D’Souza with family members in Mangalore. Telegraph picture

Bangalore, Oct. 16: Locked up in the dingy engine room, Jeevan Kiran D’Souza never thought his gun-wielding captors would let him get out alive.

Today, surrounded by jostling TV crew, the young seaman was hoping his sister had cooked an “excellent” lunch.

The 31-year-old from Kasargod, on the Karnataka-Kerala border, reached home to a hero’s welcome after being held hostage for 54 days by Somali pirates.

D’Souza and his mates on the Iranian vessel Deynat were freed yesterday after the Iran government allegedly paid an undisclosed ransom to the pirates, who hijacked their ship off the Somali coast on August 21.

Two of his shipmates from Goa and Ratnagiri, Maharashtra, also reached their homes.

At Mangalore airport, D’Souza’s sister couldn’t hold back tears. “You look so thin,” she sobbed as her brother emerged from the crush of reporters.

“I have lost 15 kilos. Hope you have prepared an excellent lunch,” the 31-year-old joked in reply.

In Goa, Cheryl, the sister of D’Souza’s shipmate Anthony Clyde Thimudo, told PTI their prayers had been answered.

D’Souza said some 25 pirates in speedboats approached their ship soon after it had left the Gulf of Aden. “They fired shots in the air and then clambered aboard. While some guarded us in turns, the others exercised on the deck to keep fit.”

D’Souza said the pirates refused to leave even after the ship’s captain gave them $10,000, and started negotiations with Tehran. “They spoke only Somali while the negotiator spoke English,” he said.

“Two slices of bread in the morning, a little rice in the afternoon, and another two slices of bread was all they gave us for dinner.”

The nine crew members were locked up in the engine room and let out just once a day. “Their mood would turn ugly when the government negotiator did not respond. Those days we were not let out on the deck,” D’Souza said. “They pointed their guns at our heads and threatened to kill us. I lost all hope of coming back home.”

The nightmare ended after Tehran agreed to pay the pirates.