Inside Glimpse of Pirates

I really enjoyed this Vanity Fair article summarizing the adventures of the crew of Le Ponant, a “French” luxury cruise vessel commandeered by Somali pirates for a week in April 2008.  It comes across as a promotion for the captain’s book, but that doesn’t detract from the riveting details you don’t see in short-form media.  Langewiesche’s exploitation of this episode as a parable of extranational affairs, French empirical chest-thumbing, and cultural contrats is what sets the article apart from a standard narrative tale.