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Crew retakes US ship from pirates, captain held

(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-04-09 09:13

NAIROBI, Kenya – The American crew of a hijacked US-flagged ship retook control of the vessel from Somali pirates Wednesday but the captain was still being held hostage in a lifeboat hundreds of miles off the Horn of Africa, crew members said.

This undated image shows the 17,000-ton container ship Maersk Alabama, when it was operating under the name Maersk Alva, which has been hijacked by Somalia pirates with 20 crew members aboard, Wednesday April 8, 2009, while sailing from Salalah in Oman to the Kenyan port of Mombassa via Djibouti. [Agencies]

US officials said an American warship and a half-dozen other ships were headed to the scene.

Ship operator Maersk Lines Limited confirmed that the crew had taken back the 17,000-ton Maersk Alabama and were unharmed but the captain was being held by pirates away from the cargo ship.

"They're on another boat," spokesman Kevin Speers said. He gave no other details.

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The second-in-command, Capt. Shane Murphy of Seekonk, Massachusetts, called his wife at 10 am EDT and told her that pirates had taken over the ship, which was carrying food aid for Africa, before dawn local time.

Murphy said that he was now in charge because pirates had taken away the captain, Serena Murphy, 31, told The Associated Press from her front doorstep.

The vessel had 20 US nationals onboard before the hijacking, Maersk said.

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

"They've been relatively safe, for the most part. I guess maybe it was inevitable," she said. "My husband is a pretty smart man. He knows the protocol. He'll do what he needs to do to keep the crew safe."

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

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."

The US Navy said that the ship was hijacked early Wednesday about 280 miles (450 kilometers) southeast of Eyl, a town in the northern Puntland region of Somalia.

US Navy spokesman Lt. Nathan Christensen said the closest US ship at the time of the hijacking was 345 miles (555 kilometers)away.

The Navy established a command center in Norfolk, Virginia, to relay information between the company and government officials and Navy field operations in the region. They were in constant communication throughout the evening, said Senate Commerce Committee spokeswoman Jena Longo.

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

US officials said an American Navy destroyer, the USS Bainbridge, was headed for the scene along with at least six other vessels. The Bainbridge was among several US ships, including the cruiser USS Gettysburg, that had been patrolling in the region but were several hours away when the Maersk Alabama was seized.

The Bainbridge is a guided-missile destroyer carrying Tomahawk cruise missiles, torpedoes and two MH-60 Knighthawk helicopters armed with Hellfire missiles.

It was not clear what the military crews would do when they got to the scene. Options could include negotiation, backed by force.

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