Sabaody Archipelago, 71st Island.
On a secluded stretch of coast, a three-masted sailing ship was moored by the shore. A white flag hung from its mast, bearing an octagonal umbrella-shaped emblem in red and silver-gray.
In the first half of the Grand Line, many pirates would instinctively steer far clear whenever they spotted merchant ships flying the Umbrella Corporation's flag.
This was because the Umbrella Corporation's merchant ship escort teams were equipped with sniper rifles and Javelin Rocket Launchers.
Under normal circumstances, when encountering pirate ships, they would use sniper rifles to whittle them down and pick off targets from afar, then directly bombard the ships with rockets at medium to close range.
Sniper rifles were one thing, but using Javelin Rocket Launchers to blow up ships was simply too much for those pirates to handle!
It was not that pirates could not use the cannons mounted on their ships to sink Umbrella Corporation vessels.
Rather...
The main purpose of pirates attacking other ships at sea was plunder, not pure slaughter and destruction.
When the battle was over, people were dead, ships were wrecked, shells had been wasted, and yet they gained nothing. Any pirate with a functioning brain would not do something so damn stupid!
Incidentally, these rocket launchers powerful enough to destroy ships had long since entered official sale at Sephiroth's instruction. Buyers came in an endless stream. Aside from certain kingdoms purchasing them to improve their armies' overall strength, the largest group of buyers turned out to be maritime merchants...
Maritime trade brought enormous profits, but it also came with enormous risks. Aside from the complicated and ever-changing weather at sea, the rampant pirates were the greatest threat!
A Javelin Rocket Launcher consisted of a reusable launch tube that cost fifty thousand Belly and sold for one