DRESSING for the occasion has rarely backfired quite as spectacularly as this. The Parkham Women’s Institute in the UK county of Devon thought dressing as pirates would add a humorous twist to an address by retired sea captain Colin Darch, with many turning up wearing eye patches and wooden legs...
DRESSING for the occasion has rarely
backfired quite as spectacularly as this.
The Parkham Women’s Institute in the UK
county of Devon thought dressing as pirates
would add a humorous twist to an address
by retired sea captain Colin Darch, with
many turning up wearing eye patches and
wooden legs for a talk on piracy.
The good humour quickly went out the
window when their guest speaker started
talking about his real-life ordeal in which he
had been held hostage for 47 days by a gang
of Somali pirates in 2008.
Darch and his crew were hijacked by 20
heavily armed pirates off the Somalian coast
in 2008, only released after a ransom of
£400,000 was paid by relatives and friends.
Luckily, Darch took the honest mistake in
good humour, quipping “They seemed to be
a little embarrassed but it didn’t offend me
in the slightest”.
“In any event, the ladies didn’t look the
slightest bit like Somali pirates – more like
the Pirates of Penzance,” he joked.
“Naturally everyone was aghast when we
realised our mistake,” Parkham Women’s
Institute’ Stephanie George said.
