Pirates

At the stern, we have revealed to us some of the ship's most primitive but most exciting features, reels of rusting, razor-sharp barbed wire. Markus and I will disembark at Port Said, but these sailors will continue into the waters of one of the most volatile regions on the planet: the Horn of Africa. Here, pirates represent not an item in the news or an academic phenomenon but an everyday reality.

Pirates approach unexpectedly from the stern and fire warning shots to pressure the captain into slowing down. Lightweight ladders are run up the side of the boats to climb on-board. They will sometimes steal cargo, but more often hold the sailors hostage until the captain pays a ransom.

The sailors of our ship are at a natural disadvantage as this shipping company is not one of those that carries firearms. Their best tactics are to ring the deck with barbed wire, to rig the fire-hoses into water cannons, to launch flares towards the pirate skiffs, and to hope that international task forces will arrive to blast at the pirates before the ship is hijacked.

The pirates often carry a special weapon, Louis explains, in the form of fishing rods: when task forces arrive and are about to make arrests, the pirates jettison their weapons overboard alongside any stolen cargo and pose as innocent fishing boats.