Three pirates killed, U.S. captain tastes freedom, yo ho!
One pirate tale ended Easter Sunday, yet more are sure to come.
Guess we'll see you flying again off Somalia soon, Jolly Roger.
With a dramatic barrage of sniper fire, Navy SEALS today cut down three seafaring rogues who kidnapped a U.S. freighter captain, ending a five-day standoff along the Somali coast between pirates and America's armed forces.
The modern-day buccaneers brandished AK-47s rather than cutlasses, and they demanded a hefty ransom for their captive rather than just making do with ill-gained goods from their Wednesday siege off "anarchic shores," as the Associated Press put it.
The headline-grabbing odyssey was a far-cry from romanticized tales of yesteryear's pirates, portrayed in film and books as free-spirited rogues who maintained inherently diverse and inspiringly libertarian societies outside the conventional nation state.
This former newspaper reporter regaled local readers with corsair stories crafted around a bygone pirate-themed shop called SeaWolf Trading Co. in Fremont, of all places, and helmed by one Don Hatcher:
While his store caters to a family-friendly vision of corsair life, Don said real seagoing scoundrels of the 1600s and 1700s were much grimier and less endearing than the celluloid version.
"They were men without a country," he said. "And by all means, a lot of them were bloodthirsty murderers."
Referring to Angus Konstam's "The History of Pirates," Don said the outlaws preferred to avoid real fighting and so engaged in "terrorism" so brutal that stories of their ruthlessness would make later victims simply surrender.
Sounds like some things never change.
The quirky retail store, which initially benefitted from the hype surrounding Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean movies, ultimately succumbed to the economic downturn that still grips small businesses across the country and around the Bay.
Hatcher, a fan of 17th and 18th century pirate lore and contemporary sailing affairs, put things in perspective last summer regarding the novelty store's fate:
"People come in the store and they're like, 'Why are you closing?' I don't know if people don't see what's happening around them. I'm in the same boat with a lot of small mom-and-pops in the area."
At the same time, supporters couldn't help mourn the unique endeavor's passing:
Matt Neu, 41, of the Niles district came by Tuesday to shop for a gift for his wife with his son, Oski, 6. Neu said it was a treat to have the store in town when the market might have been friendlier in Berkeley or San Francisco.
"It's a rare place in Fremont, as opposed to the usual strip mall crap," Neu said. "We'll miss it."
Meanwhile, the less sympathetic bretheren of the Somali pirates vowed revenge for their fallen comrades, per AP:
Jamac Habeb, a 30-year-old self-proclaimed pirate, told the AP from one of Somalia's piracy hubs, Eyl, that: "From now on, if we capture foreign ships and their respective countries try to attack us, we will kill them (the hostages)."
"Now they became our number one enemy," Habeb said of U.S. forces.
Let's assume those Navy marksmen were just warming up, if that's the way those scurvy dog pirates want to play it.
Ahoy American warships on the Indian Ocean! Beware the Jolly Roger flag hoisted aloft suspect vessels. It makes a fine target for U.S. lookouts to keep a watch out for, from the crow's nest high up 'round the main mast.
Well, if Naval destroyers have those things. Anyone know? Do say so, then.
