Posted between septuagenarian passengers in deck chairs, lookouts stand watch over the Gulf of Aden, scanning the horizon for pirates.

The pirates have weapons and are not afraid to use them

After more than half a decade of attacks on Indian Ocean shipping, from small speedboats with AK-47s, grappling hooks and ladders, the number of attacks is falling fast.

The last merchant ship to be successfully hijacked, naval officers monitoring piracy say, was at least nine months ago. It’s a far cry from the height of the piracy epidemic two years ago, when several ships might be taken in a single week to be traded for airdropped multi-million dollar ransoms.

But as the Queen Mary 2, one of the world’s most recognisable ocean liners, passes through the Red Sea, Indian Ocean and out towards Dubai, its owners and crew are taking few chances.

“The pirates have weapons and are not afraid to use them,” Lt Cdr Ollie Hutchinson, the UK Royal Navy liaison officer aboard the liner, tells a briefing of passengers in the ship’s theatre.

To underline his point, he displays a picture of an Italian helicopter hit by small arms fire from a pirate dhow late last year followed by assorted images of gunmen holding AK-47 assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenades.

In truth, the Queen Mary 2 – carrying 2,500 passengers and 1,300 crew from Southampton to Dubai on the first leg of a world cruise – is not particularly at risk.

Some 345 metres long and 14 storeys high, even its promenade deck is seven floors above the sea. The liner is fast, hard to board and moderately well-armed.

Like many merchant vessels, the QM2 now carries armed private contractors when passing through areas of pirate risk.

Cunard will not discuss precise security arrangements. But contractors on other vessels routinely carry M-16-type assault rifles and sometimes belt-fed machine guns.

Additional lookouts from the ship’s regular onboard security force are also posted on the main deck to give warning of any suspicious craft.

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