I think it would be rather exciting to meet a pirate…
Think again Miss Swann.
We’re long past the days of ‘a short drop and a sudden stop’ as a punishment for those who sail under the ‘Jolly Roger’. Of course, the concept of piracy as Hollywood would have us believe it likely never existed in the first place. Much as we would love to believe otherwise, handsome rascals like Capt’n Jack Sparrow are a myth. Pirates have always been, and still are, desperate people – and desperate people are very dangerous.
As usual, the ship takes a great many precautions when we sail into known piracy waters. While it’s very, very rare for a cruise liner to be attacked, it’s easy to see why we would be a juicy target if someone were brave enough. To most people these ships mean money, and plenty of it. The truth is though; we move too quickly and ride too high in the water to be considered a probable target. Cargo ships and other low-lying vessels are much more likely to be hit than us. And also, though we’ll never see them, I suspect there’ll be a military ship in the area flanking us – at least there has been in the past, I’m far from an expert on how these things work though, so I don’t claim certain knowledge.
All I know is that I saw the razor wire winding along the edges of the promenade deck this morning while I was standing on the pier seeing off the tour guests (with an elephant! Really! But I digress) – which was the first hint that we’ll be crossing active waters.
There’ll be a drill tomorrow so that in the highly unlikely event of an actual emergency everyone knows what to do, but the details of how that drill works are confidential. As always, just know that the bridge and the staff have everyone on this ship well in hand, and we will – as we always do – land in our next port perfectly safe.