Are there armed guards on cruise ships

However, serious crimes do occur. Security officers must also be alert to threats coming from outside the ship. Cruise ship security is handled by a team of professionals with differing levels of responsibility. Security guards at the lower levels have duties such as screening passengers, making rounds, and reporting unusual or suspicious activity.

Those at the higher levels put together security plans and determine how to respond to incidents of varying levels of seriousness. Security personnel need to be aware that there can be situations so extreme that a person must actually be confined. Even lead security officers do not act completely on their own in serious situations.

They may receive direction from leaders on shore. Not surprisingly, cruise ships want experienced staff, especially in the higher levels. The highest positions are hard to achieve. The Royal Caribbean, for example, recently advertised for both a security officer and a security guard. Requirements for security officer were steep, including a military background and diving certification.

Requirements for security guard were far more modest. The person would need to meet physical requirements and would also need to read, write, and speak English. Defensive equipment from sonic boom weapons that emit piercing sounds, high pressure water jets, razor wire thrown down the side of a ship to security guards firing back at pirates, have helped cruise ships safeguard holiday makers on luxury liners for more than a decade.

Security protocols have beaten back pirates in fast-moving skiffs armed with AKs, grappling hooks and light-weight ladders since a rise in attacks in the late s when merchant vessels were first hijacked and crew taken hostage. The protective measures on cruise ships came into focus this week when holidaymakers were taken aback by piracy drills on a recent day Sea Princess sailing from Sydney to Dubai, which included a day dusk-until-dawn dimming of lights and a shutdown of all parties on deck.

As The National has reported on extensively, a bleak economic situation in Somalia is among the causes of a spike in hijackings this year. In response to questions about whether this was in response to specific threats, the Princess Cruises said it was cautionary measure. The safety and security of our guests and crew is our number one priority. While cruise companies declined to give details, experts said similar to merchant vessels in piracy infested waters, cruise ships too increase vigilance, step up watch-keeping using night vision binoculars and can deploy water cannons or fire hoses if threatened as per the best management practices adopted by the shipping industry.

Pottengal Mukundan, director of the International Maritime Bureau, said all vessels should at the very minimum follow listed best management practices when transiting through the Arabian Sea and Gulf of Aden. The Yahoo article does not really touch upon the issue that cruise ships are largely unarmed.

So regardless how you feel about the Second Amendment to the U. Cruise ships are flagged in foreign countries like the Bahamas or Panama.

The international Maritime Organization IMO has no authority to regulate the use of guns on these foreign flagged ship. The IMO does not even recommend that cruise ships have guns. We have written about the dangerous current set of affairs where some cruise ships are sailing into Somali pirate infested waters where the few security guards had to use fake wooden rifles, deck chairs and water cannons to fight off pirates armed with rocket propelled grenades.