One tanker attacked in Southeast Asia every two weeks: piracy watchdog

The Easiest way to end this is to carry a guided missile or tow on a camouflaged Naval vessel and give one or two a bang in life for their efforts

Sadly, maritime laws prohibit arming commercial ships, as even the presence of small arms would change the classification of the ship from "merchant" to "warship". It is this weakness in the maritime laws that give pirates an advantage. A sniper on a tanker could make quick work of anybody in a small boat wielding an RPG.

If current laws cannot protect these merchant ships then obviously merchant ships need to protect themselves. The East Indian Trading Company, Hung over 800 pirates globally. It taught the Pirates not to so easily plunder the holds of unarmed trading vessels. All merchant ships should have armed forces members to protect their interests, these soldiers should be provided by the country these ships are registered to. Unfortunetly many ships are registered to Lower naval taxed countries so they dont have to pay certain fee's. COugh cough Belgium, Russia, China, Malaysia.