His men, he wrote in an e-mail to Germany detailing their plight, had "no water, no food and no medicine."

The German-flagged cargo ship, Hansa Stavanger, operated by the Hamburg-based shipper Leonhardt & Blumberg, was hijacked at sea on April 4, 2009, halfway between Kenya and the Seychelles archipelago. The German captain and his Russian, Ukraine, German and Filipino crew were taken hostage by Somali pirates.

The pirates allegedly took the ship to the Somali port of Harardere and demanded a ransom.

But, negotiations over the last three months have repeatedly collapsed because the pirates keep making new demands, according to a report to be published in the Monday edition of the German weekly news magazine, Der Spiegel.

In the e-mail sent to Germany, Spiegel says, the captain said his crew was physically and emotionally exhausted. "We are at the end of our rope," he was reportedly to have said in the message. The pirates had stolen all the belongings of the 24 seamen, many of the crew was sick, the pirates had taped their eyes shut and fired gunshots over their heads, the captain wrote.

The German foreign ministry has refused to comment on any of the details allegedly contained in the message, but responded to an inquiry made by the German dpa news agency that the "highest priority was the safety for life and limb of the crew." In a statement it added that "a crisis team was working closely with the shipping company to resolve the case."

gb/dpa/AP/Spiegel
Editor: Andreas Illmer