SeaSerpent Successfully Tested
Unifire AB of Sweden has just released a new, exclusive video on its updated PirateSafe web site showing the testing of its SeaSerpent portable Anti-Pirate Water Cannon System. The portable version of the Unifire Anti-Pirate Water Cannon System was successfully tested in February, 2010, by the Admiral Danish Fleet and the Danish Ship Owners Association in cooperation with shipping giant Maersk.
Unifire spokesman Roger Barrett James states: “The SeaSerpent was recently developed by Unifire to address the need for fleets to be able to economically and rapidly deploy water cannons to protect crew and cargo during passage through risky waters, and then be able to take down, transport, and re-deploy the same cannons on other ships in the fleet.”
The test shown in the newly released video was conducted at sea on the HDMS Gunnar Seidenfaden of the Royal Danish Navy. According to James, “during the test, the ship’s pump provided only about half of the volume and pressure of water recommended for use with Unifire’s SeaSerpent cannon. Despite this, the cannon still performed impressively, and clearly presented an effective means of non-lethal, self-defense by accurately directing a powerful jet stream of water capable of filling a pirate’s skiff with water very quickly and seriously hampering the efforts of anyone coming into contact with the powerful stream”.
In a recent Maersk Post article by Rasmus Nord Jørgensen (February, 2010), Maersk’s Group Security head, Flemming Dahl Jensen, stated: “I’m not disappointed. I’m pretty confident that the [Unifire] water cannons can slow down a skiff.” The article goes on to say that, “The [Unifire] remotely-controlled water cannon is one of the countermeasures being tested [by Maersk] today. Its main advantage is that seafarers can potentially hose approaching vessels without exposing themselves to attacks. The cannon is connected to the vessels’ water pumps… The aim is to blast enough water into an approaching pirate skiff to slow it down and let the merchant vessel escape unharmed, or buy enough time to let naval forces intervene”