With the rise in attacks of domestic terror growing in rapid amount over the end of the twentieth century and the beginning of the current, and although Piracy is often disassociated with most aspects of terrorism, the United States must always compare the two as merely constituents. The sea is the lifeline to all wealth and trade. Its disruption is, in one way or another, an act of economic, physical, or national terror. Combating this lucrative form of crime is imperative to the success of nations regardless of their affiliation with the world’s oceans, as all trade at one point or another must be run via ship. Disruption of this line when repeated often enough will lead to the eventual rift in the balance of power. As most pirates who claim allegiance to any body are either revolutionary or ideologically driven, malicious action against a sovereign state is usually no issue.

One of the founding and most important goals of the United States Navy is to keep sea lanes open to international trade, as our nation straddles two of the largest oceans on earth. In order to survive, our own nation and most others depend on open lanes, constricted and dangerous straits, gulfs, and other bodies of water important to the economy of several nations. Not only does this include economic need, but also a humanitarian cause as well. The Coast Guard, often thought of as an appendage of the Navy, was originally designated as the one law enforcement agency empowered with jurisdiction over the seas, under constant watch for enemies both domestic and foreign, and to halt all illegal actions, both within national waters and international. Piracy is no exception. Together, the maritime Armed Forces act as our vanguard against the very ideal of piracy, symbolizing a beacon of economic hope to those who seek it. The techniques when combating piracy have proved worthwhile and constant, the effort at maintaining a free sea not perfected, but possible.

As defined by the International Maritime Organization, a constituent body of the United Nations, Piracy is any illegal acts of violence or detention, or any act of depredation, committed for private ends by the crew or the passengers of a private ship or a private aircraft, and directed: (i) on the high seas, against another ship or aircraft, or against persons or property on board such ship or aircraft; (ii) against a ship, aircraft, persons or property in a place outside the jurisdiction of any State. Plaguing littoral nations and international waters since time immemorial, maritime piracy both of independent initiative and by the incentive of a sovereign state has been a common route for those seeking quick wealth and power within a region. Heavily romanticized and more likely career during the eighteenth century, and contrary to popular belief, piracy has not at all vanished. No longer as prolific as it was in its heyday, it still maintains popularity with international crime syndicates and militant separatist movements all throughout the world.

Piracy was, is, and shall remain a threat to national security. Both of our own nation and of those abroad, it is imperative that all cargoes of merchant vessels are guarded to the highest level available. Though alternative methods of trade exist, (Plane, Truck, Rail) their history, use, and volume all pale in comparison to the importance and mass that trade by sea allows. All nations must invest in some level of maritime trade to prosper. Everything internationally sold and bought must, at some point, travel by sea. Weapons, ammunition, and supplies for overseas expeditionary forces are carried – for the most part – by civilian owned or crewed vessels. If overtaken without a measure of prevention first compromised, arms are put into the hands of dangerous individuals. Those arms could be traded for small amounts of money and could be used to fight against our Armed Forces or against an ally, an obvious issue to our domestic and foreign security. These pirates often identify with no nation or movement, simply using this as a means of living. Whole families have learned to operate this way, growing up in areas where stealing with brute force and intimidation is the only possible avenue by which they may earn revenue. Most common in Southeastern Pacific nations such as Indonesia and Malaysia, the issue of piracy in that portion of the world is currently by far the worst.

Since our nation’s inception and fight of independence, the threat of piracy has loomed along our coasts and throughout the waterways of the western hemisphere. The dissolution of the Continental Navy made our nation’s merchant seamen defenseless against impression and looting by the British Empire and assault on US waterways. Efforts to establishment official government entities to prevent and negate acts of piracy by the British, other nations, and independent pirates were not sought until 1790, a full seven years after the end of the war for Independence. The adoption of the Articles of Confederation delayed the formation of a standing Navy or any law enforcement agency that could fulfill the duties of maritime crime deterrence. The United States Coast Guard, (Then Revenue Marine, Revenue Cutter Service) established 4 August 1790 by Alexander Hamilton under the Department of Treasury and the United States Navy as an officially sanctioned Armed Force under the Navy Department in 1794 would both prove invaluable for defense of maritime assets at home and abroad.

