Pirates!

One of the more intriguing stories that's been making the rounds this weekend has been the attack on a luxury cruise ship by a band of pirates off the Somali Coast; the WaPo has the details:

Two boats full of pirates approached the Seabourn Spirit about 100 miles off the Somali coast and opened fire while the heavily armed bandits tried to get onboard, said Bruce Good, spokesman for the Miami-based Seabourn Cruise Line, a subsidiary of Carnival Corp.

The ship escaped by shifting to high speed and changing course.

"These are very well-organized pirates," said Andrew Mwangura, head of the Kenyan chapter of the Seafarers Assistance Program. "Somalia's coastline is the most dangerous place in the region in terms of maritime security."

The attackers never got close enough to board the Spirit, but one member of the 161-person crew was injured by shrapnel, cruise line president Deborah Natansohn said.

Which reminded me of a very delightful book that my pal Jeff lent me awhile back--The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists (A Novel)--a great little fairy tale for adults chock full of arch, ironic humor, and perfect for reading aloud as you can do lots of fun piratical voices. Here's part of the book's description from Amazon:

In a style reminiscent of Monty Python and Douglas Adams (or so the publisher asserts) comes this tiny tome from fledgling author Defoe, set in the early 1800s (although filled with anachronisms such as Post-it Notes and dental floss). The adventure begins as the pirate captain (none of the crew have names, just descriptions, such as the "pirate with the red scarf" and the "pirate dressed in green") mistakes Charles Darwin's ship, Beagle, for a treasure ship from the Bank of England and boards it. Darwin's only claim to fame at this point is that he has taught an ape--a Man-panzee by the name of Mr. Bobo--to behave as a proper, albeit speechless, English gentleman.

It's a great present idea for the upcoming holidays, and I just noticed that a new chapter in The Pirates! adventures has been released--The Pirates! In an Adventure with Ahab (A Novel).