Piracy is a crime as old as seafaring. In history as in literature, it conjures up an image of brigands with eye patches, pieces of eight and hearts of gold. In truth, it was always squalid, ruthless and barbaric.

Europe was terrorised by the Barbary pirates from North Africa for a century; Blackbeard tortured and mutilated those captured during his reign of terror in the Caribbean. There is nothing romantic about modern-day piracy either. The seizure of ships off the Gulf of Aden is maritime terrorism. The hijackers hunt in packs on speedboats, using rifles and rocket-propelled grenades to force their way on board, seizing the crews and forcing ships and their cargos to divert to their strongholds off the Somali coast. Using satellite phones to co-ordinate their attacks from a mother-ship — usually a hijacked fishing vessel — they have become increasingly bold in picking off vulnerable craft: pleasure boats, cargo ships and any vessel that would yield a substantial ransom for its release.

The spectacular hijacking of the Sirius Star, a Saudi supertanker laden with oil worth $100 million, takes the operations of these Somali pirates to a new level. The ship was some 450 nautical miles southeast of Mombasa, far from the approaches to the Red Sea where Western navies now patrol. Like most of the dozen ships taken to Eyl, the fishing port that has become the pirate headquarters, it was undefended. Its mixed crew had orders not to resist. It was a sitting duck. There have been 83 attacks on ships off Somalia this year, with 33 vessels hijacked and more than 200 crew still held captive. More than 1,200 Somalis are estimated to be involved, with six major groups active at sea...

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