“A lightbulb went off and they realize they can get ransoms by taking unarmed ships,” said Robert Rotberg, a Harvard University Kennedy School professor.

Here are some Somali pirate particulars:

• Khat, pronounced like “caught,” is a mild stimulant that can have a euphoric effect. It’s grown mainly in Yemen, but is wildly popular in the lawless East African nation.

• It took 206 years, but the Bainbridge name has been avenged. The USS Bainbridge, the American warship dispatched to rescue the crew of the Maersk Alabama, was named for the last American naval commander to lose his ship to pirates.

Commodore William Bainbridge was at the helm of the USS Philadelphia when Barbary pirates captured it off the coast of Tripoli in what is now Libya. He also commanded the USS Constitution during the War of 1812, when the ship earned the moniker “Old Ironsides.”

HT jules crittenden