A South African ship captain is being hailed as a heroine after she outsmarted a gang of pirates off the Nigerian coast Zetta Gous-Conradie was probably more accustomed to dodging seagulls than bullets on the bridge of her 195m container ship, Safmarine Kuramo.But she and her crew had to run for cover last Friday when pirates boarded the ship and opened fire on the bridge.The captain ordered her crew of 24 - including eight other South Africans - to take cover in the engine room, which could serve as a relatively safe "citadel" in the event of attack.While the pirates ran amok, ransacking the ship and trying to force open the citadel, Gous-Conradie alerted the Nigerian navy.A warship and several attack boats were sent to the scene, 60 nautical miles off the coast, prompting the pirates to flee.Ship-owners Maersk this week shielded Gous-Conradie from the media, saying she and her crew still needed to be debriefed. But her comments were published in West Africa earlier this week after a media briefing with Nigerian naval officers at Onne, a port in Rivers State, where the ship docked before resuming its voyage to Gabon.story_article_left1"We were very grateful when the navy came on board because we thought the pirates would take us hostage," said Gous-Conradie, a graduate of Cape Town's Granger Bay maritime college."The heat was stifling because the temperature was very hot in the citadel, and at some point my crew members and I thought we would suffocate," she told Nigeria's This Day Live.Maersk group CEO Nils Andersen sent the captain and crew a letter of appreciation "for their excellent handling of this very difficult situation".Palle Laursen, the shipping line's head of ship management, praised Gous-Conradie, who has worked for Safmarine since 2002 and been a master since 2013, for her bold leadership."The crew of Safmarine Kuramo, under the leadership of Captain Zetta Gous-Conradie, managed to secure themselves when it was evident that the attackers would board the vessel," he said in a written reply to Sunday Times queries."They reacted swiftly, with great professionalism and according to procedures and thus defused a very dangerous situation. For this we are grateful and very proud."West African news media also quoted Chiedozie Okehie, commander of the Nigerian warship that came to the rescue, who said Gous-Conradie covertly briefed the navy while pirates were trying to break into the citadel."All 25 foreign crew members, including the captain, are safe and unhurt while the cargo onboard the ship is intact," Okehie said.South African commentators said the incident showed the importance of good training. Arne Söderlund, a former naval commander and naval and military attaché in London from 1994 to 1997, said: "Procedures were sound and practised - the sign of effective command of the ship and effective training in all aspects of safety. [Gous-Conradie] does the South African maritime community proud." Maersk said the ship had now arrived in Libreville, Gabon, where there would be a crew change as 18 of the 25 sailors on board had accepted the company's offer to be relieved.Mike Heads, managing director of insurers P&I Associates, said pirates off Nigeria typically attacked tankers to siphon off fuel and rob the crew."Nigeria remains a hotspot for violent piracy and armed robbery, which, in contrast, has died down off Africa's east coast," he said. "The International Maritime Bureau, a piracy-incident watchdog, received reports of 14 incidents in 2015 in or near Nigerian waters, with nine vessels boarded."Ravi Naicker, head of the Centre for Sea Watch and Response at the South African Maritime Safety Authority, said anti-piracy training was mandatory to achieve a seafarer certificate of competency.There was also a detailed code outlining piracy prevention measures - such as barbed wire barricades and high-pressure hoses...