last 3-5 years”. Why??!! What is the benefit to client?? I can give disadvantages all day.
This is once again a cost cutting exercise and the boys are so keen when they leave they know no better but ultimately shaft their predecessors and any future protection tasks which was once world renowned for quality, the guy’s were happy and working with like minded, qualified and experienced team mates plus receiving proper rates thus giving the client a ‘complete’ protection team.
This is a commercial/corporate environment.
Protection must match the threat and some would argue that’s why you have half baked teams. Personally I wouldn’t let them look after my seat some of them.
It’s not their fault but the fault of the companies and their requirements which have these individuals believe they are capable, suited, trained and corporate enough to handle their business and ultimately make them money.
Unfortunately for those teams that are out there doing a sterling job in areas required are being tarred with the same brush and struggling.
Guys should be on tasks for their merits in their chosen profession not because they’ll do it for less than the next man which pleases the company bank account.
That is exactly how it used to be but unfortunately wont unless clients do their own homework and check on their chosen security company providing their teams!!
SAMI set out with the right idea but like the SIA…completely went about it the wrong way and its now a money making machine.
ADS – SKEG are more the go to in my opinion.
Spurious qualifications, fly by night courses or letters service of confirmation to gain the willywonka golden ticket. If it wasn’t so potentially serious it’s a hilarious circus.
I’m a realist and that’s how it is like it or not.
75% of those out there have no place being there and many companies are being run by clowns.
If you need professionals then you look to those thoroughbred companies that do exist, they charge realistically and of course pay their assets realistically.
They don’t need to go out there and try flash clients or bullshit.
i.b.s like some others in my opinion want the best but won’t pay for it.
End result is disharmony and a high turnover of operators that don’t care less or don’t want to be there but “have to do it to feed my family” the family they will hardly see now because one man wants his EUR 130 worth from his men. These very men who go out there and potentially stop 23 crew going to Somalia for a few years to be abused, beaten, occasionally killed and at best just separated from their families without pay.
THE INDUSTRY NEEDS A STRAIGHTENER AND THE INSURANCE COMPANIES I THINK WILL DO THAT.
WHEN PIRACY IN THE AREA REARS ITS HEAD AGAIN IN THE FUTURE, WHICH IT WILL..
THEN I HOPE ALL THESE SHIPPING COMPANIES WILL HAVE TAKEN NOTE OF THEIR EXPERIENCES AND GO WITH THE BIG BOY COMPANIES WITH SEASONED PROTECTION TEAMS THAT CAN AFFORD THEM THE BEST COVER.
i.b.s are currently on a recruitment drive I understand so for those who are unaware of them, be informed and make your own call but I can assure you that from several first hand experiences you will be better off being at home doing a regular job earning more and being with your family.
There are plenty of other ripoff companies in your own country that’ll pay more to go sailing the HRA.
If you need the narcissistic badge of approval, want less time at home than a tcn deckhand, then crack on.
Comment by Paul.B — Saturday, July 4, 2015 @ 6:10 AM
ADS SCEG*
Comment by Paul.B — Saturday, July 4, 2015 @ 6:18 AM