Thanks for the kind words...

Men-of-war are poorly suited to control piracy, even in the days of sail, navies had to design and build specialized vessels for this sort of work, and they were rarely any navy's high priority. For the same $ it's better to have 10 fast cutters than a missile cruiser for this mission, but that would require a harbor and maintenance facilities nearby.

Sure, a pirate launch stands no chance against a frigate or destroyer's firepower, but you don't just blast away at small boats in international waters unless you can prove without a doubt they are pirates, and the bad guys always operate very close to their bases where they can duck in for cover. Escorting convoys is very expensive, and would require stretching blue water navies too thin. You can't tie down a battle group to control a few thugs in Zodiacs.

The best way to control piracy is for the countries they operate from to mount their own coastal patrols and interdictions, and this isn't always possible for a variety of reasons. Some nations arm their merchantmen, but most shipping lines find it cheaper to insure their cargoes than to equip and train their crews for battle.

Actually, things haven't changed much since the days of fighting sail. In the end, even the pirates of Tripoli negotiated a deal with the US and Royal Navies. The big boys had bigger fish to fry.