Somalia Pirates seize US-flagged cargo ship

[Lonestar]

Well, this should get interesting

Diplomat: Somali Pirates Seize 20 American Sailors

by The Associated Press

NPR.org, April 8, 2009 · Somali pirates on Wednesday hijacked a U.S.-flagged cargo ship with 20 American crew members onboard, the shipping company said.

The 17,000-ton Maersk Alabama was carrying emergency relief to Mombasa, Kenya, when it was hijacked, said Peter Beck-Bang, spokesman for the Copenhagen-based container shipping group A.P. Moller-Maersk.

In a statement, the company confirmed that the U.S.-flagged vessel has 20 U.S. nationals onboard.

Cmdr. Jane Campbell, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Navy's Bahrain-based 5th Fleet, said that it was the first pirate attack "involving U.S. nationals and a U.S.-flagged vessel in recent memory." She did not give an exact timeframe.

The U.S. Navy confirmed that the ship was hijacked Wednesday at 12:30 A.M. E.T. about 280 miles southeast of Eyl, a town in the northern Puntland region of Somalia.

The ship is the sixth to be seized within a week, a rise that analysts attribute to a new strategy by Somali pirates who are operating far from the warships patrolling the Gulf of Aden.

U.S. Navy spokesman Lt. Nathan Christensen said the closest U.S. ship at the time of the hijacking was 345 miles away.

"The area, the ship was taken in, is not where the focus of our ships has been," Christensen told The Associated Press on the phone from the 5th Fleet's Mideast headquarters in Bahrain.

"The area we're patrolling is more than a million miles in size. Our ships cannot be everywhere at every time," Christensen said.

When asked how the U.S. Navy plans to deal with this, Campbell said: "It's fair to say we are closely monitoring the situation, but we will not discuss nor speculate on current and future military operations."

Somali pirates are trained fighters who frequently dress in military fatigues and use speedboats equipped with satellite phones and GPS equipment. They are typically armed with automatic weapons, anti-tank rocket launchers and various types of grenades. Far out to sea, their speedboats operate from larger mother ships.

Most hijackings end with million-dollar payouts. Piracy is considered the biggest moneymaker in Somalia, a country that has had no stable government for decades. Roger Middleton, a piracy expert at the London-based think-tank Chatham House, said pirates took up to $80 million in ransoms last year.

This is the second time that Somali pirates have seized a ship belonging to the privately held shipping group A.P. Moller-Maersk. In February 2008, the towing vessel Svitzer Korsakov from the A.P. Moller-Maersk company Svitzer was briefly seized by pirates.

Before this latest hijacking, Somali pirates were holding 14 vessels and about 200 crew members, according to the International Maritime Bureau.

We'll see what happens. Unfortunately the US has a history of giving in to Hostage takers demands. Hell, we were one day away from giving the pirates a gift they would never forget when the owners of the Feisty Gas paid out the ransom on my 04-05 deployment.

[Fingolfin_Noldor]

Will the US Navy do what they did to Tripoli a hundred over years ago?

[FSTargetDrone]

New Headline on MSNBC:

BREAKING NEWS: Pentagon officials say American crew may be back in control of hijacked ship

U.S. crew may be in control of hijacked ship
Pentagon officials say they are watching the situation closely
NBC News and news services
updated 12:04 p.m. ET, Wed., April 8, 2009

NAIROBI, Kenya - Somali pirates on Wednesday hijacked a U.S.-flagged cargo ship but Pentagon officials later said they believed the U.S. crew was back in control of the vessel.

Across the national security establishment, the United States urgently sought answers Wednesday for what is believed to be the first American hostage-taking by pirates in 200 years — a U.S.-flagged ship hijacked off the coast of Somalia.

The 17,000-ton Maersk Alabama was carrying emergency relief to Mombasa, Kenya, when it was hijacked, said Peter Beck-Bang, spokesman for the Copenhagen-based container shipping group A.P. Moller-Maersk.

