Years ago Somalia pirates were raising hell all through the Horn of Africa, the Indian Ocean and down the African East Coast. They pretty much operated with impunity, even giving rise to such famous hijackings as the taking of the US flagged Maersk Alabama, which for some inexplicable reason had been transiting a couple hundred miles off the Somali coast instead of the 600 miles the US government had warned was the safest distance out at sea.
Pirates had not captured a ship sailing under the American flag since the 1820s until April 8, 2009, when the MV Maersk Alabama was hijacked off the coast of Somalia. The high-profile incident drew worldwide attention to the problem of piracy, commonly believed to be a thing of the past, in the waters off the Horn of Africa.
And I will quibble with the History Channel here about the dates. It was actually into the 1830’s. If you’ll…
