Gunfire at the Wrong Ship

Five men in two small boats set out on the high seas between Somalia and the Seychelles looking for a merchant ship to seize. Three of them, in an attack skiff carrying assault rifles and a rocket-propelled grenade, opened fire from about sixty feet on a vessel that turned out to be a disguised navy frigate. The warship returned fire within seconds; nobody aboard was hurt, and the men fled, threw their weapons overboard and were captured. They at first said they had been kidnapped and coerced, but later admitted a plan to take merchant ships for ransom. The defence argued that piracy under the old federal statute means robbery at sea: they never boarded the ship or took anything, so no piracy was committed.