Dark Passage by Peter Gwin, a National Geographic reporter

This article is definitely something to read. The article is written by an American journalist, named Peter Gwin, going undercover to investigate the pirate attacks of the Malacca Strait, which is strip of water between Malaysia and Indonesia. It starts off by Peter Gwin interviewing an alleged pirate who calls himself Johan Ariffin to learn of a failed attempt to hijack a diesel fuel tanker. Johan Ariffin starts talking to Gwin through an interpreter after Gwin promises to get Ariffin clean clothes and a toothbrush after Ariffin’s lawyer takes all of Ariffin’s money from him as payment. Ariffin then goes on to discuss the plans to Gwin to hijack a Thai fuel tanker called the Nepline Delima, sail it to open water, transport the fuel to different tanker, abandon the Nepline Delima, and then sell the fuel for profit. Ariffin was promised $10,000 in payment for helping taking control of the tanker with nine other pirates and work its engines in order to escape with it. There was a problem though: after the pirates captured and tied up the 17-man crew of the Nepline Delima, they figured out one sailor was missing, and that sailor escaped with the speedboat the pirates boarded the tanker with, stranding the pirate raid party onboard the Nepline Delima. A couple of hours later Malaysian marine police show up and apprehend the pirates without resist, considering the pirates only had machete-like knives as weapons.

I consider myself lucky to come across this article, because many Americans don’t really hear much news about what’s happening in the Asian parts of the world, other than maybe economic problems in China, Japans’ growing technological culture, and North Korea’s nuclear weapons testing. I always knew there were modern-day pirates but I didn’t know how lethal and effective they are. Even though piracy is illegal I can understand a seaman’s decision in becoming a pirate for money. I’d imagine finding a job as a sailor is very difficult, and the pay is not very high. Looking back at the article when Gwin is having an interview with Ariffin, Ariffin admits he was offered $10,000 for the job in hijacking the Nepline Delima, and most people in this world would agree $10,000 is a lot of money. But in most cases, it is proven crime does not pay. I was also shocked that honest, hard-working seamen would take jobs as pirates in hope of earning a living or earning extra cash on the side in addition to their salaries. But many pirates get away with boarding or hijacking boats or ships and robbing the crew. There were 258 reported pirate attacks in the Strait of Malacca, but some experts predict that only half of pirate attacks are actually reported. Some captains of ships admitted to not reporting pirate attacks in fear of losing profit by having to take time in investigations, and some captains admitted they were threatened by pirates that if the attack was reported, the captain and his family would be killed. The threat of pirates and their impact on the world seems everlasting, and it seems as if piracy will still be a common threat to sailors, captains, and their ships.