Cargo ships don’t carry weapons because it is feared this would increase the likelihood of crew members getting killed or injured. Anti-piracy tactics tend to focus on preventing pirates boarding in the first place. They may also have made the ship difficult to board by speeding to create a large wash.

Though in rare circumstances pirates also fire back. But still they cannot shoot a pirate though they are allowed to damage the boat of the pirates. They can shoot a pirate only if their or any other crew member’s life is at stake.

Drug laws of the United States prohibiting the possession and distribution of drugs can be applied to any vessel operating with any nationality. A vessel without any nationality is subject to U.S. jurisdiction.

Generally speaking, the law of the sea stipulates that maritime countries essentially control their territorial waters from the shore out to a distance of 12 miles (19.3 km), the “12-mile limit.” Within this zone, all laws of that country apply: the country can build, extract natural resources, and either encourage or …

The U.S. Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) extends no more than 200 nautical miles from the territorial sea baseline and is adjacent to the 12 nautical mile territorial sea of the U.S., including the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, Guam, American Samoa, the U.S. Virgin Islands, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands …

Whether a body remains on the ship or is repatriated from a foreign port depends on the ship’s location. Furthermore, some ports demand that dead bodies are off-loaded no matter what. In this case, a death certificate is issued and the body returned back to its home country.

Islands In International Waters If I’m correct, if a piece of land is unclaimed, or you build your own artificial island in international waters, you can claim it as your own – if its outside a countries borders, you can even found your own nation.