Capt. Miro Alibasic from Croatia was en route to Oman aboard his crude-oil tanker Zirku. As they passed through the notorious Gulf of Aden, every sailor’s nightmare since antiquity materialized before his eyes-pirates were attacking his ship from all directions. Around 50 heavily armed Somalis in small skiffs, dispatched from a mother ship, surrounded the supertanker, attempting to board.
“I was trying to avoid it by zigzagging and using water canons. But once I lost speed, they hooked me. … There was nothing I could do,” recalls Alibasic.
The pirates boarded the ship and ordered Alibasic and his 34-man crew to kneel down. Alibasic refused and asked the pirates to put down their guns and invited them to come on board to talk.
Officer of the Watch 