Wednesday, the Media had a field day with a story as old as the presidency of Thomas Jefferson and as new as the presidency of Barak Obama. Pirates off Somalia, getting greedier and bolder as they took ship after ship in gigantic areas of the ocean off East Africa, finally took a US-crewed, container ship flying the US flag.
The container ship, the Maersk Alabama, has a 20-person American crew and is operated and owned by Danish shipping titan A.P. Moller-Maersk Group’s US subsidiary, Maersk Line Limited. News broke very early in the California morning that the ship was taken by pirates, at sea some 280 miles southwest of the Somali city of Eyl, a haven for the modern pirates.
A US destroyer, the Bainbridge, was headed for the scene, but, due to the vast distances at sea involved, many thousands of square miles of water actually, it is not expected to arrive for at least another day. As is often the case, Media reports have varied wildly all day as any tidbits of information are seized, not vetted at all, and then broadcast to get the scoop. What is real and what is not will all be sorted out later. Stay tuned.
Jefferson is credited with commencing and winning America’s first overseas war, the First Barbary War (1801-1805) (a/k/a, the Barbary Coast War or the Tripolitan War) against pirates operating off the Barbary Coast just a bit over two centuries ago. That one is more ingrained in our early American history than most, other than history buffs (guilty!), are aware.
It was actually the first of two wars that America fought against a group of small North African states which belonged, at least in name, to the weak Ottoman Empire; they were (not exactly household names) the independent Sultanate of Morocco and three “Regencies” of Algiers, Tunis, and Tripoli, which in those days functioned as quasi-independent nation states and were having a field day pillaging and plundering commercial shipping, courtesy of their eager pirate fleets.
America, under Jefferson, knew that its fledgling nationhood depended on its ability to trade freely with Europe, indeed, it was the lifeblood of our young nation back then. Bribes, known then as “tribute,” were authorized by the young Congress in 1784 to be paid to the Barbary Pirates, and our first Odd Couple, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, then based in France, were later instructed to attempt to negotiate a peace with the Barbary Pirates, but to no avail. Pirates have this thing about being both greedy and unreasonable – then and now.
In 1786 when Jefferson and Adams went to negotiate in London with the Barbary Ambassador Sidi Haji Abdrahaman or (Sidi Haji Abdul Rahman Adja), names which do not exactly roll easily off the tongue, they were given a Koranic religious lecture about how Americans were sinners and, well, you know the rest.
Jefferson was elected in 1801 and, immediately, Yussif Karamanli, the Pasha of Tripoli, demanded $225,000 in ‘tribute’ from an infant America which only had a total federal revenue of some $10 million the year before – Jefferson told the Pasha where to go and how to get there, and the Pasha promptly declared war on the US in May 1801. The latter portion of the Marine Hymn’s “Halls of Montezuma to the Shores of Tripoli,” made reference to the nasty little war that followed. Congress never formally declared that war (like many more modern ones) but Jefferson sent frigates and amid much bravery and cannon fire, American soundly beat the Barbary Pirates and gained a treaty against further piracy which lasted until the Second such war, which is a story for another day.
Fast forward to the 21st Century, and another brand, spanking new President is now being tested by tank-top wearing modern pirates in skiffs with power motors who zip around pestering and hijacking commercial shipping off East Africa and have been amazing successful so far in getting lots of ‘tribute’ paid to release many ships, including an enormous oil tanker some months ago. One wonders what the pirates could possibly do with the ships but, so far, the owners, or their insurers, have been eager to pay the freight to get their ships and valuable cargo back and be done with this déjà vu experience.
This is a real test of the Obama Administration in dealing with the kind of non-nation state enemies we face in this modern era. Look for some very interesting coverage and fireworks before this one is over. The proximity to the failed Somali state, the vast ocean in which the modern pirates can operate quite effectively so far, and the very small crews on modern commercial shipping, are all factors that allow the modern pirates to become bold enough (or crazy enough) to try to take on the world’s #1 superpower. A lot of other disgruntled eyes are watching what will come of this duel and the outcome may well serve as a reminder that, while we may have technologically advanced over the 200-plus years since the days of Thomas Jefferson, that Pirates are, well, Pirates, now and then. And, no, it ain’t like in the Disney movies at all!