New Breed of Violent Pirates
April 10, 2002 — -- They may not have patches over their eyes, parrots on their shoulders, and bottles of rum in their hands, but modern-day pirates are preying on the weak and the unwary.
From Borneo to Baja California, pirate attacks — up 400 percent in the last decade — are bolder and bloodier than ever. Like their legendary predecessors, they pose a serious threat to tankers, freighters and sailors across the world. And, according to some experts, many more attacks go unreported, especially in tourist spots.
"The crimes are becoming more and more audacious," says Kim Petersen, a security expert who tracks pirates. "They're after whatever they can get."
Though no cruise ships have been attacked recently, the cruise lines are now so worried about piracy and hijacking that they've hired Gurkhas, Nepalese soldiers skilled with knives and swords, to protect their ships and passengers.
A pirate's job description is simple: robbery on the high seas. In American waters, most piracy involves simple cargo theft. But pirates can also be after an entire tanker, which can fetch as much as $30 million on the black market. And taking the ship can mean killing everybody on board.
"From the pirate's point of view," says Nigel Collett, a British security specialist, it's best "to dispose of the crew at sea either by murdering them or by throwing them overboard."
Bob Medd — who almost had his head chopped off by pirates — found that out the hard way. Medd, a Canadian who made his living as a fisherman, decided to sail around the world when he retired.
"This has been my lifelong dream as far back as I can ever remember," says Medd, who was recently divorced.
By late last summer he had made it from Calgary to the west coast of Mexico.
"I had fallen in love with Mexico," he says. "I just thought it was the most amazing place I'd ever been to."
Just after sunset on Aug. 12, Medd furled his sail off a deserted Mexican beach 500 hundred miles south of San Diego.
At 9 p.m., he was approached, "and that's when my life changed."
He noticed a small boat bearing down on him with two young men on board. They pulled alongside and called out "Agua! Agua," indicating that they needed water.
Always a good sport, Medd was ready to help.
He left the cockpit to go to his ice chest, but didn't think to take his wallet with him or to remove a large bread knife on the cabin table. As he reached into his ice chest for some water, he felt a shadow at his back.
"I come out and turn around and there's a guy standing there. He's got my knife," he says, "and he's got my wallet … and he's saying, 'More money, more money, mas dinero!'"
Medd answered, "No money! Get off my boat!"
But the intruder just responded by slashing him across his arm with the knife. "Then I grabbed his arm with the knife and we were wrestling," says Medd, "and as we were doing that, his friend who had also come aboard, smashed me with something and down I went. That's all I remember."
By the time Medd came to, the boat was drifting and blood was oozing from a cut above his nose. He was able to get to shore, only to pass out again. When he finally came around, the sun was at high noon and his neck felt like it was being scalded with a branding iron.
"I couldn't figure out why it was I was hurting so much," he says. "I got up and I started walking, and this is going to sound kind of silly, but my head felt like it was loose on my shoulders. It felt like it was wobbling. And I couldn't figure out what this feeling was."
His hand touched the wound, at which point he realized that his throat had been slit from one side to the other.
"I'm very fortunate, I guess in one way, in that they used my bread knife," he says. "It's a sharp knife, but it's a serrated edge, so they had to saw to get the knife in."
For the next two days Medd slipped in and out of consciousness, at times hallucinating, mistaking seabirds on the beach for potential rescuers.
"I was losing it," he says. Finally he took one last look at the ocean and lay down to die. "I said my peace with God," he says. "Take me where you're going to take me."
But Medd wasn't done for yet. Two local fishermen spotted him on the beach and took him aboard, astonished by his terrible wound. He was rushed to a local hospital and then back to Canada for treatment — just in time.
Though his life was spared, the attack left him crippled financially.
"I lost absolutely everything," says Medd, whose every possession was on the vessel.
Though high-tech solutions like global positioning devices are now helping authorities track ships at sea, for Medd, the voyage may finally be over.
"I don't think I've lost my dream, but I've certainly lost the way of doing my dream," he says. "I think that's the thing that hurts the most, is that my dream is gone."
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