In a statement, the company confirmed that the U.S.-flagged vessel has 20 U.S. nationals onboard.

President Barack Obama's chief spokesman said the White House was assessing a course of action. Press secretary Robert Gibbs told reporters that officials were monitoring the incident closely. Said Gibbs: "Our top priority is the personal safety of the crew members on board."

The White House offered no other immediate details about what actions it was considering.

Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said there has not yet been any communications from the pirates for ransom. He would not comment on military plans.

"I'm not going to speculate on any future military actions," Whitman said, when asked what the U.S. military may do.

Whitman said there are still no U.S. Navy ships within view of the vessel.

New strategy
Officials said the crew had radioed for help but the closest U.S. ship at the time of the hijacking was 345 miles away.

Andrew Mwangura, coordinator of the Kenya-based East African Seafarers' Assistance Program, said all of the crew members were believed to be safe.

The vessel is the sixth to be seized within a week, a rise that analysts attribute to a new strategy by Somali pirates operating far from the warships patrolling the Gulf of Aden.

Maersk Line is one of the U.S. Department of Defense's primary shipping contractors. According to GlobalSecurity.org, the firm "manages a fleet of nearly 50 ships in commercial and government service, including vessels requiring Top Secret security clearances."

U.S. Navy spokesman Lt. Nathan Christensen said the vessel was not working under a Pentagon contract when it was hijacked.

Son of anti-piracy expert kidnapped
Capt. Shane Murphy, a 2001 graduate of Massachusetts Maritime Academy, was second in command on the hijacked ship, the Cape Cod Times reported. It said this information was passed on by Capt. Joseph Murphy, his father, who is a professor at the academy.

The elder Murphy teaches anti-piracy tactics in his maritime security class. He said a company spokesman notified the family Wednesday morning of the incident and at last report the ship was drifting.

Murphy said his son was well aware of the threat of pirates in the area and, while home on a visit only a few weeks ago, had talked with his class about the risk. "He knows the potential danger and he talked with my students about that," Murphy said. "He connected right away with the students."

At least 12 of the Americans aboard the Maersk Alabama are members of the Seafarers International Union, spokesman Jordan Biscardo said. The union is trying to get as much information on the situation as it can, he said.

"It goes without saying we're deeply concerned and we're closely monitoring the story," Biscardo said.

Biscardo would not immediately release the names of the union members aboard the vessel.

In December 2008, Somali pirates chased and shot at a U.S. cruise ship with more than 1,000 people on board but failed to hijack the vessel.

Though the ship is the sixth seized within a week in the dangerous region around Africa, Cmdr. Jane Campbell, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Navy's Bahrain-based 5th Fleet, said it was the first pirate attack "involving U.S. nationals and a U.S.-flagged vessel in recent memory."

A second Defense Department official, also speaking on condition of anonymity, said he had no information on the number of pirates or any details of the attack.

But a third official, asked if there were any casualties during the hijacking, said United Kingdom maritime officials had been able to contact the vessel and were told "everyone is OK."

Retired Navy Cmdr. Kirk Lippold, who was in charge of the USS Cole battleship when it was attacked by suicide bombers in 2000, said, "Although the United States and other nations are working in a loose coalition to prevent piracy, the dwindling number of ships in our Navy amplifies the impact of this menace."

Lippold said the administration deserves praises for recommending more combat ships and unmanned aerial vehicles to help interdict this type of threat, but said the Navy "simply needs more ships and at a quicker rate than we are currently building or plan to build."

"Only with a robust and capable Navy will the United States be able to defend our interests worldwide," said Lippold, now a senior military fellow at Military Families United, an advocacy organization for military families.

The crew first reported being under attack, then said that pirates had already boarded the ship, according to "talking points" prepared by the U.S. government for briefing reporters about the situation.

NBC News reported that the Maersk Alabama left Djibouti on Saturday and was due to arrive in Mombasa on April 12.

