Re: Letters of marque

At 06:12  12/01/02 -0500, Chriswrote:
>Derek
> > >Also while I remember, it might be pertinent to the general
> > >discussion is that sometimes it is the navy of a nation state that
> > >acts like pirates, thinking to the incidents involving the Chinese
> > >navy and boats which were off China, but in international waters.
>
>Ryan Gill asked:
> > And what do those vessels usually bother? I'd be quite surprised if
> > they even looked at a 1st or 2nd world vessel sideways.
>
>Well, a PRC fighter rammed one of our surveillance planes last April
>or so....remember?
>
>Even "real" pirates (Dyaks) were known to attack first world ships,
>IIRC, although I don't know how long ago.  Lord knows what they
>thought they'd do with a destroyer if they captured one.

What Beth was referring to was instances of local Chinese commanders 
preying on shipping close to Chinese waters, they would board, insist
that 
the ship's navigation was in error and they had strayed across into
Chinese 
waters, they would then confiscate the ship and cargo. Ships carrying
cars 
were a desirable target.

Derek

Derek Fulton
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