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Originally Posted by Adm.Lee
I've been told one of the main reasons merchant crews are not armed is that the captains and owners then have to fear for their lives and ships.
Before this burst of Somali piracy, one of the flavors of modern piracy was that ships and cargoes would "disappear." Some of the crew would take over, sail to an out-of-the-way spot, rename the hull and sell the cargo. The rest of the crew would be paid off, and the insurance company is left to figure out what happened.
RE: WW2, the AA guns and crews that were placed on merchant ships were, IIRC, naval crewmen-- the US Navy Armed Guard. The ship's civilian crews were not involved.
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The navy and coastguard would put personel on the ships, but, some of the crew of the ship also formed parts of the gun crews, it doesn't matter if you are a trigger puller of one of half a dozen men handing ammo to the loader a member of a gun crew is a member of a gun crew, and all are versed in how to operate the system, that is one of the rules of being on a gun crew. <to not is a failure of the team/crew leader.>
Now, how is this for a T2K scenario,]
A mewrchant vessel in the hands of some small time warlords on some barren coast. It has "parts" the parts themself are so much metal, but they turn out to be critial parts to a Bradely or M1 or something else, along wiith so many other supplies needed for the war effort.
Think of the container ships. Only the containers that are topside can be looted, those that are stacked on the inside are safe.
Or how about a PC, who was a member of the merchant marine, a good idea for an older character, and for the record, most are former military, some like the military sealift command actictively recruit military folks.