Ransoms
In the first three months of 2009 only eight ships had been hijacked in the busy Gulf of Aden, which links Europe to Asia and the eastern Indian Ocean through the Suez Canal.

Last year, heavily armed Somali pirates hijacked dozens of vessels, took hundreds of sailors hostage, often for weeks, and extracted millions of dollars in ransoms.

Foreign navies rushed warships to the area in response and have reduced the number of successful attacks in recent months. But there are still near-daily attempts and the pirates have started hunting further afield near the Seychelles.

On Monday, they hijacked a British-owned, Italian-operated ship with 16 Bulgarian crew members on board.

Over the weekend, they also seized a French yacht, a Yemeni tug and a 20,000-ton German container vessel. Interfax news agency said the Hansa Stavanger had a German captain, three Russians, two Ukrainians and 14 Filipinos on board.

'Mother ships'
The pirates typically use speed boats launched from "mother ships," which means they can sometimes evade foreign navies patrolling the busy shipping lanes and strike far out to sea.

They take captured vessels to remote coastal village bases in Somalia, where they have usually treated their hostages well in anticipation of a sizeable ransom payment.

Pirates stunned the shipping industry last year when they seized a Saudi supertanker loaded with $100 million worth of crude oil. The Sirius Star and its 25 crew were freed in January after $3 million was parachuted onto its deck.

Last September, they also grabbed world headlines seizing a Ukrainian cargo ship carrying 33 Soviet-era T-72 tanks. It was released in February, reportedly for a $3.2 million ransom.

The Associated Press, Reuters and NBC News contributed to this report.

Details are sparse at the moment, but it appears (so far) there were 4 hijackers who are no longer aboard the vessel.

UPDATE:

A Maersk spokesmanThe Maersk CEO is speaking now. No details on current events. He is NOT confirming the crew has re-taken the vessel.

Another update. The MSNBC crawl is showing One hijacker is in custody. No details on who is holding the pirate, but presumably the crew (if this is true).

[FSTargetDrone]

UPDATE:

CNN is reporting a Pentagon Official saying the crew has retaken the vessel and is holding one hijacker.

UPDATE:

Talking heads on MSNBC are speculating that the crew was carrying sidearms. There are conflicting reports on that, however.

UPDATE:

Okay, actual details:

Pentagon: U.S. crew in control of hijacked ship

One pirate in custody after first hostage-taking of U.S. sailors in 200 years

NBC News and news services

updated 12:14 p.m. ET, Wed., April 8, 2009

NAIROBI, Kenya - The American crew of a hijacked ship has regained control of the vessel from Somali pirates, the Pentagon said Wednesday.

Pentagon sources spoke on condition of anonymity because the information was still preliminary.

But sources said Wednesday the hijacked crew apparently contacted the private shipping company they work for.

One pirate was believed to be in custody.

The ship was captured by pirates near the coast of Somalia, in what is believed to be the first hostage-taking of American sailors in 200 years.

The 17,000-ton Maersk Alabama was carrying emergency relief to Mombasa, Kenya, when it was hijacked, said Peter Beck-Bang, spokesman for the Copenhagen-based container shipping group A.P. Moller-Maersk.

In a statement, the company confirmed that the U.S.-flagged vessel has 20 U.S. nationals onboard.

President Barack Obama's chief spokesman said the White House was assessing a course of action. Press secretary Robert Gibbs told reporters that officials were monitoring the incident closely. Said Gibbs: "Our top priority is the personal safety of the crew members on board."

The White House offered no other immediate details about what actions it was considering.

Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said there has not yet been any communications from the pirates for ransom. He would not comment on military plans.

"I'm not going to speculate on any future military actions," Whitman said, when asked what the U.S. military may do.

Whitman said there are still no U.S. Navy ships within view of the vessel.

New strategy

Officials said the crew had radioed for help but the closest U.S. ship at the time of the hijacking was 345 miles away.

Andrew Mwangura, coordinator of the Kenya-based East African Seafarers' Assistance Program, said all of the crew members were believed to be safe.

