U.S. Warship Keeps Watch as Pirates Hold Ship Captain (Update2)
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By Gregory Viscusi and Anthony Capaccio
April 9 (Bloomberg) -- Pirates off the coast of Somalia held the captain of an American-flagged container ship while a U.S. destroyer kept watch from a “safe distance,” the vessel’s owners said.
The captain, identified as Richard Phillips, “remains hostage but is unharmed,” Kevin Speers, a spokesman for Maersk Lines Ltd., said in a televised statement from Norfolk, Virginia, the ship’s home port. FBI negotiators are assisting the Navy to try to end the standoff, a bureau spokesman said.
Sailors on the Maersk Alabama regained control of the ship after it was attacked yesterday about 500 miles (800 kilometers) south of the Gulf of Aden in the Indian Ocean. Four pirates escaped with the captain and are nearby on a lifeboat that is out of fuel. The USS Bainbridge arrived in the area during the night, an American official said in Washington.
“The safe return of the captain is our foremost priority and everything we have done has been to increase the chance of a peaceful outcome,” Speers said. “The rest of the crew is safe and they have been courageous throughout all of this.” He didn’t take any questions.
Maersk Lines is the Norfolk, Virginia-based U.S. unit of A.P. Moeller-Maersk A/S, whose headquarters is in Copenhagen. The freed ship is on its way to Mombasa, Kenya, with an armed guard aboard and the crew will be swapped out and be able to return home, the father of crew member Shane Murphy told CNN.
‘Out of Gas’
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the U.S. was “deeply concerned” about the incident and called on the world to “come together to end the scourge of piracy.”
The lifeboat “has run out of gas,” Clinton said today.
FBI negotiators have been called in by the U.S. Navy to assist with negotiations and are “fully engaged in this matter,” Federal Bureau of Investigation spokesman Bill Carter said today. He declined to comment further.
The seizure represents the second foreign-affairs challenge for President Barack Obama in less than a week. On April 5 North Korea launched a ballistic missile in defiance of international demands that it cease such actions.
Pirates in the region have taken more ships this week than in the first three months of the year. They’re operating outside their usual hunting grounds in the Gulf of Aden to avoid naval patrols. The Alabama is the first U.S.-flagged vessel to be hijacked since a Maritime Protection Corridor was set up in the region in August, according to the U.S. Navy.
Captain Surrenders
The pirates began following the Alabama, with a crew of 20 Americans, on April 6 and boarded it yesterday, sinking their own ship, the Associated Press reported.
The sailors seized one of the pirates and the captain persuaded the other three to leave the vessel in a lifeboat, AP said, citing a member of his family. Phillips surrendered himself to secure the safety of the crew, AP reported.
The crew released the captured pirate after 12 hours in what may have been a botched hostage exchange, a man who identified himself as Ken Quinn, the ship’s second mate, told CNN in a broadcast phone interview yesterday.
The vessel was carrying 401 containers of relief supplies bound for Mombasa, John Reinhart, chief executive officer of Maersk Line Ltd. said in a news conference in Norfolk yesterday. The company spoke yesterday with the crew and was told members are safe, Reinhart said.
Pressure on U.S.
The incident may put pressure on Obama to boost the naval presence in the pirate-infested waters.
Senator John Kerry, a Massachusetts Democrat and chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said yesterday he plans to hold hearings on the threat of piracy “before the next fire drill becomes an international incident with big implications.”
The Alabama is part of the U.S. Maritime Security Program, a reserve fleet of commercial vessels that can be mobilized to haul military cargos, said Susan Clark, a spokeswoman for the Transportation Department’s Maritime Administration, which oversees the program.
Pirates in recent days have hijacked a British-owned general cargo ship, a French yacht, a German container ship, a Taiwanese trawler and a Yemeni tugboat.
Most of those attacks have been to the south of the Gulf of Aden. About 25 warships from the European Union, the U.S., Turkey, Russia, India and China have concentrated efforts to protect the Gulf of Aden, which is one of the world’s most- traveled trade routes and where most attacks have previously occurred.
Gulf ‘Well Covered’
Naval forces “have the Gulf of Aden pretty well covered, so that’s why the pirates have moved out into the Indian Ocean where there are fewer patrols,” said Roger Middleton, a researcher at Chatham House, a London-based research institute.
The EU’s anti-piracy fleet is reconsidering the positions of its five warships, a spokesman said this week.
About one-tenth of world trade passes through the Gulf of Aden, the route for vessels using the Suez Canal. While fewer commercial ships ply the east coast of Somalia, there are also fewer warships to deter attacks.
The area of potential Somali pirate attacks is equal to the Mediterranean and Red Seas combined, or to four times France or Texas. A total of 165 ships were attacked last year with 43 vessels hijacked. In every case except one, ships were released in exchange for a ransom, and the crews were unharmed. The pirates still hold 16 ships with about 200 crew members.
The only ship to be freed by force was a French yacht liberated by French commandos in September with the death of one pirate and the capture of six others.
