Indian Navy footage shows a cargo ship hit by a missile fired by Yemen’s Houthi rebels in the Gulf of Aden in January. picture alliance / ZUMAPRESS.com | Indian Navy
Pirate attacks on international cargo ships have increased in the Red Sea near Yemen.
The pirates steal cargo and extort ransoms from kidnapped crew members. Large logistics companies have repeatedly canceled trips through endangered waters.
A former building contractor from Munich now wants to use a new invention to make ships safer against pirate attacks.
International shipping is not a safe business. The reason: pirates. Greek merchant ships in the Aegean Sea were plagued by pirates over two thousand years ago. In modern times, pirate attacks occur primarily at two junctions of international trade routes: in the Horn of Africa near Somalia and, most recently, particularly frequently in the Red Sea, near Yemen.
And the attacks are becoming increasingly daring, thanks in part to modern drone technology: According to the International Chamber of Commerce, 120 ships were hijacked by pirates last year alone. For the crew of the ships, this represents a danger to life and limb, and for the ship owners and large trading and logistics companies, it poses a threat to their business through stolen cargo and extorted ransoms.
The danger posed by pirates on the high seas is now so great that an international alliance led by the USA is patrolling the Red Sea with warships. A situation that gave the former Munich building contractor Andreas Golmayer an idea.
Golmayer has applied for a patent. He invented an anti-piracy system for large container ships. Its principle: A kind of rail is attached to the side of the ships. A discharge device loaded with steel cylinders weighing 500 kilograms rides on this rail. Using laser tracking, it can identify pirate ships and position itself exactly above them when they approach to board. The steel cylinders are then dropped to destroy or damage the pirate boats.
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“The sled can move along the side of the ship at a speed of 100 kilometers per hour,†Golmayer told the “Handelsblatt”.. According to the newspaper, Golmayer has now sold his patent to the metal construction company Georg Beyer from Mühlheim an der Ruhr. In return he received half of the company shares. Initial discussions about possible tests of the system are currently being held with shipping companies.
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