The vessel is the sixth to be seized within a week, a rise that analysts attribute to a new strategy by Somali pirates operating far from the warships patrolling the Gulf of Aden.

Maersk Line is one of the U.S. Department of Defense's primary shipping contractors. According to GlobalSecurity.org, the firm "manages a fleet of nearly 50 ships in commercial and government service, including vessels requiring Top Secret security clearances."

U.S. Navy spokesman Lt. Nathan Christensen said the vessel was not working under a Pentagon contract when it was hijacked.

(Edit: cut down quote to show relevant details.)

[Falkenhayn]

It's on the BBC now as well.

The US crew of a ship hijacked by pirates off the coast of Somalia has retaken control of the vessel, according to Pentagon sources.

Unnamed US defence officials said one pirate had been captured by the crew of the Danish-owned Maersk Alabama, which was seized earlier in the Indian Ocean.

The status of the other pirates was unknown, but officials said they were "in the water".

It was the sixth hijack in recent days, including a British and Taiwanese ship.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/i ... 990566.stm

[Tanasinn]

"In the water" makes it sound like they fled or got tossed out to be fish food, though why take a prisoner in the latter case?

[Kodiak]

"In the water" makes it sound like they fled or got tossed out to be fish food, though why take a prisoner in the latter case?

Perhaps the ones "in the water" fled for their lives and they only caught the slowest one? Or maybe the crew decided one prisoner would be enough to get the point across.

[Darth Onasi]

Depending on the size of the crew they just might not be able to deal with a lot of prisoners, better to keep one and let the rest deal with the sea.

[FSTargetDrone]

Latest details:

Pentagon: U.S. crew in control of hijacked ship

One pirate in custody after first hostage-taking of U.S. sailors in 200 years

BREAKING NEWS

NBC News and news services

updated 1:04 p.m. ET, Wed., April 8, 2009

NAIROBI, Kenya - Pentagon officials said Wednesday that the American crew of a U.S.-flagged cargo ship had retaken control from Somali pirates who hijacked the vessel far off the Horn of Africa.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because information was still preliminary. But they said the hijacked crew had apparently contacted the private company that operates the ship.

NBC News reported that none of the American citizens were injured.

A U.S. official said the crew had retaken control and had one pirate in custody.

"The crew is back in control of the ship," a U.S. official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because she was not authorized to speak on the record. "It's reported that one pirate is on board under crew control — the other three were trying to flee."

Pirates 'in the water'

The status of the other pirates was unknown, the official said, but they were reported to "be in the water."

Another U.S. official, citing a readout from an interagency conference call, said: "Multiple reliable sources are now reporting that the Maersk Alabama is now under control of the U.S. crew."

Capt. Joseph Murphy, an instructor at the Massachusetts Maritime Academy, told The Associated Press that his son Shane, the second in command on the ship, had called him to say the crew had regained control.

At a news conference, Maersk Line Ltd. CEO John Reinhart said that the company was working to contact families of the crew.

"Speculation is a dangerous thing when you're in a fluid environment. I will not confirm that the crew has overtaken this ship," he said.

The ship was captured by pirates off the coast of Somalia, in what is believed to be the first hostage-taking of American sailors in 200 years.

The 17,000-ton Maersk Alabama was carrying emergency relief to Mombasa, Kenya, when it was hijacked, said Peter Beck-Bang, spokesman for the Copenhagen-based container shipping group A.P. Moller-Maersk.

In an earlier statement, the company confirmed that the U.S.-flagged vessel has 20 U.S. nationals onboard.

New strategy

Officials said the crew had radioed for help but the closest U.S. ship at the time of the hijacking was 345 miles away.

The vessel is the sixth to be seized within a week, a rise that analysts attribute to a new strategy by Somali pirates operating far from the warships patrolling the Gulf of Aden.

Maersk Line is one of the U.S. Department of Defense's primary shipping contractors. According to GlobalSecurity.org, the firm "manages a fleet of nearly 50 ships in commercial and government service, including vessels requiring Top Secret security clearances."

