One of my favorite naval stories is that of the impressive but meaningless deployment of the raider CSS SHENANDOAH as told so well in John Baldwin’s book, Last Flag Down.

A non-state actor (the CSA not a recognized nation) builds and deploys a warship with one goal in mind – destroying the commerce of another. Her best work was done against USA whalers in the Pacific.

Though the comparisons are imperfect, the SHENANDOAH came to mind when I got a view of that small but efficient ramming bow on Sea Shepard’s purpose built anti-whaling ship, OCEAN WARRIOR, that was launched this summer.

As Sea Shepard has a history of ramming – it is not too much to look at that reinforced bow and wonder how much extra hardening there is.

Construction on Ocean Warrior, which is scheduled for completion in September, has been made possible thanks to the generosity of the Dutch Postcode Lottery, the People’s Postcode Lottery in the United Kingdom and the Svenska PostkodLotteriet in Sweden, who together granted €8.3 million to Sea Shepherd for the project.

While Sea Shepherd remains tight-lipped about exactly what the Ocean Warrior’s first at-sea mission will be, the organisation has assured its supporters the ship will be put to immediate use to defend, conserve and protect oceans and precious marine wildlife.

“Thanks to the Dutch Postcode Lottery, the People’s Postcode Lottery and the Svenska PostkodLotteriet, the addition of the Ocean Warrior to the Sea Shepherd Fleet has made us stronger, faster, and better able to prevail on the seas. We are counting down the days until the launch of the ship, on what will inevitably be a bad day for poachers, and a great day for the oceans,” said Geert Vons, Director of Sea Shepherd Netherlands.

That is the engineering and money side of the house – but something that we really have not seen fleshed out well is the legal side of the house if Sea Shepard’s “Neptune’s Navy” decides to continue to push the envelope to be the judge, jury and executioner at sea.

Historically, ramming is as much a weapon as a main gun. OCEAN WARRIOR is built for speed and a bit more that I am sure will be revealed in good time. Ramming? Who knows – but what have we seen before from them? What else would they do to stop what they want to stop? I would not expect this organization to become less aggressive.

Non-state actor vigilantism at sea vs. outlaw fishermen? With a couple of USCG ships in its fleet? When does reality show meets well-meaning advocacy tip over to quasi war at sea?

What is the proper response?