SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — There are cameras that capture images clear enough to distinguish between a fishing vessel and a boatload of pirates 10 miles away. There are cascades of water and noxious compounds to repel invaders. And there are shields to withstand a rocket-propelled grenade.

A container ship that steamed into a Puerto Rican port Friday was old by commercial shipping standards but it had the latest in security measures, upgrades that convert it into a floating fortress designed to be impregnable to piracy.

The 720-foot Horizon Producer was temporarily outfitted as a training exercise for the crew, a demonstration for officials from Panama and Belize — both with major global shipping registries — and as an informercial for journalists. It also offers a window into the shipping industry’s debate about what measures to take amid a surge in pirate attacks.

There is no longer a major pirate threat in the Caribbean. But Bill Boyce, the Horizon Producer’s captain, said his crew members travel and could find themselves on a ship off East Africa, where the International Maritime Organisation says more than 100 crewmen were taken hostage in January alone.

“They come on with rocket propelled grenade launchers and AK-47s and all you have is a fire hose,” said Boyce, describing conditions on many commercial ships. “You’re responsible for 30 people’s lives … and you don’t have the tools to really help them. That’s a lot of weight on a captain’s shoulders.”

Which is where International Maritime Security Network, LLC sees a niche. The company, based in Wellsburg, West Virginia, is starting to market its Triton Shield Anti-Piracy System, which it was testing and refining on the Horizon Producer, a 37-year-old steam-powered container ship, on its regular haul from Jacksonville, Florida, to San Juan.

The strategy starts with cameras that scan the horizon and give captains time to determine whether an approaching boat is carrying men with fishing equipment or RPG’s. That may allow the ship to speed up and evade the pursuers.

If that doesn’t work, the system dispatches a “wall of water”, from nozzles arrayed along the length of the vessel to prevent pirates from boarding with grappling hooks. A separate system sprays a noxious compound that makes people retch, vomit and pass out.

CEO Timothy Nease, who says he doesn’t know what’s in the compound but insists it’s biodegradable. He says no one can withstand either the compound or the water system, spraying at 150 gallons per minute, especially when a ship is running full speed and throwing up a wake.

“The water alone is a big deterrent,” Nease said. “That thing grounds you; it’s like being waterboarded almost.”