The 10,000-ton Seabourn Spirit came under fire at about 5.30am. The pirates approached in 25ft speedboats and shot at the ship with the grenade launcher and machineguns. Terrified passengers watched as the pirates tried to get aboard — only to be repelled by crew members who set off what one described as a “loud bang”.

The Bahamas-registered ship was carrying 302 passengers and crew, but there was only one casualty: a crew member suffered minor injuries from flying debris.

“I looked out of the window and saw a small boat with about five people in it about 20 yards away,” said Norman Fisher, 55, a solicitor from Hampstead Garden Suburb in north London.

“One of them clearly had a rifle. Later I realised that two of them had rifles and one had some kind of rocket launcher.

“They were firing the rifle and then fired the rocket launcher twice. One of the rockets certainly hit the ship — it went through the side of the liner into a passenger’s suite. The couple were in there at the time so it was a bit of an unpleasant experience.”

Mike Rogers, a Canadian passenger, said the captain tried to run down one of the speedboats before outmanoeuvring them. The captain did not hit the alarm, fearing passengers would be shot at if they dashed on deck.

An Irish crew member described the clash as “really scary” but added: “Everybody’s okay.”

The Seabourn Spirit, owned by the cruise giant Carnival, was on its way from Alexandria in Egypt to the Kenyan port of Mombasa. It offers the height of luxury, with huge suites, marble bathrooms and more than one crew member to each passenger. Cruises aboard the liner cost from £6,100 for a 16-day sail to £18,270 for an epic 46-day voyage.

The liner used a sonic blaster to foil the pirates. Developed by American forces to deter small boats from attacking warships, the non-lethal weapon sends out high-powered air vibrations that blow assailants off their feet. The equipment, about the size of a satellite dish, is rigged to the side of the ship.

The waters off the Somali coast are among the most dangerous in the world. They are occasionally patrolled by a combined taskforce, known as CTF150, currently under the command of the French navy.

Somalia has had no recognised government since 1991. There have been at least 23 pirate attacks off its coast this year alone. Andrew Livingston, a spokesman for the National Union of Marine, Aviation and Shipping Transport Officers, described its long coastline as a “massive problem area”.

“We’ve always said it’s going to take a major incident to get something done,” he said. “We’ve gone from what used to be something like maritime mugging 20 years ago to really sophisticated attacks with grenades and rocket-propelled explosives.”

Rogers, the Canadian passenger, said at the end of the eventful day: “We’re always looking for adventure, but this is probably a little more than we would normally look for.”

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