In 2008, according to the maritime bureau, 111 ships were attacked in the region, a figure that itself represented a 200percentt increase from 2007.
Despite the storm's change in track, the United States Weather Bureau cautioned shipping interests in the outlying islands of the Bahamas.
Instead, Manila port officials and the Philippine coastguard permitted the Princess of the Stars to set sail, despite clear warnings by the weather bureau that the ship was headed for the eye of the typhoon.
In the first quarter of this year, the maritime bureau recorded 83 ships being hijacked or fired upon worldwide.
The design of KB-4, the surface ship design bureau of the Baltic Shipyard, was selected for further development although the lead designers were convinced that only a larger ship could fulfill the ambitious requirements.
With the approval of the specifications, TsKB-17, the heavy-ship design bureau, began work on the sketch design to be submitted for approval to the Council of Ministers before the start of the technical design could begin.
The bureau did not identify either ship by name.
Cristyne L. Nicholas, the president of NYC & Company, the city's tourism bureau, also criticized the cruise ship plan.
The bureau also reckons that, as ships take more precautions, the pirates' success rate will drop.Most ships now steam along narrow corridors at night and at full speed.
The hallways of the BBC's Washington News bureau are lined with open shipping cases, coiled wires and bits of electronic gear sticking out, as an extremely small but skilled team of engineers again transforms this newsgathering office into a production centre.
