VLADIVOSTOK, Russia -- After dark on April 21, two boats carrying 20 pirates armed with cudgels and metal rods slipped up alongside a Russian freighter called Forest-1 in the port of Chittagong, Bangladesh.
The ship was carrying a load of coconut -- something that might not seem especially attractive to a band of cutthroats -- but the pirates, who had apparently paid off the Bengali watchmen, clambered on board anyway, said Natalia Khomenko, spokeswoman for Primorsk Shipping Company, a Russian Far Eastern firm that owns the vessel.
Someone awoke and sounded the alarm, and the Russian sailors fought back with spades, steel rods or simply their fists. For 10 minutes a hand-to-hand battle roiled across the decks. The sailors beat back their attackers, heaving some of them overboard, Russian papers reported.