Mombasa, Kenya - When German container ship the Hansa Stavanger docked in the Kenyan port of Mombasa on Saturday, it was smiles all round.

The crew, dressed in orange and blue boiler suits, waved to the assembled throng of journalists and port officials, relieved their four-month ordeal in the hands of Somali pirates was over.

But as two puttering tugboats pushed the hulking ship into its berth, one man stood impassively on the dock, smoking a cigarette and looking beyond the Hansa Stavanger to the open ocean.

Bernd Jantzen, 59, is the new captain of the freed vessel. Before too long it will be his job to take her back out into the pirate-infested waters off Somalia.

"My family are not happy about the piracy, but it is my job and I have to deal with it," he said with a shrug.

But before Jantzen can take his new ship out, the accumulated damage of four months of pirate neglect has to be repaired.

The Hansa Stavanger was seized on April 4, around 400 nautical miles from Somalia. It was finally released on Monday after the pirates said they received 2.7 million dollars from Hamburg-based shipping firm Leonhardt & Blumberg.

Since then, a medical team from the German Navy destroyer Brandenburg, which turned up to escort the Hansa Stavanger after the pirates left, has been treating the German, Filipino, Ukrainian Russian and Tuvalu crew members.

According to Torsten Ites, the captain of the Brandenburg, most of the crew had to sleep on the bridge for four months and had their toothbrushes and toothpaste stolen, meaning their bodies and teeth were in need of attention.

The ship is also in need of care.

"The ship was in the condition you would expect it to be in when it has been captured by pirates," Ites told journalists in Mombasa. "When pirates capture a ship, it has nothing to do with cleaning."

Before too long, however, the Hansa Stavanger will once again be a floating target.

Jantzen, whose wrinkled face and greying beard gives him the hint of a salty sea dog, is well acquainted with the sailor's life. He first took to the sea in 1971, then captained his first vessel in 1989.

He uses his experience to prepare as much as possible for pirate attacks.

"I try to think about what to do in advance if we are attacked, but it is a split-second decision how to react," he said.

The captain has had to repel boarders before, using the ship's fire hoses to fend off the heavily armed pirates, who approach in small skiffs and attempt to board with grappling hooks.

Despite the fact the pirates are often bristling with weapons, Jantzen does not support having armed guards on board, one of the ideas being bandied around to help reduce Somali pirate attacks.

Pirate attacks in the busy Asia-Europe shipping lane that runs through the Indian Ocean and up the Gulf of Aden have become a major problem for the industry, pushing up insurance costs and thus the cost of shipping.

The second half of 2008 saw an explosion in piracy, which has continued to pick up pace.

According to the International Maritime Bureau, 42 vessels were seized in the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean near Somalia last year. Already this year the tally has reached 31.

In a twist that highlighted the scale of the problem, the Hansa Stavanger docked in a berth vacated hours before by the Maersk Alabama, the ship at the centre of a hostage drama earlier this year.

The Alabama's crew repelled a pirate attack in April, but their captain was then held on a lifeboat for five days. He was freed when US Navy snipers killed three of his captors.

The Brandenburg, part of the European Union's anti-piracy force Atlanta, is just one of dozens of international warships patrolling the waters off Somalia.

But the area they cover is vast - 13 times the size of Germany, Ites said - and the pirates are well equipped with GPS technology, heavy weaponry and fast boats.

Piracy has been fuelled by insecurity in Somalia, where the weak central government is under attack by Islamist insurgents. But the insurgency is only the latest problem.

Warlords have reigned supreme and successive governments have failed to govern in the Horn of Africa nation since the 1991 ouster of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre.

Many analysts say the only way to tackle piracy is to address its root causes - insecurity and the erosion of the local fishing industry due to illegal trawling and toxic-waste dumping by foreign ships among them.

Jantzen also believes this is the only way forward.

"More warships are not the solution," he said. "The situation in Somalia must be resolved to stop this piracy."(dpa)