Hostages recall days of capture

The water was still, the sky cloudless and the 12-man crew, Kenyans and Sri Lankans, were relaxed after their Sunday morning cup of tea in February last year as they returned from taking food aid to north Somalia.

Then they spotted a speck on the horizon and saw it get bigger. Suddenly realizing that a boat was heading right at them, they changed course and put the throttle down.

After an hour-long chase, the pirates' "mother ship" dropped two fibreglass speedboats which raced up alongside. Each held half a dozen young Somalis armed with pistols, machineguns and rocket-launchers.