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Britons shot in pirate attack
Press Association
Monday July 5, 2004 10:13 AMTwo Britons shot by pirates while on a gap year diving expedition in Tanzania are recovering from their ordeal.
Grace Forster, 18, from Whittlesey, Cambridgeshire, and Robert Scott, 20, from Bristol, were injured by a single bullet in the raid on their camp.
Robert was hit in the leg by a bullet which first passed through fellow traveller Grace, missing her spine by millimetres.
The pair were part of a 20-strong group attacked by seven raiders with guns and machetes who set upon their camp on the remote island of Pemba in the Indian Ocean on Friday night.
Robert has been discharged from hospital, while Grace is recovering in Dar-es-Salaam in Tanzania and should be able to fly home in the next few days, according to her father Ian, 52.
Speaking from his Dive In scuba diving centre in Whittlesey, Mr Forster said: “It could have been really serious. She could have been paralysed or worse. We don’t know if their intention was just to frighten everybody and they were firing at the ground but they subjected the group to a lot of humiliating treatment.
“I think most if not all youngsters were made to lie face down in the sand. They beat some of them around the head with machete handles. Certainly one girl was beaten. They stole a huge amount of money and personal possessions from the individuals.”
He added that the group, who were on a marine conservation expedition run by an organisation called Frontier, had been warned that pirates had been operating in the area and as a precaution had been accompanied by unarmed guards.
But the guards had either been beaten up or fled at the first sign of trouble.
Grace has just sat her A-Levels and raised around £2,000 for the trip while studying.
© Copyright Press Association Ltd 2004, All Rights Reserved
I have a nice little 32ft sloop in Makran, Pakistan. I intend to sail her back to the U.S. on of these days. In planning this trip I realized that besides Indonesia and the Philipines, East Africa is among the most densely pirate populated areas in the world. The Devil’s Teeth, Djibuoti, where the wind and current are always bad for those of us heading west are a feeding frenzy for pirates. Knowing this, I purchased a few wire guideds (don’t ask), some Kalishnikof’s (AKM’s), a few Tokarev TT33 pistols (because they were really cheap)….and a Browning .50 cal. mounted on deck….Why the hell would a bunch of priveledged kids go with out arming their guards….What good is a native guard, or non-native for that matter, with out arms?…perhaps he’s a translator…perhaps you don’t trust the guards with arms as they may be pirates also….I certainly wouldn’t pay an un armed guard to watch me get robbed. Perhaps the guards are collaberating with the pirates….At any rate, as we all know, shit happens, but everyone ultimately has to handle his/ her own business. If you drop me in Pirate rich waters….I want enough fire power to make them rethink their business of choice. I understand that even the most prepared person sometimes falls prey to some one else… But I after driving a little Fiat Spider around Karachi, Pakistan for a year I realized that if I should be car jacked…I can shoot the bastard in the back…its a convertible. Same goes for a boat…if they leave you alive…they still have to get away.
A lot of yachties carry some sort of arms as par for the course when they are crossing the well known pirated areas. The Aussie army also does “training” to the north of Australia as a way to thin out the pirate problem from what I have heard.
What I find amazing is the fact that entire tankers can “disappear” and do so quite regularly. Usually they get repainted and reregistered in China – at least in the Asia area.
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