Avast!

Crap on a crutch, it's been almost three hundred yrs. since Blackbeard went to Davy Jones's locker. Who'd've expected piracy to make a high-tech return to the high seas? Now, w/ the seizure of the Saudi ship Sirius Star ("It's as long as three football fields!" "It's filled w/ $100 million worth of oil!" "Pirates!") (Photo: Fred Vloo/AP)the forces of international commerce & consumption are really taking notice.

"They're very well armed. Tactically they are very good," Admiral Michael Mullen, the chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of staff, said this week. He said the pirate gangs were "very good at what they do." The Gulf of Aden effectively controls access to the Suez Canal, which allows ships to go from Europe to Asia without having to take the much longer and more expensive route around the southern tip of Africa. NATO, the United States and a number of European nations have all sent ships to the region to try to stop the piracy, which has only increased instead.

This seems to have reduced the Suez Canal to an expensive boondoggle.

Meanwhile shipping companies have usually decided to pay the ransom demanded, eager to get crews and goods home safely, and at least one major shipper has said it will no longer use the Suez route through the Gulf of Aden. Norway's Odfjell said Monday its vessels would now go around Africa's Cape of Good Hope.

"The re-routing will entail extra sailing days and later cargo deliveries. This will incur significant extra cost, but we expect our customers' support and contribution" to cover the costs, CEO Terje Storeng said.

So begins the return to barbarism. Whether it will be a long decline or a brutally short finish is all that remains to be seen. At the root of this evil, as most others, we find capitalism, specifically the greed of the small businessman.

Many of the pirates have made small fortunes from their activities, which have broad support from many Somalis, including shopkeepers who are able to charge them higher prices for their goods in the impoverished nation.

Hey, that's all that counts. Bleach on that money will wash the blood right off.