Their standard operating procedure is to swarm a vessel with a bevy of skiffs, each packed with armed men; gain control of the ship; steer it back to a pirate base like Xarardheere; and then demand a ransom from the ship's owner, the families of the crew or both.
A naval task force with several billion dollars' worth of ships and aircraft was used to undo a problem caused by a small group of men equipped with a pair of skiffs and outboard engines, a few cellphones and a pile of aging rifles.
Mr. Garfanji is believed to have hijacked a half-dozen ships and used millions of dollars in ransom money to build a small infantry division of several hundred men, 80 heavy machine guns and a fleet (a half dozen) of large trucks with antiaircraft guns — not exactly typical pirate gear of skiffs and grappling hooks.
For the great majority of the city's life, a fluctuating number of these bridges, consisting of skiffs roped together and fastened to each bank, were one of the most picturesque signatures of Baghdad; no more permanent structure would be seen until the British arrived in the 20th century and laid an iron bridge across the Tigris.
Sitting on the fishing docks, in the shadow of skiffs moored outside 13 Mile Brand Seafood, his family's seafood shop, Ward munches on smoked mullet and speaks with pride of Apalachicola.
On page 4, we meet Auguste, the young man employed to carry around Monet's easel and paints and, on this particular morning, to sit in the back of a skiff, bored out of his mind and dreaming of lunch, while Monet sits in the front, staring into the water and occasionally dabbing at a canvas.
For Captain Younes, his crew members following orders without gunmen to interfere, the splashing of the skiff onto the surface of the Gulf of Oman signified a moment he had not known would come.
Jack follows him and watches him put his bucket and rod into the bottom of the skiff, along with some bottles of water and a small pot of goat stew.
Sometimes he pulls out as many as 80 in a couple of hours, and the floor of the skiff crawls with them.
