British captain's Somali pirate nightmare

It began with a green blip travelling in the wrong direction.

Captain Peter Stapleton was chatting with his chief officer on the bridge of the 18,000 tonne cargo ship Boularibank when the green light on the radar caught their attention.

"It appeared to be putting itself in a good position across our stern about two miles [3km] away from which it would quite likely launch an attack," he remembered.

The Boularibank was returning to the British port of Hull from a journey to Malaysia on 28 April 2009 with a Russian crew and 11 passengers, one of whom was the captain's wife.

There was still a day to go before the ship entered the pirate-haunted waters of the Gulf of Aden but Captain Stapleton, 56, had already ordered anti-piracy drills.

Bad feeling

When he realised that he was about to enter a real-life drama, the captain found himself "surprisingly calm". As he began giving orders to his crew, he began to mentally tick boxes. More!