To contact the reporters on this story: Gregory Viscusi in Paris at [email protected]; Anthony Capaccio in Washington at [email protected]
Last Updated: April 9, 2009 10:51 EDT
Share | Email | Print | A A A
By Gregory Viscusi and Anthony Capaccio
April 9 (Bloomberg) -- Pirates off the coast of Somalia held the captain of an American-flagged container ship while a U.S. destroyer kept watch from a “safe distance,” the vessel’s owners said.
The captain, identified as Richard Phillips, “remains hostage but is unharmed,” Kevin Speers, a spokesman for Maersk Lines Ltd., said in a televised statement from Norfolk, Virginia, the ship’s home port. FBI negotiators are assisting the Navy to try to end the standoff, a bureau spokesman said.
Sailors on the Maersk Alabama regained control of the ship after it was attacked yesterday about 500 miles (800 kilometers) south of the Gulf of Aden in the Indian Ocean. Four pirates escaped with the captain and are nearby on a lifeboat that is out of fuel. The USS Bainbridge arrived in the area during the night, an American official said in Washington.
“The safe return of the captain is our foremost priority and everything we have done has been to increase the chance of a peaceful outcome,” Speers said. “The rest of the crew is safe and they have been courageous throughout all of this.” He didn’t take any questions.
Maersk Lines is the Norfolk, Virginia-based U.S. unit of A.P. Moeller-Maersk A/S, whose headquarters is in Copenhagen. The freed ship is on its way to Mombasa, Kenya, with an armed guard aboard and the crew will be swapped out and be able to return home, the father of crew member Shane Murphy told CNN.
‘Out of Gas’
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the U.S. was “deeply concerned” about the incident and called on the world to “come together to end the scourge of piracy.”
The lifeboat “has run out of gas,” Clinton said today.
FBI negotiators have been called in by the U.S. Navy to assist with negotiations and are “fully engaged in this matter,” Federal Bureau of Investigation spokesman Bill Carter said today. He declined to comment further.
The seizure represents the second foreign-affairs challenge for President Barack Obama in less than a week. On April 5 North Korea launched a ballistic missile in defiance of international demands that it cease such actions.
Pirates in the region have taken more ships this week than in the first three months of the year. They’re operating outside their usual hunting grounds in the Gulf of Aden to avoid naval patrols. The Alabama is the first U.S.-flagged vessel to be hijacked since a Maritime Protection Corridor was set up in the region in August, according to the U.S. Navy.
Captain Surrenders
The pirates began following the Alabama, with a crew of 20 Americans, on April 6 and boarded it yesterday, sinking their own ship, the Associated Press reported.
The sailors seized one of the pirates and the captain persuaded the other three to leave the vessel in a lifeboat, AP said, citing a member of his family. Phillips surrendered himself to secure the safety of the crew, AP reported.
The crew released the captured pirate after 12 hours in what may have been a botched hostage exchange, a man who identified himself as Ken Quinn, the ship’s second mate, told CNN in a broadcast phone interview yesterday.
The vessel was carrying 401 containers of relief supplies bound for Mombasa, John Reinhart, chief executive officer of Maersk Line Ltd. said in a news conference in Norfolk yesterday. The company spoke yesterday with the crew and was told members are safe, Reinhart said.
Pressure on U.S.
The incident may put pressure on Obama to boost the naval presence in the pirate-infested waters.
Senator John Kerry, a Massachusetts Democrat and chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said yesterday he plans to hold hearings on the threat of piracy “before the next fire drill becomes an international incident with big implications.”
The Alabama is part of the U.S. Maritime Security Program, a reserve fleet of commercial vessels that can be mobilized to haul military cargos, said Susan Clark, a spokeswoman for the Transportation Department’s Maritime Administration, which oversees the program.
Pirates in recent days have hijacked a British-owned general cargo ship, a French yacht, a German container ship, a Taiwanese trawler and a Yemeni tugboat.
Most of those attacks have been to the south of the Gulf of Aden. About 25 warships from the European Union, the U.S., Turkey, Russia, India and China have concentrated efforts to protect the Gulf of Aden, which is one of the world’s most- traveled trade routes and where most attacks have previously occurred.
Gulf ‘Well Covered’
Naval forces “have the Gulf of Aden pretty well covered, so that’s why the pirates have moved out into the Indian Ocean where there are fewer patrols,” said Roger Middleton, a researcher at Chatham House, a London-based research institute.
The EU’s anti-piracy fleet is reconsidering the positions of its five warships, a spokesman said this week.
About one-tenth of world trade passes through the Gulf of Aden, the route for vessels using the Suez Canal. While fewer commercial ships ply the east coast of Somalia, there are also fewer warships to deter attacks.
The area of potential Somali pirate attacks is equal to the Mediterranean and Red Seas combined, or to four times France or Texas. A total of 165 ships were attacked last year with 43 vessels hijacked. In every case except one, ships were released in exchange for a ransom, and the crews were unharmed. The pirates still hold 16 ships with about 200 crew members.
The only ship to be freed by force was a French yacht liberated by French commandos in September with the death of one pirate and the capture of six others.
To contact the reporters on this story: Gregory Viscusi in Paris at [email protected]; Anthony Capaccio in Washington at [email protected]
Last Updated: April 9, 2009 10:51 EDT
