Convoy

In 1917 Britain was on her knees, with the German unrestricted submarine warfare in full flood, with a sinking rate of British, Allied and neutral ships that would leave Britain starving. In April 1917 over 800,000 tonnes of shipping were sunk, neutral ships (understandable) refused to leave port. Later that month, the US Admiral Sims met the First Sea Lord, Sir John Jellicoe, and discussed the issue:

"Is there no solution to this problem?" asked Sims

"Absolutely none that I can see now" replied Jellicoe.

For nearly the first three years of the war, shipping had sailed independently of each other across the Atlantic with ships taking their luck.

The U-Boats were able to find their prey easily since they were scattered across the oceans in a chequerboard fashion, with the chance of ships passing by the submarine being high.

The answer, of course, was convoys - all the ships together and escorted. The oceans emptied and if the U-Boat found a convoy it would only have the chance for a single shot before the convoy swept past it.

Why is this relevant?

I cannot understand why escorted merchantmen are not convoyed past Somalia?

It would only take a single modern escort to keep the pirates at bay - esp with helicopters; the pirates would find it MUCH harder to locate their prey and as an incentive, the merchantmen could be be offered lower insurance rates if they were in convoy....