Captain Pugwash and Seaman Eboue

I watched ''Ross Kemp In Search of Pirates'' on Sky 1 last night. Since he did his ''RK on Gangs'' and ''RK in Afghanistan'' I have been following his exploits. I know he gets paid lots of money for these programmes, but it is admirable the lengths he goes to in order to produce a TV show which is compelling viewing. In this, his third offering, he is searching for pirates off the coast of Somalia on the Aden Strait which is one of the major shipping passages to the west. Ross has joined the crew on a British warship that patrols the area. The Marines on board are not allowed to get involved once the pirates are on the ship. It is their job to apprehend pirates and prevent boarding and to check the many dhows in the area.

Ross joined the marines on an empty dhow and as they were going through the contents, he held up what looked like a neck tie type thing and said ''He must be an Arsenal fan''. Now, finding one Arsenal fan on the high seas between Yemen and Somalia would seem remote, so I had to look twice when the boat sped past near the end with what looks like an old away top with Eboue 27 on it (see pic above) . The question I ask is: Do Somalian pirates see something in Eboue that we Brits just don't appreciate? I tried unsuccessfully to track down an Arsenal Supporters Club in Mogadishu, as I would have been interested to get some more information on the Pirate Eboue tie up. I actually wonder if Alisher Usmanov has a pirating background and has donated kits. All very strange indeed. I eagerly await next weeks episode with high expectations of another Arsenal sighting- Silvestre 18. Hey, maybe the pirates could use his experience. Shiver me timbers.............