U.S. Navy spokesman Lt. Nathan Christensen said the vessel was not working under a Pentagon contract when it was hijacked.

The top two commanders of the ship graduated from the Massachusetts Maritime Academy, the Cape Cod Times reported Wednesday.

Andrea Phillips, the wife of Capt. Richard Phillips of Underhill, Vermont., said her husband has sailed in those waters "for quite some time" and a hijacking was perhaps "inevitable."

Son of anti-piracy expert kidnapped

Capt. Shane Murphy, a 2001 graduate, was second in command on the hijacked ship. The Cape Cod Times said Capt. Joseph Murphy, his father, is a professor at the academy.

The elder Murphy teaches anti-piracy tactics in his maritime security class. Murphy said his 33-year-old son was well aware of the threat of pirates in the area and, while home on a visit only a few weeks ago, had talked with his class about the risk.

"He knows the potential danger," Murphy added.

The crew first reported being under attack, then said that pirates had already boarded the ship, according to "talking points" prepared by the U.S. government for briefing reporters about the situation.

NBC News reported that the Maersk Alabama left Djibouti on Saturday and was due to arrive in Mombasa on April 12.

Somali pirates are trained fighters who frequently dress in military fatigues and use speedboats equipped with satellite phones and GPS equipment. They are typically armed with automatic weapons, anti-tank rocket launchers and various types of grenades. Far out to sea, their speedboats operate from larger "mother ships".

In December 2008, Somali pirates chased and shot at a U.S. cruise ship with more than 1,000 people on board but failed to hijack the vessel.

Cmdr. Jane Campbell, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Navy's Bahrain-based 5th Fleet, said it was the first pirate attack "involving U.S. nationals and a U.S.-flagged vessel in recent memory."

Douglas J. Mavrinac, the head of maritime research at investment firm Jefferies & Co., noted that it is very unusual for an international ship to be U.S.-flagged and carry a U.S. crew.

Although about 95 percent of international ships carry foreign flags because of the lower cost and other factors, he said, ships that are operated by or for the U.S. government — such a food aid ships like Maersk Alabama — have to carry U.S. flags, and therefore, employ a crew of U.S. citizens.

There are fewer than 200 U.S.-flagged vessels in international waters, said Larry Howard, chair of the Global Business and Transportation Department at SUNY Maritime College in New York.

Retired Navy Cmdr. Kirk Lippold, who was in charge of the USS Cole battleship when it was attacked by suicide bombers in 2000, said, "Although the United States and other nations are working in a loose coalition to prevent piracy, the dwindling number of ships in our Navy amplifies the impact of this menace."

Lippold said the administration deserves praise for recommending more combat ships and unmanned aerial vehicles to help interdict this type of threat, but said the Navy "simply needs more ships and at a quicker rate than we are currently building or plan to build."

"Only with a robust and capable Navy will the United States be able to defend our interests worldwide," said Lippold, now a senior military fellow at Military Families United, an advocacy organization for military families.

Ransoms

In the first three months of 2009 only eight ships had been hijacked in the busy Gulf of Aden, which links Europe to Asia and the eastern Indian Ocean through the Suez Canal.

Last year, heavily armed Somali pirates hijacked dozens of vessels, took hundreds of sailors hostage, often for weeks, and extracted millions of dollars in ransoms.

Foreign navies rushed warships to the area in response and have reduced the number of successful attacks in recent months. But there are still near-daily attempts and the pirates have started hunting further afield near the Seychelles.

On Monday, they hijacked a British-owned, Italian-operated ship with 16 Bulgarian crew members on board.

Over the weekend, they also seized a French yacht, a Yemeni tug and a 20,000-ton German container vessel. Interfax news agency said the Hansa Stavanger had a German captain, three Russians, two Ukrainians and 14 Filipinos on board.

The pirates typically use speed boats launched from "mother ships," which means they can sometimes evade foreign navies patrolling the busy shipping lanes and strike far out to sea.

