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The idea that shipping companies would prohibit their crews from carrying weapons is ridiculous and unfair to these potential victims of piracy.  It also mirrors the overly restrictive gun rules in most of the U.S.  By not allowing the crews to defend themselves against piracy, these companies are simply guaranteeing successful piracy and ensuring that the crews will be held captive at the least, tortured and murdered at the worst.  It would have been unthinkable just a century ago to go to sea without the means to defend oneself.  Why is it so much less important now?  The open ocean is a dangerous enough place with severe storms, predatory fish, dangerous ship-borne diseases, and with any kind of help rarely being convenient or close, it is an environment that calls for self-sufficient measures and independent action.  Four ignorant and poorly trained Somalis were able to board a 600 foot ship from a dingy, which immediately sank, and with a few AK-47 rifles were able to successfully hijack the vessel and then take hostage it’s captain.  Do you think that having a few crewmembers trained in counter-piracy would have been a bad thing?  These people are brazenly attacking such vessels specifically and only because they know that they do not defend themselves.