"They are very gruesome characters, using high-speed boats, AK-47s, bazookas, and rocket launchers. This year alone, 60 seafarers have been killed around the world by pirates, mostly off the east and west coasts of Africa, off Brazil and in South-East Asia around Indonesia, the Philippines and the China seas."Last year there were more than 200 recorded attacks against ships worldwide, according to the International Maritime Bureau, double the number recorded in 1993. Then on 25 August he was offered another job that he really wanted, on the Indian Ocean Explorer, a diving research vessel operating out of the Seychelles. He had accepted the job, which was due to start in a couple of weeks, but, for some reason he rejoined the Correlation, even though he thought the captain was an incompetent sailor whose state of mind was questionable."One possible reason is that Alan wanted to see his brother Shane, 26, who was in Egypt, the next port of call.

He must know what you have to do with a body if someone has been killed. He must have known that the death of a British citizen would have been a big issue."Why did he take five days to report the death when there was a functioning VHF radio on the vessel?"The precise content of the e-mails which Alan sent his family on landing in every port has been kept secret for the criminal investigation which Grampian police have begun But the last two spoke of violence. "He had already crewed it from Perth in Australia to the Seychelles. Most of the crew had deserted the ship and Alan was alone with the captain and a female companion."I do not understand why he felt compelled to carry on crewing the vessel," said Malcolm MacLean. "Why would pirates have killed one of the crew and left two others to identify them later? Why did they not sink the vessel? And why did the captain bury the body at sea the next day? The guy is supposed to be a veterinary surgeon. He would rather have given them what they wanted and sent them away smiling than given them black eyes and broken legs."There were, he said, also other unanswered questions. Rather than aggravating a confrontation, he would want to chill out a situation.

All we have is what the captain is saying."Alan's older brother, Malcolm, 34, an engineer, also questioned the account.Alan, he said, was the youngest of five boys, the free spirit of the family, playing the didgeridoo, the electric guitar and travelling the world for much of his time since leaving school.After spending a couple of years learning martial arts at a kung fu temple in China, he had taught yoga and limbering- up exercises to sportsmen such as surfers and snowboarders in return for lessons in their own skills. He last spoke directly to his family in May.Malcolm MacLean said: "Alan was a peace-loving kind of guy. He liked to be at one with everything he did and had a spiritual connection with everything he did - now he is on his ultimate spiritual journey I find it hard to believe that he took on five armed people. Photographs show this slim, muscular man smiling, with a variety of hairstyles ranging from dreadlocks to Mohican.