They take captured vessels to remote coastal village bases in Somalia, where they have usually treated their hostages well in anticipation of a sizeable ransom payment.

Pirates stunned the shipping industry last year when they seized a Saudi supertanker loaded with $100 million worth of crude oil. The Sirius Star and its 25 crew were freed in January after $3 million was parachuted onto its deck.

Last September, they also grabbed world headlines seizing a Ukrainian cargo ship carrying 33 Soviet-era T-72 tanks. It was released in February, reportedly for a $3.2 million ransom.

The Associated Press, Reuters and NBC News contributed to this report.

It seems the other pirates "in the water" may jumped or otherwise left the Maersk Alabama.

[The Romulan Republic]

Depending on the size of the crew they just might not be able to deal with a lot of prisoners, better to keep one and let the rest deal with the sea.

If they executed prisoners, wouldn't they face rather sever legal consequences (like first degree murder charges)?

[KrauserKrauser]

Depends, there might be some laws from back in the pirate days that allow for summary execution of Pirates.

Not that I know what I am talking about.

[FSTargetDrone]

Who knows, maybe the crew told the other three, "Jump or be pushed."

In all seriousness, why not hold him prisoner? If they have him safely in custody and he gives up, hang on to him so he can be prosecuted.

[CaptainChewbacca]

For the entire crew.

[Darth Onasi]

Depending on the size of the crew they just might not be able to deal with a lot of prisoners, better to keep one and let the rest deal with the sea.

If they executed prisoners, wouldn't they face rather sever legal consequences (like first degree murder charges)?

It's more likely that they fled instead of being made to walk the plank so to speak.
I'm just saying there may have been no particular motivation to go after the others.

[FSTargetDrone]

Okay, hold the phone. There seems to be a conflicting story on who is being held:

US crewman: Somali pirates hold crewman hostage
By KATHARINE HOURELD, Associated Press Writer Katharine Houreld, Associated Press Writer 8 mins ago

NAIROBI, Kenya – The American crew of a hijacked U.S.-flagged ship retook control of the vessel from Somali pirates Wednesday but a crew member was still being held hostage, according to the ship's operator and another member of the crew.

U.S. officials said American warships were heading to the hijack scene.

A crew member aboard the vessel told The Associated Press that his shipmates were trying to rescue a crew member who was still being held.

Colin Wright, who identified himself as a third mate aboard the ship, said, "Somalian pirates have one of our crew members in our lifeboat and we are trying to recover that crew member."

Asked whether that crew member was the ship's captain, Collin told the AP he couldn't say anything else. Earlier, a person aboard the ship told the AP by phone that it was the captain who was being held by the pirates.

At one point, the pirates had held the boat and the entire crew of Americans. Wright said: "We're really busy right now, but you can call back in an hour or two."

President Barack Obama was following the situation closely, foreign policy adviser Denis McDonough said.

"We are able to confirm that the crew of the Maersk Alabama has is now in control of the ship," said Kevin Speers, a spokesman for Maersk Lines Limited. "The armed hijackers who boarded this ship earlier today have departed, however they are currently holding one member of the ship's crew as a hostage. The other members of the crew are safe and no injuries have been reported."

The ship was carrying emergency food relief to Mombasa, Kenya, when it was hijacked, the Copenhagen-based container shipping group A.P. Moller-Maersk said.

It was the sixth vessel seized within a week, a rise that analysts attribute to a new strategy by Somali pirates who are operating far from the warships patrolling the Gulf of Aden.

___

Associated Press writers Jon Resnick in Washington, Barbara Surk in Dubai, United Arab Emirates; Pauline Jelinek in Washington; Jan M. Olsen in Copenhagen; Samantha Bomkamp in New York; and Tom Maliti and Anita Powell in Nairobi, Kenya contributed to this report.

If the story is correct, it is one of the crew members of the Maersk Alabama who is being held, not necessarily one of the pirates. Perhaps both details are right.

