The story in the BBC called “US Marines capture ship hijacked by pirates off Somalia” started to get me all excited about new methods of anti-piracy from the US military. Several things stood out as different from past anti-pirate exercises.

1. Marines, not Special Forces or Commandos
2. No shots fired
3. Rapid response and conclusion

Then I read through to the real details and noticed that the pirates essentially gave up after the shipping company used a clever set of defenses to render their own ship useless.

The hijack began on Wednesday when pirates boarded the 8,000-tonne container ship, which flies the flag of Antigua.

But after searching the vessel for three hours, they were unable to locate the crew, according to the ship’s German owners, Quadrant.

The pirates then phoned the shipping company in Hamburg to ask where the crew were hidden.

“They were told the crew was on holiday,” said spokesman Juergen Salamon.

“They then asked how to switch the engines back on, but were told they were broken.”

The 11-man crew, comprising two Russians, two Poles, and seven Filipinos, spent the time hidden away in a small, cramped safe room whose entrance was not immediately obvious, Mr Salamon said.

I detect a tone of humor from the spokesman. This is very different from the tone I heard last year from shipping company security experts who were rattling on about the need for allowing weapons on merchant vessels.

Could this hiding technique, coupled with basic naval support and response, be a good interim solution? Disabling the ship and protecting the crew are smart priorities versus trying to calculate the risks of firefight. This instance certainly makes it look promising. I also noticed the BBC did not pick up on the success of new piracy courts setup by the UN in the Seychelles and Kenya.

The JURIST reports a Seychelles court has sentenced a group of Somalis to 10 years in prison for piracy.

The 11 men were apprehended in the Indian Ocean following the attempted hijacking of a Seychelles coastguard ship in December. The trial began in March, after Seychelles amended its criminal code to allow universal jurisdiction in piracy cases. Eight of the men were convicted of piracy, and three others of aiding and abetting piracy.

This is the first conviction for the UN-supported court for prosecution of pirates captured by the European Union Naval Force Somalia (EU NAVFOR).

MSNBC gives us a look at a scary wildlife incident in South African waters. Neither the whale nor the sailors were injured.

The boat was severely damaged but did not sink.

Two incredible stories. First the Telegraph reports a pet dog survived four months lost at sea off Australia. It was washed overboard in bad weather near Queensland.

To stay alive, the hardy dog swam five nautical miles through stormy seas to St Bees Island.

There, she managed to fend off starvation by hunting wild baby goats until she was captured last week by rangers who patrol the largely uninhabited island. They believed they had caught a wild dog until they were contacted by Mrs Griffith, who had heard that a cattle dog had been spotted in the region.

Second, the Telegraph also reports that the US teenager who was sitting on a dis-masted but safe vessel full of supplies in the Indian Ocean could cost the Australian government $300,000 for her rescue. Her parents say they can not afford to pay.

“What price would you put on a child’s life?” Maryanne Sunderland said yesterday when asked about compensation.

“The full cost of chartering an Airbus would be so high, you’d think they (Australian rescue authorities) would have to work with the US government for that.

“We’re not wealthy people.”

Sailing experts have criticized the Sunderland family for sending their 16 year old daughter into the south seas during winter, the roughest time of the year. Their defense has been that they, and she, knew exactly what they were doing. Now they seem to be backing away from the prior knowledge argument as the cost of her survival has been raised.