Roast beef and a pirate chaser - Telegraph.co.uk

When you congratulate passengers such as these on their spirit and determination, they simply say, "But we are cruisers" – as if this is explanation enough for dressing up to the nines in a hurricane and eating a four-course dinner when even the best sailors are taking to their beds with a cup of consommé. Indeed, so determined are these passengers that when the seas are really rough, they have to be ordered to stay in their cabins for their own safety.

Pirates are, of course, more interested in large cargo ships than cruisers due to the much greater value of the potential booty. But this is not always so – to whit the case of Paul and Rachel Chandler, who were taken from their tiny boat and spent 13 months in captivity before their release late last year. Certainly, the pirates will have learnt not only that all westerners are not millionaires, but also that you mess with older British citizens at your peril – and a ship with 350 elderly Britons on board would have given them nothing but trouble.

This near-miss will not deter these inveterate cruisers – passengers take great pride in the number of cruises they have under their belts. There is an agreeable, gentle rhythm to on-board life, punctuated by shore trips in extraordinary places. Indeed, in many ways shipboard life is how we would all like it to be on dry land: a community with wonderful sea views, which is respectful and generally safe, with opportunities for new friendships, and some self-improvement via courses and lectures, along with a well-stocked and peaceful library and devilish daily quizzes.

A ship engenders a real and irresistible sense of community between passengers. Great friendships are forged in the late-night bars or in the queues for the buffet, between strangers who find themselves in nearby cabins and then make sure they are always on the same cruise year after year. An incident such as the faint possibility of kidnap will further bond these passengers; it will also enhance even further the great respect that they hold for the crew. They will have had an experience they will never forget – a frisson of anxiety and a curious evening spent sitting on the floor, hastily soothed by the experienced hands on board before returning to dinner as if nothing had happened.

As the admirable Mrs Browne recounts: "Before the pirates [approached] I had ordered rare roast beef and within minutes after we returned to the dining room there was a waiter at my elbow saying, 'Here is your rare beef, madam'."