Womens' Group Dress As Pirates For Speech By Captain Colin Darch, Formerly Held Hostage By Somali Pirates

What does a person who was held hostage by Somali pirates not want to be confronted with again? We're guessing a room full of pirates would be pretty high up there.

But that is exactly what Captain Colin Darch, who was held captive in the Indian Ocean by Somali pirates for weeks in 2008 was confronted with, when he came to give a lecture to a Womens' Institute group in Devon, England.

The group, seemingly misinformed about the nature of the lecture, apparently believed that they were attending a lecture on piracy of a more Jack Sparrow variety.

Darch was eventually released after the owners of the boat he was working on paid an approximately $540,000 ransom.

The North Devon Journal reports that Darch took events in his stride:

“Of course I didn’t take offence or mind. It was more like the Pirates of Penzance.... They were lovely ladies. They made me judge who was the best dressed which was a difficult choice. In the end I decided to choose the one with who had a fluffy parrot on her shoulder. Of course there weren’t any parrots near the real pirates.”