CarolC said, in part:

How do we know none of those things have ever happened before if they weren't being reported on?

The joker in your comment is the words "reported on".

Although these incidents have not been front-page news, any pirate taking of a ship is "reported on" to the insurers, at the very least, and there are records. So at the very least the insurers know that this was the largest tanker taken.

The volume of oil in this taking? That's part of this incident, and the previous paragraph applies.

"The first mother ship taken"? This incident and any previous mother ships taken (if there had been any) would be "reported on" to the navy and perhaps sponsoring international authority, such as NATO.

And so on with the other "firsts" mentioned above. Many things are known which are not given a big play in the various media.

And, Carol, you talked about the US "fighting a covert oil war in Somalia."   I don't believe that either Somalia or Ethiopia is a significant oil producer.

Dave Oesterreich