The United States made its first inter-Atlantic act of war against the Barbary States of Northern Africa in the Mediterranean Sea, the location of what is now made up of Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia. Prior to the Revolution, colonists enjoyed protection from the Royal Navy. Once the war began, agreement with the French Navy guaranteed safety for merchant ships, their officers, and seamen. However, after the war’s abrupt end, our fledgling nation assumed control of its own protection, summarily disbanding all standing defenses in 1784. The US Congress made the decision to begin paying tribute to the Barbary Pirates in an attempt to gain the Barbary States an alliance with both the French and British and at the same time permit US shipping and trade to pass through the Atlantic unmolested by attempts to loot and commandeer United States Flagged vessels. John Jay and Thomas Jefferson, ambassadors to Great Britain and France respectively were tasked with the objective of making some sort of headway with the Barbary States, eventually leading to what could be thought of as an alliance, though their success was regarded as laughable. Over the next fifteen years, Congress authorized the payment of over one-million dollars, and saw no change in the attacks of merchant vessels.

Upon Thomas Jefferson’s presidential inauguration in 1801, the Pasha of Tripoli Yussif Karamanli demanded a tribute of $225,000. Jefferson refused to pay the demand, and the Pasha declared war on the United States. Responding to the declaration almost immediately, President Jefferson sent a group of frigates to the Mediterranean for the defense of US interests in the region. Under the auspices of Commodore Edward Preble, a blockade was set up and maintained in 1803. Routine raids and attacks on ports were carried out to destroy all naval threats. Several inconclusive naval battles took place between this time and 1804, in which one United States vessel, a fire ship, USS Intrepid was destroyed by ignition of powder stores by enemy fire, though its explosion also triggered the sinking of several Ottoman vessels also in the port. Because of a nearly unsuccessful sea war, a raid led by Lieutenant Presley O’Bannon, leading 500 Marines and Greek, Arab, and Berber mercenaries would coerce the Barbary states into capitulation, with the assistance of shore bombardment. Capturing the city of Derna and effectively ending the war, the United States was able to convince the Pasha to sign a treaty ending all tribute payment and further hostility. Agreements were made to end all association with the United States and piracy, and most thre

ats from the Ottomans ended.
Because of the action taken by the United States Armed Forces, maritime trade was free from the Arab threat, though still had the trouble of the British and French Navies, the former actively impressing all those who were born as British Colonists, which still made for a large percentage of US population at the time. Because the British still maintained forts in Michigan and other areas where interest was not deep or the area was not completely useful, the United States fell into a state of complacency. The Navy was in a state of disrepair, and what there was to be had of a standing Army was too small to control the entirety of the nation. What was left to militias funded by states was mostly untrained to repel an invading force, and the likelihood of being overtaken by a more powerful force was not unlikely. Because the United States and France were considered Allies at the time, the British detested the want for US trade to continue with their enemy, with whom they were in a state of massive conflict at the time.

As a result of the combined forces of impressments by the Royal Navy, the training and supply of arms to British-allied Indian tribes, and Canadian hostilities, the United States declared war on Great Britain on 18 June, 1812. However, because of the terrible shape the Navy was in, a different tactic was taken. Privateering, the practice of issuing licenses to loot and commandeer vessels of an enemy for sake of economic gain and security for both the good of trade and the nation, had been in use by several nations since the seventeenth century. The United States, in no way against this practice, used it to their advantage in the War for Independence, capturing no less than 300 British ships of war. Taking advantage of this yet again, Merchant Seamen were able to capture vessels of Great Britain and use them against the enemy. Several battles ensued that without the action of Privateers, would have failed. The war ended in victory for the United States, and expulsion of all British troops and fleets from US soil and coastal property soon followed. Never again bothered by Britain in a manner portrayed prior, the United States would soon develop problems within its own borders. Growing tension between pro-federal northern citizens and those who had opposing views would spark one of the largest conflicts in US history, also ushering in a new era of trade and extortion.

