No pirates of the Caribbean

Weathering storms and carrying out back-breaking work – that’s often what many crew members can expect working in commercial shipping. But Somali pirates, with their dramatic attacks on ships off the coast of Somalia have gripped headlines across the globe in recent years, raising the spectre of other grave dangers to face industry seafarers, and even holiday sailors.

Piracy is nothing new – one has just to look at 16^th century French Saint Vincent de Paul who was himself taken hostage by Barbary pirates on the Mediterranean, taken to Africa and sold into slavery.

“Which echoes very much the situation of many seafarers passing through the Gulf of Aden,” says John Green, Director of Development for the Catholic Apostleship of the Sea in Great Britain. Today, he says, seafarers are finding their “ships are high-jacked and they’re kept for many months in appalling conditions either aboard their vessel or taken ashore.”

Green points to some 450 pirate attacks in 2010 and nearly 2000 people taken hostage. Some 400 he says, remain in captivity. But efforts to combat piracy and prosecute pirates have been slow to make an impact. In November, 6 Somalis went on trial in France for piracy.

In this interview with Tracey McClure, Green explains some of the ways the Church takes a lead in offering assistance to seafarers and their families, and advocates on their behalf to get governments, shipping companies and others to combat piracy more effectively...