Fighting Pirates With a ‘Nonlethal Acoustic Weapon’
Travel Blog • Jim Benning • 11.09.05 | 12:30 PM ET
You no doubt heard about the cruise ship that fought off a pirate attack Saturday. Today’s San Diego Union-Tribune has an interesting story about the “nonlethal acoustic weapon” the cruise ship employed to fend off the pirates. It’s called the Long-Range Acoustic Device (LRAD) and was developed by a San Diego-area company for military use.
Reports Bruce V. Bigelow: “The disk-shaped transmitter can emit an ear-splitting warning noise akin to a fire alarm as well as jackhammer-like pulses that can travel nearly two-thirds of a mile. At the limit of its range, the sound produced by the LRAD is roughly 95 decibels—equivalent to standing a few feet away from a speeding subway train or chain saw.”
The ship combined use of the noise device with other defensive measures. Writes Bigelow:
The crew also fended off the attackers with water hoses as the cruise ship Seabourn Spirit changed course and moved away, using its wake to thwart the pirates’ small boats. The 10,000-ton ship is seven decks high and 439 feet long, with a cruising speed of 16 knots, or just 18.4 miles per hour.
Don’t expect to hear too much about it from the cruise industry.
“Cruise lines usually are reluctant to disuss their security precautions, saying they fear such information could help other pirates or terrorists plot future attacks,” Bigelow writes. “They also worry that disclosing such details could discourage business, as passenger bookings for Mediterranean cruises declined sharply after the Achille Laro incident.”
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Jim Benning is the editor and co-founder of World Hum.
Jerry Haines 11.09.05 | 4:51 PM ET
So, piracy has come to this? Being repelled by cruise ship pursers and social directors armed with giant boom boxes? Whatta buncha wusses. They should have bought some of those noise cancelling headphones from Sharper Image.
Arrrh.
jim 11.09.05 | 5:55 PM ET
Yeah, I’m just hoping for “Pirates of the Caribbean 2,” in which they’ll bring back “The Love Boat” and have Capt. Stubing going mano a mano with some high-tech pirates. Now that’s a movie.
jimmy hanson 11.10.05 | 4:25 PM ET
The headphones would not cancel the sonic sound. The LRAD produces its narrow focused beam at 150 decibles. That’s 100,000 time louder then a smoke detector. The sound beam would cut through the headphones like a chain saw cutting paper.