More news from the African coast.. I've been looking for mainstream news links to include with this story. I can't understand why there's nothing on Google News. The only thing I can figure is that the S&B was steaming to port for repairs and did not have passengers on board, keeping the human interest angle below the threshhold for the corporate media... Anyway, I just got some updates from my radio source. It turns out that the partial transmission from last night was followed later by full statements over the radio from the attacker, who had apparently commandeered the vessel, and from the captain who may have been reading under duress. Here's the lowdown:

[Voice of attacker]. I am the Dread Pirate Robert St. Amant. There will be no survivors. My men are here, and I am here, but soon you will not be here. The Dread Pirate Robert St. Amant takes no survivors. All of your nightmares are about to come true.

There was a brief pause, then the voice of the captain came on:

This is smijer, captain of the Spirit of S&B cruise line. I have been instructed to say that our captor, the Dread Pirate Robert St. Amant, now has possession of the vessel. We were sailing for port, with only our navigational and engineering crews on board. They have been thrown overboard and replaced with artificially intelligent Interface Softbots, who have taken over the instruments of the ship. Our pilot, Buck, has been kept alive and on board, but is unconcious at the present, having had his "memory jogged" about the secret entrance to the bridge. It was noted that RSA - as our captor prefers to be called - "didn't mean to jog him so hard."

Our captor insists that the authorities stay away from the vessel. If any boat or helicopter approaches, he will kill us. Please listen to him, and do what he says.

RSA has allowed me to briefly describe the attack and boarding. The speedboat on which our attacker was travelling approached our starboard flank at approximately 21:00 GMT last evening. It was travelling at a high rate of speed. The crew made a valiant attempt to repel the attack, using high frequency sound projected from our good natured idle banter cannon, but this failed, as the speedboat was equipped with its own pleasant conversation engine. As the attacker boarded the ship, the crew scrambled to drive him away with e-mail chain letters, but the attacker reached our chain letter neutralizer and successfully overcame our best efforts. He then overcame the crew, including Buck and myself, with overwhelming logic and undeniable wit. Upon being subdued, I begged for my own life and Buck's, citing the beauty and perfection of "true blog" as the greatest reason to live. My story intrigued Robert, as did my descriptions of our passengers' beauty. Finally he decided something. "All right, smijer. I've never had a valet. You can try that if you like. I'll most likely kill you in the morning". With that he spared our lives. He also agreed to allow Buck and I to continue to send out updates on the fate of the ship, American politicians, and whatever jokes we could think of as we desired. From now on, he, too will be sending out updates from on board the Spirit of S&B.

Please welcome our newest co-blogger... Please don't be put off if he's smarter or more eloquent than what you are used to seeing from smijer's side of the table...

Welcome aboard, RSA... Arrrrrrrrrr!