Let's take all this with a grain of salt for now. I am sure clear details will emerge before long. I just noticed in the last story I posted about this above, it says the second in command is in control of the vessel, so perhaps it is indeed the captain who is being held.

[White Haven]

Retired Navy Cmdr. Kirk Lippold, who was in charge of the USS Cole battleship when it was attacked by suicide bombers in 2000, said, "Although the United States and other nations are working in a loose coalition to prevent piracy, the dwindling number of ships in our Navy amplifies the impact of this menace.

Really, is it THAT goddamned hard to fact-check your print media stories? This isn't live coverage where you can blame it on a slip of the tongue.

[Beowulf]

Retired Navy Cmdr. Kirk Lippold, who was in charge of the USS Cole battleship when it was attacked by suicide bombers in 2000, said, "Although the United States and other nations are working in a loose coalition to prevent piracy, the dwindling number of ships in our Navy amplifies the impact of this menace.

Really, is it THAT goddamned hard to fact-check your print media stories? This isn't live coverage where you can blame it on a slip of the tongue.

If it's a warship, it's a battleship. If it's got tracks, or a big gun, or even a little gun, it's a tank.

[Mr Bean]

The International Law of the Sea is clear, executing the Pirates themselves could get them in legal trouble if they don't document everything well. And they should have handed them over to the nearest flagged Naval warship(Which could hang them on the spot) But there are nice clear provisions for executing captured Pirates and those laws have not exactly been heavily modified since the 19th century.

[FSTargetDrone]

If the pirates have the captain (or anyone else) of the Maersk Alabama hostage, I think the last thing anyone should be doing is stringing up the pirate from the yardarm at the moment.

[MarshalFoch]

Retired Navy Cmdr. Kirk Lippold, who was in charge of the USS Cole battleship when it was attacked by suicide bombers in 2000, said, "Although the United States and other nations are working in a loose coalition to prevent piracy, the dwindling number of ships in our Navy amplifies the impact of this menace.

Really, is it THAT goddamned hard to fact-check your print media stories? This isn't live coverage where you can blame it on a slip of the tongue.

The Bainbridge was described as a heavy cruiser (their first graphic was of CGN-25, lifted straight from here) by Fox. They also mentioned, with an emphasis on how fast this was, that Naval helicopters can approach speeds of 90 mph!

[Kodiak]

Updated

(CNN) -- The crew of a U.S.-flagged container ship has retaken control of the ship from pirates but its captain is being held hostage, the freighter's second officer said Wednesday.

"There's four Somali pirates, and they've got our captain," Ken Quinn said in a ship-to-shore phone interview.

Capt. Richard Phillips is being held in the Maersk Alabama's 28-foot lifeboat, Quinn said.

The crew had a plan to make an exchange for their captain.

"We had a pirate we took and kept him for 12 hours," Quinn said. "We tied him up and he was our prisoner."

The crew gave back their prisoner but the pirates reneged on the plan and are continuing to hold Phillips captive.

"So now we're just trying to offer them whatever we can, food, but it's not working too good," he said.

The guided-missile destroyer USS Bainbridge, part of the allied fleet that patrols the waterway, is headed to the area to assist, the U.S. Navy reported. Quinn said his sailors were trying to hold the pirates off for a few more hours, "and then we'll have a warship here to help us."

The 780-foot Alabama was carrying food aid bound for the Kenyan port of Mombasa for USAID, the U.N. World Food Program and the Christian charities WorldVision and Catholic Relief Services when it was seized, the ship's owner said. Twenty American crew members were on board.

Quinn said the pirates were armed with Kalashnikov assault rifles, but the freighter's crew carried no weapons.

The Americans locked themselves in the compartment that contains the ship's steering gear, where they remained for about 12 hours. The pirates "got frustrated because they couldn't find us," he said.

The pirates sank the small boat they used once they climbed aboard the freighter, Quinn said, so Phillips offered them the Alabama's 28-foot lifeboat and some money.

