In the day it took the destroyer to reach the scene of the attempted hijacking, the crew began synthesizing intelligence from multiple sources, including the ScanEagle, an orbiting Navy patrol plane and reports from Maersk Alabama's crew. Frank Castellano,* Bainbridge* raced toward the Maersk Alabama at top speed. Special Ops forces in Somalia," McKnight writes. "I'll go out on a limb here and guess that the mission had something to do with supporting U.S. While technically part of CTF-151, the Bainbridge had her own unique missions. It also had a beefed-up intelligence team that included one of the Navy's few, and prized, Somali interpreters. The 9,200-ton Bainbridge had swapped its helicopters and pilots for a catapult-launched Boeing ScanEagle drone plus the robot's operators. naval forces off Somalia during the Maersk Alabama standoff, devotes 45 pages of his new book Pirate Alley to the people, methods, equipment and even politics behind Phillips' daring rescue.ĬTF-151's destroyer USS Bainbridge was the first to respond to the maydays from Maersk Alabama, which bobbed near the pirates - and Phillips - in the stolen lifeboat, preventing it from escaping to land. The precision killing of the three pirates by six members of SEAL Team Six, the same unit that would later kill Osama bin Laden in his Pakistan hideout, has rarely been described in detail. And Phillips was on his way home, unharmed but for the psychological strain from four days in captivity in a sweltering lifeboat, unsure whether he would live or die. The fourth pirate, just 16 years old, was in Navy custody. 30-caliber rifle bullet to his brain, courtesy of the U.S. The pirates had a captive: Maersk Alabama's captain, Richard Phillips.įour days later, three of the four pirates were dead - each from a single. They may not have captured the Maersk Alabama, nor looted its millions of dollars' worth of food and humanitarian aid bound for Kenya, but they didn't leave empty handed. But after a brief scuffle with some of the 20 crewmembers, the pirates opted to abandon the 508-foot long ship, sailing off in one of its motorized lifeboats. The film, which opens in the UK on Friday, has been tipped to give Hanks a tilt at Oscars glory next March.On April 8, 2009, four pirates armed with AK-47s clambered up the side of the U.S.-flagged container ship Maersk Alabama, sailing off the coast of Somalia. "Because he went through that area, and the company is sending him e-mails, and I know he saw that chart 50 times."Ĭaptain Phillips debuted strongly this weekend at the US box office and opened the London film festival last week, as well as screening at the New York film festival. Perry told the Post he agreed with theories that his captain wanted to be taken captive, and may even have had a death wish. At one point he attacked the chief pirate, seizing him and using him as a bargaining chip for the return of Phillips. "I don't know."Īnother crew member, chief engineer Mike Perry, is reputed to have been the real hero of the ordeal, despite having only a small presence in Greengrass's film. "I couldn't tell you exactly the miles," Phillips told the Post. Phillips' real-life crew member says his captain was just 235 miles off the coast, though Phillips says he was 300 miles off. "It is just horrendous, and they're angry."Īccording to the Post's report, ships in the area were warned to stay at least 600 miles off the Somali coast because 16 container ships had been attacked by pirates during the prior three weeks in the same region. "It is galling for them to see Captain Phillips set up as a hero," she added. He told them he wouldn't let pirates scare him or force him to sail away from the coast. The sailors' lawyer, Deborah Waters, told the Post: "The crew had begged Captain Phillips not to go so close to the Somali coast. Phillips has denied being aware of such a plan. "He didn't want anything to do with it, because it wasn't his plan," said the crew member. The crew member said Phillips, who went on to meet Barack Obama and write a memoir, refused to cut power and lock himself and the crew below deck in line with anti-pirate protocol. "No one wants to sail with him," he told the Post. "Phillips wasn't the big leader like he is in the movie," said one crew member who worked closely with the captain, speaking anonymously for legal reasons. The sailors, who are suing their employers Maersk Line and the Waterman Steamship Corp for $50m, said Richard Phillips was a sullen, self-righteous man: their suit claims the captain's wilful disregard for his crew's safety contributed to the attack. Crew members of the Maersk Alabama, which suffered the raid off the coast of lawless Somalia in April 2009, told the New York Post the titular hero played by Tom Hanks in Paul Greengrass's critically acclaimed film was far from heroic.
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