These bonus materials for The Ransom Drop point to public domain material including photo’s, news media files and websites which readers of The Ransom Drop may find interesting. The image below of a real drop must have been leaked by one of the teams involved in a delivery project. (I know it wasn’t me!)
In the middle of the ocean there are not many observers at this height!
The Ransom Drop – Bonus Material
The file below supports the reading of The Ransom Drop from Chapter 51 onwards. (If you haven’t read the book yet, then above all, you might want to avoid reading the below presentation until you have.)
Bonus Material External links and media.
These pages provide some flesh to the bones of The Ransom Drop. Below you will find links including some accounts by hostages, leading news articles at the time, international organisation websites and publicly available resources around piracy.
Click on the images to go to the sites with all copyrights observed.
The seafarers welfare organisation. A superb organisation that has helped many seafarers in distress. Do please support them if you can.
Insurance
The article above was published by HFW insurers when Somali Piracy was at its peak.
As the issue evolved, such huge sums of cash changing hands was raising many eyebrows. Several potential changes in international law were proposed. These changes effectively banned the payment of ransom to pirates and hostages who were held at the time would have been trapped in limbo on the coast of Somalia. As it happened, the US signalling, combined with best management practices, resulted ultimately in enough disruption to break the business model. Now, there are only occasional attacks. As of 2021, the days of 25 or more ships being held offshore Somalia are well and truly over.
I hope you enjoyed these bonus materials for The Ransom Drop. If you would like to comment, see our social media pages.
The bonus materials provided here include links to external sites for which the author is not responsible.