Two British men held captive by pirates off Somalia have spoken for the first time from on board the captured Sirius Star.

Ten days after the Saudi oil tanker and its 25 crew were seized by “heavily armed” pirates in the notorious waters of the Gulf of Aden, Peter French and James Grady were allowed to speak by telephone to ITV News.

Mr French, the ship’s chief engineer, from Co Durham, said: “The pirates are no problem whatsoever. We have had no mistreatment or anything.

“Hopefully we are going to get some more phone calls to our families soon. Our families don’t have too much to worry about at the moment. All in all, we are not too badly off.”

It is not clear whether Mr French was speaking under duress when he made his comments.

He has been on board the Sirius Star with his fellow Briton and second officer James Grady since it was boarded on November 15 by pirates, who are holding the ship’s £100 million cargo of two million oil barrels to ransom.

Mr French added: “The boys [the crew] are quite happy. We are talking to them all the time, reassuring them. Apart from the inconvenience of being locked up, our life is not too bad.” When asked to clarify whether the hostages were physically “locked up”, he explained: “Oh no, I don’t mean we’re locked up – as in we’re not locked up in cabins or anything – we go about our normal daily work. We’re just continuing doing our normal day.”

Before passing the telephone to the second British hostage, Mr French asked ITV News about the Newcastle United score at the weekend. On hearing of his team’s 0-0 draw away to Chelsea, he said: “Excellent, that’s a good score for us. OK, will pass you to the second engineer, Jim.”

Mr Grady, from Renfrewshire, described the hijacking. “It happened very quickly really. It was early on the 15th. Ship’s time 0855 on board, and by two minutes past nine we were shown down – they had control of the bridge by then.” When asked if the pirates were heavily armed, Mr Grady’s response was a simple “yes”.

Despite the prospect of a drawn-out captivity, Mr Grady said: “I’m a seafarer so I’m used to time away from home. I don’t think they have any more idea than us how long it will take.”

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