Modern day piracy is alive and well and much worse than you think. The harrowing account of the Valiant Carrier is the most memorable. The author covers all types of shady business in the ocean world, and thus the book isn't written tightly enough for me. Nonetheless, it's a fascinating read. ( )

Captain Jack Sparrow, Long John Silver and Bluebeard bear no resemblance to the pirates described in this book. Gone are any romantic notions one may have about pirates on the high seas. The pirates these days come equipped with fast ships, modern technology and radars, and weapons guerrillas would not turn their noses up at. They are ruthless, they know the value of the cargo that's carried, and they know where the cash is kept. Some ships sailing through certain routes off the coasts of Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines no longer carry any cash on board, the salary for their crew are deposited directly into the bank accounts, and they undertake anti-piracy measures and drills while on board.

The pirates of today are at times a part of crime organizations, hired guerrillas or well trained local seamen. The author interviewed a number of the crew who shared some hair-raising experiences when they encountered pirates. Made for at times a fascinating if worrying read, especially in the light of possible terrorist incidents, as in the case of the USS Cole. At least I know which routes to stay away from should I ever find myself on a cargo ship. ( )

This made for really interesting reading about piracy, the ships who found themselves under attack and the captains who managed to either fight off the pirates, or unfortunately became victims. Some ships could have avoided pirate attacks if they had only complied with certain well advised practices, and some of the attacks resulted in fatalities and stolen ships. With valuable cargo on board, pirates today, especially in SouthEast Asia, have better modern weapons and technology available to them. ( )

This is an informative story about modern piracy. He tells a number of piracy stories, including for example an attack on his own personal boat. Piracy is apparently quite common, particularly in international waters but also off the Indonesian coast, where the military is corrupt. The purpose of the book is to warn of the possibility of a VLCC (very large crude carrier) being hijacked and crashed in the Malacca Straits between Malaysia and Indonesia, causing an environmental catastrophe and possibly closing the straits to shipping. A VLCC, the Chaumont, was pirated in 1999, and steamed without control through the narrowest passage in the Straits for over half an hour, but miraculously avoided any collision.
He describes
- the piracy of his personal boat
- a trip he took on a vulnerable VLCC from the Middle East to Singapore
- a trip he took on a crude carrier from Singapore across the South China Sea, where pirates scout his ship out
- the Indonesians' reluctant recapture of a hijacked oil ship during an international antipiracy conference
- the piracy and near disaster of the Valiant Carrier
- a tour of Malaysian antipiracy efforts
- the deadly crash between the container ship Ocean Blessing and the oil tanker Nagasaki Spirit; it is thought that both ships were rudderless at the time because of pirates
- he speaks a little about organized crime and terrorist organizations, but mostly pirates in the Malacca Straits are loosely organized locals
The book is fairly well-written, although occasionally drily repetitive.
(Langewiesche, the Atlantic Monthly journalist, has another recent book with a looser focus on the same subject.) ( )

Burnett's book, based on his own experience being boarded while alone on his sailboat, and then investigating the world of modern piracy aboard an oil tanker and an even larger VLCC, is informative and sufficently frightening. Shipping comes across as an AMAZINGLY weak link in global economic (and ecological) security as gangs of pirates equipped with speedboats, bamboo, and machetes apparently have no difficulty boarding and hijacking even the largest of ships without fear of prosecution.

The weakness of Burnett's prose is in trying to preserve a sense of naivete with the reader. It gets a little old the twentieth time or so that he repeats his mantra. When he's in the thick of telling stories the pace quickens, but when he ruminates my interest drops like an anchor. ( )