What do all pirates want?

[Thorin]

Seriously, what does any self-respecting pirate want?

What do pirates want these days?

Booty, of course

Duhh!

The rest of the article (http://www.slate.com/id/2201023) is quite well-written as it discusses the rise in piracy since the 1990s.  It also led to this great Live Piracy Map:

http://www.icc-ccs.org/extra/display.php?yr=2008

Zoom in on Yemen and see just how many overlapping pins there are!  (Yemen is south of Saudi Arabia and north of Somalia)

[Thorin]

Damn, they're getting inventive (and scary):

Somalian waters: Recent incidents indicate that attacks have spread to the northern Somali coast. The Somali pirates are now attacking vessels in the northern Somali coast in the Gulf of Aden. Somali pirates are dangerous and are prepared to fire automatic weapons at ships in order to stop them. Occasionally they fire RPG (Rocket Propelled Grenade) launchers at ships. Pirates are believed to be using ?mother vessels? to launch attacks far from the coast. These ?mother vessels? proceed far out to sea and launch smaller boats to attack and hijack passing ships. Eastern and Northeastern coasts are high risk areas for attacks and hijackings. The IMB maintains its advice that vessels not making scheduled calls to ports in Somalia should keep as far away as possible from the Somali coast, ideally more than 250 nautical miles until a more permanent and encouraging sign is seen. Mariners are advised to report any suspicious boats to the Centre.

They're using mother vessels with swarms of attack boats.

[Mr. Analog]

Professor, what's another name for pirate treasure?

I think it's booty

Haha, weirdly I was listening to Check Your Head by da Beastie Boys when you posted this...

But yeah, people think "pirates" and they think of them as a thing of the past or Scooby Doo or Spongebob or that crazy Lazy Town bit, not heavily armed whackjobs robbing container ships from the seven seas.

[Thorin]

Not just container ships, they also go after tankers and sailing yachts and apparently even US Navy supply ships:

http://themaritime.wordpress.com/2008/09/25/pirates-attack-us-navy/

[Mr. Analog]

Not just container ships, they also go after tankers and sailing yachts and apparently even US Navy supply ships:

http://themaritime.wordpress.com/2008/09/25/pirates-attack-us-navy/

Heh, I've been following that story since it broke on WikiNews, scary @%&#...

[Lazybones]

The USNS John Lenthall is a lightly armed U.S. Navy auxiliary ship, manned and operated by a civilian crew under the U.S. Military Sealift Command.  The ship was apparently carrying a Naval Security Team at the time of the attack.  Typically, the only uniformed personnel on board are radio communication specialists.

They where lucky they happened to have a Naval Security Team there that day. That is crazy.

[Thorin]

That'd be some good ol' egg on the face of the US Navy, though, hey?  If there hadn't been that security team present and the ship got hijacked?

Just goes to show, the US armed forces have contracted out too much of their job.  Every ship they use should be protected by armed personnel, especially given the exorbitant amount of money the US spends on their armed forces.  Too many toys, not enough basics.

[Mr. Analog]

Too many toys, not enough basics.

Couldn't have put it better.