As national interest in expansion grew, as did the forces employed to do so. The Caribbean, known for its being a hub of international trade of various high-priced goods and also a locale for very powerful pirate enclaves, was quickly becoming an issue with both the United States and its former enemies. The Spanish, Dutch, and French all seemed to be prolonging a bout that had lasted for more than what may have been a century, the British and the other European colonial powers still maintaining strongholds on island chains in the southern sea. During this period, popular piracy finally succumbed to the power of the imperialist nations. However, this was far from the only economic danger in the western hemisphere. With the thought of secession came a new threat of piracy, that of the Confederate States of America. An agrarian state with little in the way of industry, the issue of arms and supplies was a problem from the outset. A good percentage of Confederate craft were either captured from the Union or through means of commandeering merchant vessels. Also, many of these converted vessels continued to act as a means of obtaining wealth for the cause of the Confederacy. After the Anaconda plan of the Union Navy went into effect, a series of blockades used to trap the Confederate attempts at building Naval strength along the Atlantic coast and up through the Mississippi River, most ships strove to perfect a Blockade Running system, by which vessels that may have been or once designated at merchant ships made an effort at going through the Union Navy’s blockades to get much-needed supplies to both military and civilian needs of the struggling nation. Though a good percentage of these ships would end up wrecked, an entirely new way to perform was

discovered, and was continually put to use by several nations.

With the advent of steam power, the machine gun, and an increasingly determined focus on imperialism and the ideal of American expansionism, seemed to experience a lull, reports of massive attacks on merchant vessels no longer between nations and clandestine crews, but that of other nations. As the turn of the century neared, individuals such as Theodore Roosevelt, former Secretary of the Navy and future President of the Republic, and Alfred Thayer Mahan, author of The Influence of Sea Power upon History, 1660–1783, touted the creation of an advanced Merchant Marine and the concept of Power Projection, a show of force by Naval units to deter or coerce a potential enemy into surrender or to prevent an attack on another. This of course, would extend to would-be privateers, corsairs, and pirates, most of whom had all but disappeared. The latter individual would propose a worldwide tour of the United States Navy, of what would be called the “Great White Fleet,” an assembly of the navy’s newest and best ships that would travel across Europe and Asia to exploit its prowess. The goal was to reassure allies, deter enemies, and enlighten all others of the force contained in the United States and their naval forces.

Because of the nature of combat in the open seas and the doctrine of U-Boat warfare used by the Germans in both the first and second World Wars, the United States started to train personnel of the US Navy and US Maritime Service, a militarized portion of the Merchant Marine recognized as a service to man liberty and victory ships for the war effort in the ways of aerial gunnery, damage control, and all sorts of Naval combat techniques. Though not facing pirates, the practice of arming merchant sailors proved worthwhile, as those unarmed were merely giving the potential pirate an easier time. Though not orthodox, it is common for some mariners to be armed by their corporation or the government they are employed under when in dangerous locales such as the Strait of Hormuz located between Iran and Yemen, two of the most volatile nations in the world, Yemen being a stronghold of Al Qaeda and Iran a constant threat to National Security. Also, the historically troublesome Straits of Malacca, which is being patrolled by a joint force of Malaysian, Indonesian, and Thai aircraft and patrol vessels to deter pirates when signals of distress are sent out. The Japanese and the United States have agreed to support this program fiscally and physically through supply of training materials, personnel, and craft.

During the last half of the twentieth century, piracy made a return, though with an entirely different face. Because larger ships were cumbersome and easy to spot, most began to resort to smaller, faster boats, by which small teams could board and steal what they pleased. It became much more of a personal than national or commercial goal. Piracy was now a regular way of life, and had lost all glamour it once held. The majority of this form of piracy took place along the historically strife-ridden coasts of Somalia, Arabian nations, and the Southeastern Pacific nations and islands. Furthermore, foreign nationals were becoming a common object of value when dealing with some nations, whose will to pay ransom money lined the coffers of most of these pirates successfully. Increasingly, according to the International Maritime Organization and the International Maritime Bureau, pirates often try to remain undetected, and go straight for objects of value. The few who do capture ships are often caught or compromised by an outside force.

Currently, our Armed Forces is in the process of training several nations’ police agencies and navies, aspiring to let these forces take command of the issue of piracy and maritime trade in their region. Djibouti, Iraq, and Thailand are all currently being advised or trained actively by components of the US Army, Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard in methods to divert and prevent attacks on territorial and international attacks, and to respond swiftly and effectively when handed a situation of the appropriate magnitude.

There is no doubt that the looming threat of trade endangerment will exist for as long as shipping lanes are not completely monitored. The efforts of the United States and her Armed Forces, however, have proved to be a constant and vigilant thorn in the side of would-be pirates since its inception. The fervent and excelsior performance of the men and women who assist all nations in their strive for economic superiority and prosperity, though going largely unnoticed, is one of the most profound and unique duties our Armed Forces holds.