On a mission to save Christmas, UK authorities are about to launch a battle against Somali pirates who are threatening shipping in the Gulf of Aden. The British Royal Navy is to be authorised to seize any suspected ships and persons in the waters off the

The Pirates of the Caribbean, led by Captain Jack Sparrow, have made pirates look almost glamorous – but the real life pirates of the 21st century are deadly.

Of the ships taken hostage this year, most attention has focused on the Faina, the Ukranian vessel carrying battle tanks and heavy weaponry.

The majority of ships sailing through the gulf carry vital supplies, from oil and gas to textiles and electronics. Now the British Chamber of Shipping is warning that people could face shortages of everything in the run-up to Christmas, and prices are also likely to go up.

“If there is a large shipment of Christmas presents coming from India or China and it has to go around the Cape of Good Hope, somebody is going to have to pay for that extra steaming time,” says Roger Middleton, consultant researcher for the Chatham House Africa Programme.

“It’s unlikely that it will be the company producing the goods. So that will be passed on in the prices we pay on the things we buy and so it could be very depressing.”

The alternative route – avoiding the eastern coast of Somalia – would add up to three weeks to the average journey. But this option would be a safer bet taking into account the scale of the problem.

Patrick Adamson, Chairman of MTI, a global communications network for the shipping industry emphasised the perils faced by ships sailing off the Somali coast.

“So far this year we’ve seen 199 attacks on vessels worldwide, which is about the same number we had in the whole of last year. The difference is though that this year we’ve seen about 31 hijacks already, compared to about 15 for the whole of last year. And most of them – about 28 of them – happened off the coast of Somalia.”

Adamson explains what sort of action is now likely to be attempted to thwart the pirates.

“The problem that all the military have is that you have a whole range of vessels in the water. Are they fishing? What are they doing? A fishing boat can very quickly turn into a pirate boat – you put your fishing rods under your deck and you bring out your guns and suddenly you are a pirate vessel, so it’s quite difficult to identify. But if they have the powers to stop, search the boats and then take the people off the sea and hand them over to whatever authorities they are, I think it’s probably a step in the right direction because at the moment everybody just does what they like,” he says.

At the moment the Royal Navy, which has not engaged pirates for centuries, is restricted by international law and is not authorised to arrest suspected pirates. Now Britain is talking to the government of Somalia to be able to enter Somali territorial waters in pursuit of pirates and hand them over to the local authorities.

The proposed legislation is currently being studied by the Department of Transport.

Two UN Security Council resolutions have already been passed condemning the piracy and urging coordinated action to stop the attacks.