The Bainbridge was equipped with ScanEagle and RHIB boats. The lifeboat itself was covered and contained plenty of food and water but lacked basic comforts, including a toilet or ventilation. USS Bainbridge shadows the lifeboat, near the lower right corner of the picture.Ī stand-off ensued between the USS Bainbridge, the frigate USS Halyburton, and the pirates' lifeboat from the Maersk Alabama from 9 April 2009, where they held Captain Richard Phillips hostage. CNN and Fox News quoted sources stating that the pirates' strategy was to await the arrival of additional hijacked vessels carrying more pirates and additional hostages to use as human shields. Phillips had relieved Aasheim nine days earlier. The Mærsk Alabama was then escorted from the scene under armed guard towards its original destination of Mombasa where Captain Larry D. On 8 April 2009, the destroyer USS Bainbridge was dispatched to the Gulf of Aden in response to the hostage situation, and reached the Maersk Alabama early on 9 April. Captain Phillips escorted the pirates to a lifeboat to show them how to operate it, but then the pirates fled with the Captain. The crew attempted to exchange the pirate they had captured for the captain, but the exchange went awry and after the crew released their captive, the pirates refused to honor the agreement. The seamen on watch at the time stabbed one pirate in the hand. Perry tackled the ringleader of the pirates and took him prisoner after a cat-and-mouse chase in a darkened engine room. Perry remained outside the secure room lying in wait, knife in hand, for a visit from the pirates who were trying to locate the missing crew members in order to gain control of the ship and presumably sail it to Somalia. Perry then shut down all ship systems and the entire vessel "went black." The pirates captured Captain Richard Phillips and several other crew members minutes after boarding, but soon found that they could not control the ship. Perry had initially taken main engine control away from the bridge and 1st A/E Matt Fisher had taken control of the steering gear. As the pirates approached, the remaining crew fired flares in addition, Perry and 1st A/E Matt Fisher swung the ship's rudder, which swamped the pirate skiff. When the pirate alarm sounded early on Wednesday, 8 April, Chief Engineer Mike Perry brought 14 members of the crew into a "secure room" that the engineers had been in the process of fortifying for just such a purpose. Their training included the use of small arms, anti-terror, basic safety, first aid, and other security-related courses. The crew members of the Maersk Alabama had received anti-piracy training from union training schools, and had drilled aboard the ship a day previously. All four of the pirates were between 17 and 19 years old, according to U.S. On 8 April 2009, four pirates based on the FV Win Far 161 attacked the ship. The ship, with a crew of 20, loaded with 17,000 metric tons of cargo, was bound for Mombasa, Kenya. It was subsequently made into the film Captain Phillips, released in 2013, with Tom Hanks in the title role and Barkhad Abdi playing Abduwali Muse. The story of the incident was reported in the book A Captain's Duty: Somali Pirates, Navy SEALs, and Dangerous Days at Sea (2010), by Stephan Talty and Captain Richard Phillips, who had been master of the vessel at the time of the incident. It was the sixth vessel in a week to be attacked by pirates who had previously extorted ransoms in the tens of millions of dollars. It was the first successful pirate seizure of a ship registered under the American flag since the early 19th century. This event ended after a rescue effort by the U.S. The Maersk Alabama hijacking was a series of events involving piracy that began with four Somali pirates seizing the cargo ship MV Maersk Alabama 240 nautical miles (440 km 280 mi) southeast of the Somali port city of Eyl.
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