A DAY after US Navy Seals rescued a hijacked American cargo ship captain, his crew said they had spoken with him and that he was in good spirits.
“It was extremely emotional for all of us to hear his voice and hear the condition he’s in,” said first mate Shane Murphy, who took over command of the Maersk Alabama after Capt Richard Phillips (53) was captured by Somali pirates. “He’s absolutely elated and couldn’t be prouder of us for doing what he trained us to do.”
Mr Murphy gathered his 19-man crew in front of the ship to speak with reporters as the sun blazed overhead. The crew members were young and old, some in jeans or oil-stained blue coveralls, hands shoved in pockets. “Ultimately, everyone here before you today has Capt Phillips to thank for their lives and their freedom,” Mr Murphy said, acknowledging how Capt Phillips had agreed to escort the pirates off the ship as a way to ensure the safety of the others.
Capt Phillips survived five days and occasional beatings adrift in the Indian Ocean aboard a stifling lifeboat. He was rescued after US snipers who had been monitoring the boat determined that one of the pirates was aiming an AK-47 at Capt Phillips’s back.
The snipers, positioned on the stern of the destroyer USS Bainbridgeless than 90ft from the lifeboat, opened fire, killing three pirates and taking a fourth into custody. Capt Phillips, who was tied up just feet away, was not injured.
The operation involved dozens of Navy Seals, who had parachuted from an aircraft into the sea nearby on Saturday. They set up operations on the Bainbridge, which had been communicating with the four pirates via radio and had used smaller boats to make deliveries of food and water to their lifeboat. Yet the pirates were growing increasingly agitated, military officials said. At one point on Saturday, they opened fire on one of the smaller US Navy craft.
As the seas grew rougher, the Bainbridgeoffered to tow the lifeboat to calmer waters, and the pirates agreed, linking up the lifeboat to the destroyer with a towing cable that left around 80ft between the two vessels. Capt Phillips at the time was tied up in the lifeboat, having been bound by the pirates ever since he had attempted to escape by jumping into the water on Friday, the officials said.
Meanwhile, one of the pirates, estimated to be between 16 and 20 years old, asked to come aboard the Bainbridge to make a phone call. He had been stabbed in the hand during an altercation with the crew of the Alabama and needed medical care. “He effectively gave himself up,” a senior military official said.
The three other pirates, however, showed signs of growing irritation, as the Bainbridge, 18 miles offshore, towed the lifeboat further out to sea, the senior military official said. "In the last discussion, they said, 'If we don't get what we want, we will kill the captain,' " the official said.
Soon afterward, two pirates moved to one of the hatches of the lifeboat and stuck their heads out. The third pirate advanced toward the captain and pointed his AK-47 straight at Capt Phillips’s back, the rifle touching it or inches away, the official said.
US military observers thought that Capt Phillips was about to be shot. Seal snipers, who were positioned on a deck at the stern of the Bainbridgehad the three pirates in their sights. The on-scene commander gave the snipers authority to fire. "As soon as the snipers had a clear shot at the guy who had the rifle, they shot him and the other two in the hatches," the senior military official said.
A member of the Seals team slid down the towline into the water and climbed aboard the lifeboat. Capt Phillips was then put in a small craft and taken to the Bainbridge.
Although Capt Phillips was the first American to be taken by the roving crews of pirates who have preyed on ships in the Indian Ocean and Gulf of Aden for years, many ship personnel from other countries have also been captured.
Pirates are holding more than a dozen ships and more than 200 hostages.
Yesterday, a pirate in the Somali coastal town of Eyl who identified himself as Farah told Reuters that “America has become our new enemy”. US military officials have acknowledged that the killing of the three pirates could worsen the problem, an outcome that shipping companies have sought to avoid.
“This could escalate violence in this part of the world,” US Navy Vice Admiral Bill Gortney said.
Capt Phillips spoke to his wife in Vermont, and soon the news was being announced inside his ship, the Alabama, which docked in Mombassa on Saturday night. Sailors came out on deck and whooped for joy, waving a US flag, sounding the ship's horn three times and firing two flares across the starry night sky. – ( LA Times, Washington Postservice)