Becalmed: pirates allow the crew of the MV Faina out on to deck after a US Navy request to check on their welfare. The Ukrainian-owned vessel, laden with tanks bound for east Africa, was captured in September off the coast of Somalia

At around 3am on Tuesday, Abdinur Haji, a Somali fisherman, boarded his small boat in the Indian Ocean port of Harardhere and headed out to secure his catch of the day. As his boat left shore he became aware that, anchored three miles off the coast, was a “very, very” large vessel. “I have been fishing here for three decades,” he told a reporter. “But I have never seen a ship as big as this one.”