Designed by a division of Japan’s NYK group along with hose manufacturer Yokoi,

anti-piracy curtain is a unique method to keep pirates from climbing the ships. The
system consists of a series of hoses which are dangled on the port and starboard
sides of the vessel. Sea water is passed through the nozzles at a force of 0.2 Mega
Pascal, which makes the hoses go in unpredictable whirling motion, generating
enough force to seriously hurt anyone who gets in the way.

In an effort to deter pirates from attacking ships, the Anti-Piracy Curtain has been
developed by MTI in the NYK Group, and Yokoi, a manufacturer of fire hoses.

The system consists of two elements, the first sprays water from high-volume
nozzles, which hinder the pirates from boarding the ship, as well as filling up the
pirate's vessels with water, and the second are hoses which whip around violently,
with the purpose of intimidating pirates from a distance.

"If a pirate boat approaches, with this system, the first line of defense is to threaten
to capsize the pirate boat, by filling it with water at the rate of over 1 cm per minute.
Another tactic is our patented hose, which is a new idea. By spraying water from the
nozzle tip, the hose is made to move around unpredictably, using a very small
amount of water. We've made the hose snake around near the bottom of the boat,
without rising too high, by attaching a sinker to the end."

The high-volume nozzle was developed to work effectively with the fire pumps on
small boats, which are especially vulnerable to piracy. It sprays enough water to
prevent a ladder being raised, maintaining a rate of two tons of per hour at a
pressure of 0.2MPa. Also, the hose deters pirates from climbing aboard, through its
irregular motion and impact force of around 700 N.
"Ordinary anti-piracy systems use water cannons to spray high-pressure jets at
pirates. But our system deters intruders by sending water downward like a waterfall,
and it is also very easy to see from a distance."

It's perfectly understandable why commercial shipping vessels are prohibited from
carrying arms in international waters. But when it comes to dealing with the threat of
piracy, battles that pit water hoses against small arms and RPGs are decidedly one
sided. So Japanese companies MTI and Yokoi have teamed to create what they call
the "Anti-Piracy Curtain," a system that makes it difficult--and quite intimidating--for
anyone to board a ship without the consent of a crew.

The curtain is a two-pronged anti-piracy attack aimed that aims to make it

prohibitively difficult for pirates to pull up alongside a shipping vessel and board it
using ladders, the typical method of operation for pirates operating in places like the
Horn of Africa. Using the ship's onboard firefighting water pump system, the first
countermeasure dumps huge amounts of water off the side of the ship via high-
volume nozzles, which soaks anyone below and would fill a pirate skiff with water at
a rate of about a centimeter per second, eventually causing the boat to sink or
capsize.

The second and more intimidating prong of this forked attack involves the deploying
of high pressure hoses down the sides of the ship. Each hose is attached to a sinker
weight that keeps the nozzle down near the water's surface, and the restrictive
nozzle at the end ensures that the water coming out does so at high-pressure. The
result: a long hose belching a stream of stinging high-pressure water while lashing
about violently. Several of these deployed down the side of a ship make it difficult to
put a ladder up the side of the vessel, much less to climb aboard the ship.