Many are familiar with the Golden Age of Piracy in the North Atlantic and Indian Oceans. This occurred between the 19650s into the 1730s, and names like Henry Morgan, Edward "Blackbeard" Teach and the Barbary pirates come to mind. There were females also of some prominence: Anne Bonny and Mary Read.
Not as well-known is piracy in the Strait of Malacca, which is about 500 miles long, as shown to the right,
- Piracy began to appear in the 14th century. Typical were the pirates of Long Ya Men Sho, and they attacked with 200-300 boats!
- And pirates are still here today, for there were 107 incidents just in the year 2024! We just left this area yesterday.
- The geography of the Strait of Malacca is susceptible to piracy. There are thousands of islands where they can hide and ambush.
- 60% of maritime trade between just China and India pass through this waterway.
- It is also the route to/from Asia for Europe, the Suez Canal and oil-exporting countries of the Persian Gulf.
In addition to what was mentioned above, between the 15th and 19th centuries, these waters played a key role in political power struggles involving the Portuguese, Dutch and British.
- This region accounted for 40% of world piracy worldwide.
- Most of the pirates are of Indonesian origin, run by organized criminal syndicates.
- In 2014, a new piracy strategy of targeting oil and diesel tankers emerged.
- Piracy surged in the first half of 2025 with 80 incidents, as opposed to 21 in 2024.
- Indonesia is not adequaely equipped to patrol the Strait, so India is assisting, wih assistance from Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand.
There is also piracy in the Singapore Strait, waterways we will cross several times on the Diamond Princess.
- Is only 17 miles long,
- This an area of concern for the Regional Cooperation Agreement on Combating Piracy and Robbery against Ships in Asia,
- Get this: the Singapore Strait was the location of 65% (55 our of 84) of piracy which in Asia in 2022,
- I asked Google AI if cruise ships had recently been pirated in this region (click on this to read the full response):
Yes, piracy and armed robbery incidents have significantly increased recently in the
Straits of Malacca and Singapore, especially in 2025, targeting mostly cargo ships, though typically opportunistic thefts with no serious injuries, not large-scale hijackings like Somalia. While no major cruise ship hijackings are reported for this period, cruise passengers received specific pirate warnings in other nearby high-risk areas (Sulu Sea) in early 2025, showing heightened regional awareness. 
Yikes, I did not know that all this was happening anywhere in world until now, Here is a Guardian article from three months ago. Some older Time magazine info.
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