Reply #110: From what I heard, arming cargo ships is prohibited by international treaties for a simple reason: [View All]

[Smith_3]

Otherwise countries would just start declaring their warships as cargo ships.

"Hey, that is not a destroyer cruising around your coast. It has boxes of bananas on it."

I think the whole problem is that in those areas where pirates are active, countries don't trust each other enough to have "merchant" ships sailing around armed to the teeth.