In Pirate News

Before Stevenson made Pirates glamorous in Treasure Island, it was soundly excepted by decent folk that piracy was a foul crime and a blight on the Empire....er....Nation (depending on what decent folk we are talking about here.)

However, in recent memory Pirates have assumed a fabled, nay, mythical status in literature, film, and pop culture for very obvious reasons. As Captain Jack and Gibbs recite to each other in the Disney movies,
"Take what you can, and give nothin' back."
A very alluring mentality to be sure, and quite well fitting with the fantastical setting of the open seas, tropical islands, ships, parrots, rum, etc.

Yet, today piracy is either one of two things in the real world:
1) Copyright infringement by means of "illegally" obtaining electronic media over the internets

OR

2) A bunch of dirty Arab, Somali, or Filipino aqua-bandits cruising around in rusted hulls and causing mischief and grief in the seas of the Third World.

Don't quite look like Long John Silver and his crew do they?

In the sense of instance number 2, the pirate has once again assumed his rightful place as the villain, and one who is to be loathed and dispatched to boot. That, friends, is exactly what the Royal Navy did yesterday when a boatload of Yemeni Pirates fired on the HMS Cumberland after the Brits thwarted an attempted hijacking of a cargo ship.
It was the first Naval engagement by Royal Marines is recent memory to actually result in the deaths of anyone, friend or foe. In other words, it was the first Pirate Battle of the new Millennium!

The FULL STORY can be found at the link, here are excerpts:

"Pirates caught red handed by one of Her Majesty’s warships after trying to hijack a cargo ship off Somalia made the grave mistake of opening fire on two Royal Navy assault craft packed with commandos armed with machine guns and SA80 rifles. In the ensuing gunfight, two Somali pirates in a Yemeni-registered fishing dhow were killed, and a third pirate, believed to be a Yemeni, suffered injuries and subsequently died. It was the first time the Royal Navy had been engaged in a fatal shoot-out on the high seas in living memory."