摘要:Piracy has always been a menace ever since ships sailed the seas with commercial goods. In the days of the sailing ships, the pirates took hostages and cargo just as they do now and caused as much strife to the crew, ship owners and cargo interest. Now, with the scale of commercial shipping and trade being much larger and global, the effects of piracy emanating from Somalia is causing disruption of the cargo supply chain which can be quite debilitating, especially for the crude and oil trade which gets a large chunk of its supply from the Middle East. Added to this is the effect of hostage taking. Huge pressure is brought to bear on governments concerned when the crew is taken hostage, instigating them to take action, like when MT Stolt Valour was taken hostage in 2008,1 the media, which reflects the mood of the people, held the Indian Government responsible for not protecting its seamen, and rightly demanded action. The Indian Navy then dispatched a few warships to the area, which sank a mother ship, and the naval presence has been there ever since.