Four hijackers boarded the Maersk Alabama earlier in the day and one is in custody, according to Pentagon officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. The three others tried to escape, and their status is unknown, they said.

Earlier Wednesday, the chief executive officer of the company that owns the Maersk Alabama played down the report that the vessel has been retaken by U.S. crew members, who are unarmed.

"We have no facts that confirm the ship has been retaken," John Reinhart, CEO and president of Norfolk, Virginia-based Maersk Line Ltd., said at a news conference 12 hours after the hijacking.

He warned against speculation.

"I believe it's premature to comment on that, and I don't think it's in the best interest of the safety of the crew to comment on that at this time," Reinhart said.

Pirates boarded the container vessel at 7:30 a.m. Wednesday, about 350 miles off Somalia's coast.

Reinhart said the crew is believed to be safe.

"We had one communications earlier today from the crew; we were told the crew was safe," he said.

A source told CNN's Barbara Starr that pirates took control of the vessel about 17 minutes after the ship made a distress call.

Reinhart said the company has had no direct contact with the hijackers. The crew has secure rooms aboard the vessel and are urged to avoid "active engagements" with hijackers, he said.

"They'd be outgunned," Reinhart said. "They don't have any weapons. It would be inappropriate for them to decide to become heroes. We'd like them to come home safely."

He said crews can try to outrun pirate boats or turn their hoses on anyone trying to board the ship.

"We have ways to push back but we do not carry arms," Reinhart said.

The Maersk Alabama is still about 350 miles off the African coast, drifting at about one knot. The company has been in touch with "every government agency there is" since the incident was reported, he said.

Surprising, that negotiations w/ pirates didn't go well.

[The Romulan Republic]

The ship was carrying food aid? Well, that sounds like a new low, in terms of what targets they hit. Though they probably had no idea what was on it I suppose.

Anyway, hopefully the destroyer will resolve the situation and get the captain and crew back safely. Do destroyers normally carry people who are trained in this kind of negotiation? At any rate, if worst comes to worst they have the fire power to leave the pirates on the bottom of the sea.

Also, given the dangers, is their any reason why ships sailing through their aren't able and willing to arm their crew with hand guns? I mean, given the lousy nature of pirate weapons and the fact that water hoses have beaten them back, that could make a big difference. I'm usually pro-gun control, but in this case, I might make an exception.

[Sea Skimmer]

The International Law of the Sea is clear, executing the Pirates themselves could get them in legal trouble if they don't document everything well. And they should have handed them over to the nearest flagged Naval warship(Which could hang them on the spot) But there are nice clear provisions for executing captured Pirates and those laws have not exactly been heavily modified since the 19th century.

Actually a UN treaty updated the law decades ago and requires that once captured pirates be brought to the closest court. For piracy off Somalia the US has mostly been using Kenya’s legal system.

[FSTargetDrone]

Anyway, hopefully the destroyer will resolve the situation and get the captain and crew back safely. Do destroyers normally carry people who are trained in this kind of negotiation? At any rate, if worst comes to worst they have the fire power to leave the pirates on the bottom of the sea.

Yeah, but it seems that only the captain is being held, just one individual.

I wonder if the pirates grabbed him because he was the captain? If the rest of the crew was somehow able to get into the "secure" areas, perhaps the captain was alone somewhere? He wouldn't normally be on the bridge alone though, right?

[Sea Skimmer]

Yeah, but it seems that only the captain is being held, just one individual.

I wonder if the pirates grabbed him because he was the captain? If the rest of the crew was somehow able to get into the "secure" areas, perhaps the captain was alone somewhere? He wouldn't normally be on the bridge alone though, right?

Pirates always go for the captain and the chief engineer; they get much higher ransom payments for those two officers then anyone else onboard. During the 1990s south Asian piracy surge typically only those two men would be kidnapped, but that was because something resembling police and coastguard actually did exist in Indonesia. In Somalia is no big deal to hold everyone for ransom.