Boston Herald
By Jessica Fargen, Jessica Van Sack and Marie Szaniszlo
Saturday, April 11, 2009
The desperate pirates are reportedly demanding $2 million in ransom for the release of Capt. Richard P. Phillips, 53, of Vermont, Reuters is reporting.
Pentagon officials said yesterday that Phillips jumped over the side of the lifeboat where he has been held for three days and began swimming, but was retaken by his captors after they fired an automatic weapon over his head.
Phillips’ brother-in-law lashed out at the Navy yesterday for missing their chance.
“Where the hell is the Navy? They have all these people over there. Why wouldn’t this boat be monitored 24 hours a day in case he escapes?” Tom Coggio said yesterday in a phone interview from the family’s rural Underhill, Vt., home.
As the standoff crisis entered day four, neither side showed signs of backing down.
At least two U.S. Navy warships were headed to the scene yesterday, and the pirates, who took Phillips hostage Wednesday, called in reinforcements, threatening to use seized ships and hostages from the Philippines, Russia and Germany as bait.
Phillips was captain of the American-flagged cargo ship the Maersk Alabama when it was overtaken by pirates Wednesday morning, and he apparently gave himself up to save his 19-member crew. The ship left the scene 380 miles east of the Somali capital of Mogadishu on Wednesday and is headed for safety in Mombasa, Kenya.
The tiny community of Underhill where Phillips lives rallied around the captain yesterday. Phillips’ wife, Andrea Phillips, 52, thanked the community and the nation in a statement.
“We have felt the compassion of the world through your concern for Richard. My husband is a strong man and we will remain strong for him. We ask that you do the same,” she said.
Capt. Shane Murphy, 33, a Massachusetts Maritime Academy graduate from Seekonk, is the acting captain of the Maersk Alabama as it makes its way to Kenya. Phillips is also a Mass. Maritime grad and worked as a cabbie in Boston while in school.
Adm. Richard Gurnon, president of Mass. Maritime in Buzzards Bay, told the Herald yesterday Phillips is more in command in the Alabama’s 50-man covered lifeboat than his four Somali captors.
“Conditions on the lifeboat must be very claustrophobic, very hot, no bathrooms and only canned food and water . . . it’s incredibly spartan,” he said. “This is absolutely in the captain’s favor, plus he has 350 friendly Americans close by. The hostage-takers have no cards to play.”
Gurnon, who said the academy is planning a homecoming celebration for both skippers in about 10 days, hailed Phillips for his “brilliant” move to trade his own life for his 19-man crew.
“No one is going to give them any money. The Americans will simply wait them out,” he said. “There’s no way the Americans are going to allow the other (Somali) ships to get close. It’s not going to happen.”
Tensions are high in the region after France’s navy freed a sailboat seized off Somalia last week by other pirates, leaving one hostage and two bandits dead.
Source: Boston Herald, April 11, 2009