Hawk the QM

Yeah, 3.0 has a lot of power behind it and even I'm looking into it. The RSS feeds are always fun for either keeping track of messages as you guys do or site news and such. I really like the cartoon skull you have as the banner logo. Yar!

Am I posting in the wrong place? Probably. Don't have a lot of time but I wanted to say the new site looks great! Same great place with all new features. good stuff oh and Yar!

Yaaar all! I have not come by the pub in a little while and I have to make this short but sweet. As you may or may not know, Pirates Magazine is making a “dirty dozen”, giving honors to those most piratey. I have not idea if anything other then “These guys are awesomesauce” honors but I urge you all to send an email to davenichols@piratesmagazine.com and vote for your favorite captain. “Who would that be?” you may ask. Stynky Tutor, of course, the man who puts a ton of effort into this very pub every day. When all was said and done there was only one Pirate who came to mind. Not to put any Crew Captains down, but I’d like to see this title go to someone who helped bring thousands of pirates together, even if just for a few moments and posts. Send a vote for Stynky and tell Pirates Magazine how great he is. Yaaaaar! See you all around, Hawk the QM

If you don't know why this day is special, don't bother asking me cuz I have enough troubles here. If you DO know why we be celebratin' the day then just leave a YAAAAAR!, if you have the motor skills to type, that is. This message has been coded for the easily offended. Yaaaaar.... when is lunch? edit: I'm hungry.

really great work. Is that safe really "pirate"? If it is then it must be empty and you completely broke I love the rope work mate. Yaaaar!

If anyone ever gets something like this again in the future but are not sure as to what it is, I'll give you a tip. When your mouse hovers over any link, on the bottom of your browser (left if firefox) it will show you where the link goes without actually going there. If it's a site you've never heard of, don't go there. Many forum links from spammers go to places with malicious scripting and you just don't need that kind of crap on yer computers. Anything that isn't the usual, .com, .net, .edu and such are usually out of country and usually a bad place to go. And all of this is just in time for IP to make all forum hosts download a new update for PM spamming. Such a pain in the butt for such little success. Oh well.

It's really a joke about the "legend" of Talderoy more so then the actual pirate himself. Any friend of The Pirates Charles is a friend o' me though.

~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~ In a way.. I feel the above members are blessed now for being in the same room as Tal D. Roy. The guests, however, are cursed for not logging in.

I good one that I pulled off was at a bar (naturally) and I just so happened to be wearing my hat. I saw 5 of me mates in a row with drinks in their hands. I walk by them, one by one, took there drinks and slammed them down simply saying "Pirate" after each shot. True, I was pretty hammered after that... but the looks on their faces as they stood silently was truley priceless.

I am not sure Sir Elton's will to resist is as high as that found in other knights. I would imagine his best defense is to confuse the enemy with his crazy sunglasses. Then drop a piano on them.

The last "real" (as in knighted by the king) knight I worked with was in Bosnia and he was commanding a Leopard Tank. I'll give the edge to the knight in that case. My moneys on Sir Elton John.

If they have any sense they will remember why Knights became obsolete. Gun powder! YAaaaaar!

I would probably do the exact same thing they are doing, to be honest. Their options are basically go with this faction or that one. It's not like they have an exchange program so I do feel for them. Their sad stories aside, it's a dangerous game to use a gun to make a living. That money doesn't even go into the pirates pockets, it goes to the government that is using them to further more war. If they want kill themselves in a fight for power then so be it. When they involve other nations in a sick game of extortion, they need to be dealt with. Just my opinion. QMJames, don't feel bad if you think you are "ill-informed", you can still have an opinion. Luckily, this burden doesn't fall on our shoulders.

The pirate excuse is when a pirate says something terribly offensive and says "Pirate" with one or two thumbs pointed directly at themselves. What was the best/worst thing you got away with because you used the pirate excuse?

I say the people of friend quality don't need a proper introduction. You'll feel familiar with them from the start. No seriously, where's my rum? hehe I guess I should say welcome to the pub anyway.

