Report: Cruise ship blasted pirates with sonic wave

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By Gene Sloan, USA TODAY

The UK's Daily Express is reporting that the cruise ship pursued by pirates last week in the Indian Ocean defended itself with a sonic weapon.

The news outlet says the 348-passenger Spirit of Adventure deployed a long range acoustic device, or LRAD, that can cause permanent ear damage at 300 feet. The device emits a loud noise.

Citing unnamed sources, the Express says the Spirit of Adventure's crew also deployed tangled cables designed to snarl the pirates' speedboat propellers.

The Spirit of Adventure was on its way from Madagascar to Zanzibar when it was pursued by the pirate boat for about an hour. Passengers, who were in the midst of a black tie dinner, were ordered to take shelter below deck.

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Several major cruise lines including Star Clippers and Seabourn have canceled voyages across the Indian Ocean over the past year due to concern over the increasingly brazen attacks on ships sailing through the region.

In April 2009, pirates with automatic weapons fired upon and attempted to board an MSC Cruises ship sailing across the Indian Ocean, prompting that line, too, to drop voyages through the region.

Cruise Loggers, have any of you sailed through the Indian Ocean? Share your thoughts below.

UPDATE, Tuesday, 7:55 AM ET: A spokesman for LRAD Corporation, the company that makes the long range acoustic device noted above, tells USA TODAY the Daily Express overstated the distance at which the device can cause permanent ear damage. LRAD's Robert Putnam says the device would have to used at much closer range, less than 50 feet, to cause hearing loss. Putnam also says the company does not call the device a weapon. It's a "highly effective long range communications system," Putnam says.

Posted Jan 17 2011 8:15AM