Bermuda Triangle: Pirates could be cause of mystery says expert

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Cruise workers enjoy plenty of unique moments as part of their job, but a near run-in with pirates is something one crew member describes as her “craziest experience”. Erica is a cruise worker who shares videos about her travels under the username @ericafromamerica to an audience of 500.4K followers on TikTok.

She explained how two years ago she was invited on one of the most “exciting” cruises of her career, but it came with some rather scary moments.

In the video, she said: “Two years ago I got offered a world tour and I was so excited.

“The ship needed to be moved from Singapore to Miami through a series of different ports around the world.

“This included sailing through a dangerous area of the world, the Gulf of Aden right on the coast of Somalia and you know what this area is known for – pirates.”

The Gulf of Aden is located in the Indian Ocean between Yemen on the south coast of the Arabian Peninsula and Somalia in Africa.

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In the northwest, it connects with the Red Sea through the Bab el Mandeb sound. Experts from Cruisers Wiki said: “The Gulf of Aden is an area known for acts of piracy, making its waters dangerous for cruising yachts – extreme care must be taken in transit.”

In 2005, the American luxury cruise ship Seabourn Spirit was attacked by pirates off the coast of Somalia. At the time, the ship was carrying 210 crew members and passengers.

Riding in two small speedboats, the pirates fired at the ship with machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades, but the crew drove them off with a water hose and a long-range acoustic device.

Luckily, this is very rare. There have only been six reports of pirates attempting to attack cruise ships over the last 10 years. Furthermore, there has never been a successful pirate attack on a cruise ship thanks to the equipment and safety training onboard. 

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Cruise ships travelling the Gulf of Aden, and other risky routes, often have extreme safety measures for passengers to keep everyone safe while onboard.

Erica explained: “During our four-day sailing through nobody was allowed on the outer decks.

“We even had to do a pirate drill with the guests in case of emergency. All of our normal outdoor parties had to take place inside and all of the lights on the ship were dark at night.

“There was extra military support onboard as well. I was totally ready for this crazy experience.

“We did have fun looking out of the window every day to try and spot something. We eventually made it to the Suez Canal where you have Africa on one side and Asia on the other and we were in safe and smooth waters from thereon out.”

In recent years, the number of pirate attacks in these waters has dropped drastically. Research from Statista explained: “The number of attacks off the Somali coast fell dramatically to just eight in the six-year period between 2016 and 2021.

“Piracy attacks in Somali waters peaked in 2011, when 160 attacks were recorded, and incidents had soared to 358 during the five-year period between 2010 and 2015. This drop is widely regarded as a result of concerted efforts to reduce crimes at sea.”

How do cruise ships ward off pirates? 

Sonic boom technology, known as a Long-Range Acoustic Device, is a way for ships to non-lethally repel attackers. It blasts a piercing noise in a directed beam, so ear-splitting it can cause permanent ear damage for people more than 300 metres away.

Some ships are also equipped with extreme water guns which can shoots a curtain of water at high speeds blast pirates and ward off their attacks.

Other known precautions taken include placing razor wire around the outer edges of the handrails to prevent pirates from using grappling hooks to climb onboard. 

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