An Armed Merchantman has an actual navy detachment with heavy weapons. For it to enter port is the same as a naval ship entering port. See- US Naval Armed Guard Service of World War II fame. The scheme that has been discussed internationally would have ships pick up a navy dectachment of agreeing nations before entering the pirate area and then depositing them at a nearby port when leaveing the area, they rotate from ship to ship as a military force. This is a military operation with weapons as heavy as TOW's. Two major issues- funding (the biggest bug a boo of all this) and host nations for pickup/drop off locations. Merchant Sailors with arms is a different kettle of fish and presents all the problems described. Certainly not an easy problem to deal with. I think the bigger problem is the rest of the world like you said. Having auto-weapons on board would just be a nightmare with customs and ports. What is the real danger though, loosing your life to pirates or dealing with moron custom officers? Like any dangerous situation, if you do nothing then you're already a dead hostage. Governments force you not to protect yourself even when they are failures at the job. It's too bad America is that fearful of war. It's our foundation and the only reason we won't do anything is because we are already broke from a war we shouldn't have started. But that's another conversation entirely. EDIT: personally, I feel this is a situation when we need to play hardball. Whichever nations won't allow the required security measures don't need the trade then. If only it was a matter of one dumbass nation, but sadly this is a matter of many vs. one.

So very true, Joe. This is the same thing as my issues with local gun laws. We are forced to rely on an inferior system that is put in place to protect us. Sadly, this system is unable to protect us at all times yet we are denied the means the protect ourselves. I have no interest in revenge after I'm dead but that's the sole purpose of the "law". (lets say) A person can't have an automatic weapon. They are then killed by an automatic weapon. The other person is guilty of some law and someone hunts them down. Am I or any other victim any less dead? We don't need justice (which is a fancy word for revenge) we need protection. Most of the time, it's protection from the laws passed by those which are supposed to protect us. Sorry, now I'm going on a rant so I'll let others say their piece.

Truth be told, I wouldn't care what the other governments thought. You either kill the pirates and end the troubles or you pay them off and let them continue. It's not like they are going to say "Well, we made 300 million dollars for that tanker, better quite while we're ahead". They will just continue to do the same thing until it's no longer profitable or the dangers be too great. These pirates are used by "freedom fighters" to fund their own deeds. As long as they are making money, it will continue. All I know is it takes very little training to kill someone with a gun. That's why they have children as soldiers in areas like this. One clip holds more bullets then a dingy can carry pirates. If you fight back, who's going to be mad other then dead pirates? This is only true from a non-military stand point. In a way, it all comes down to the world's fear of "terrorism". What they don't seem to understand is the money they shell out to save their people is used to kill people of other nations anyway. So who is more important? The life of 250 hostages or 250,000 potential victims? 300 Million dollars can kill a lot more people then the ones on a boat in question. Which really means that every government that pays off the pirates either cares more about merch or cares less about foreign peoples. Again, just my two cents.

Renewing the act of privateers or contract out to mercenaries. Fight pirates with pirates, as it were. EDIT: but this does raise the question of who fits the bill? Another reason I'm all for allowing privateering. It can't be considered war profiteering if no one has actually declared war. Only America is dumb enough to say something like "War on Terrorism/drugs/violence/gangs/pirates" as if it's an actual declaration. Is a criminal act against a criminal actually a crime? Only in America but certainly not on the water.

Your post was well written, mate. I'm just quoting this little piece to add more opinion. I would not die for the property of another person. However, I would kill any person that would use my life as a commodity. "Live by the sword, die by the sword" is a phrase that comes to mind. If you would take a life in your own hands then expect the same but without the obligation of mercy. Foxe, you're are correct by saying the ocean is just too big to police. It comes down to the question of which is more important, life or merch. If merch, then raid the vessels and take the chances of hostage loss. If life is more important then expect piracy to never end. "Criminals thrive on the indulgence of society's understanding." That may be a lame quote to some but I think it's pretty damn good myself.

Not that I have any standing with this but as a noob I agree with Cpt. Sterling. I took a look at the other thread and it's too long to give the proper respects of reading most of the posts in order to get in the mood.

Well, the world complains enough about how we "police" the world. It's time they started dealing with their own issues if that's how they feel. No point in getting killed for people that not only don't appreciate it but take a public stance against it. Sorry for the 2 posts in a row here.

I feel they are lucky for finding themselves in a political fiasco. Perhaps they'll just do something extremely drastic next time and Americans will have to show we're not going to take any "F'n shyte" from modern pirates. I'm sure there are political reasons why nations don't step up and deal with them, but it's nothing more then a business of extortion and kidnapping. Every company/nation says "This is ok for you to do" when they pay the pirates off. To be honest, I don't blame the pirates, I blame people on the seas who don't properly protect themselves. Million dollar vessels and they won't sink 10k on weaponry for self defense. If you swim with sharks, don't blame them if you're caught outside the cage. Just my two cents.