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issue focusDanger at Sea- Dealing with PiracyRajkumar J observes that in view of the increasing incidence of piracies, there is need for theinsurers to be more forthright in the construction of policy wordings so that the claims decisions aredevoid of any ambiguity.irda journal October 2012Pirates are sea robbers who prey onother ships and rob them of theirgoods and sometimes capture theship itself for their own purposes. Piracybegan over 2000 years ago in ancientGreece, when sea robbers threatened thetrading routes of ancient Greece. Therehave been different types of pirates -these being privateers, buccaneers, andcorsairs. Privateers were lawful pirateswho were authorized by theirgovernment to attack and pillage ships ofenemy nations. They shared their profitswith the government. Buccaneers werepirates and privateers who operated frombases in the West Indies, and attackedSpanish shipping in the Caribbean.Corsairs were Muslim or Christian pirateswho were active in the Mediterraneanfrom the sixteenth to the nineteenthcenturies.In Somalia, a country of grinding povertyand internal chaos, the pirate economyhas been booming in recent years. Thepiracy is an extension of the corrupt,violent free-for-all that has raged on landsince the central government imploded in1991. It has turned the waters into themost dangerous shipping lanes in theworld. Pirates’ standard operatingprocedure is to swarm a vessel with a bevyof skiffs, each packed with armed men,gain control of the ship, steer it back to apirate base and then demand a ransomfrom the ship’s owner, the families of thecrew or both. Often, the ransom moneyliterally falls from the sky. The favouredway of making payment is to drop a brickof shrink-wrapped cash from a smallplane and let it drift down by parachute tothe pirates.In 2012, acts of piracy in the treacherouswaters off the Horn of Africa had fallensharply, according to statistics released inAugust by the United States navy. Thenavy credited aggressive patrolling byinternational forces and increasedvigilance by the commercial shippingindustry for the decrease. Data released bythe navy showed 46 pirate attacks in thearea in 2012, compared with 222 in all ofPirates’ standardoperating procedure isto swarm a vesselwith a bevy of skiffs,each packed witharmed men, gaincontrol of the ship,steer it back to apirate base and thendemand a ransomfrom the ship’s owner,the families of thecrew or both.2011 and 239 in 2010. Nine of the piracyattempts in 2012 (till date) have beensuccessful, according to the data,compared with 34 successful attacks in allof 2011 and 68 in 2010.The presence of warships from theEuropean Union, the United States, China,Japan, Russia, India and other nations hasmanaged to thwart attacks on merchantand leisure ships in the Gulf of Aden.Recent studies indicated that with all theinsurance increases and protectivemeasures, Somali pirates were nowcosting the world more than $5 billioneach year.Marine Insurance PoliciesFor the purpose of Marine insurancepolicies subject to English law, the IMB'sdefinition — in so far as it does not restrictpiracy to incidents occurring on the highseas — piracy could only occur outside thejurisdiction of any state. However, itconsidered the fact that for internationallaw, piracy was restricted to the high seas,phrase "at sea", or if an attack on her couldbe described as "a maritime offence", thenfor the business purpose of a Marineinsurance policy, the ship was in a placewhere piracy could be committed.Until 1983, the standard war risks policiesused in the London market covered lossescaused by piracy that fell within a Hullpolicy FC&S (free of capture and seizure)exclusion. Since that time and as a resultof strong criticism of the wording of26