Merchant Navy ships have a new weapon in their fight against Somali pirates – pop star Britney Spears.
Chart-toppers Baby One More Time and Oops! I Did It Again are being played at approaching raiders, because they cannot stand her music.
Rachel Owens, 34, a Merchant Navy officer on huge super-tankers off the east coast of Africa, says the music is a really effective way of deterring bandits.
Second Officer Rachel, from Aberfoyle, said: “Her songs have been chosen by the security team accompanying our tankers because they thought the pirates would hate them most.
“These guys can’t stand Western culture or music, making Britney perfect.”
The east African coast is a hot-spot for pirates desperate to board ships and kidnap crews for multi-million pound ransoms. In 2011 there were 176 attacks on ships off the Horn of Africa – 25 of them successful.
Their armada is such a threat the Royal Navy has 1,500 sailors on 14 warships operating round-the-clock patrols in the area.
Ms Owens regularly guides huge tankers through the waters.
She previously sailed a fishing trawler out of Mallaig and tourist ships around the Western Isles, and says gun-toting pirates are a constant threat.
But she says her 383-yard-long vessel’s armed security staff have come up with the perfect foil in Britney’s smash hits.
“The speakers can be aimed solely at the pirates so as not to disturb the crew,” she said.
“They’re so effective the ship’s security rarely needs to resort to firing guns – as soon as the pirates get a blast of Britney they move on as quickly as they can.”