NAIROBI, KENYA, AND WASHINGTON — With a U.S. warship on site keeping watch early today, Somali pirates and American seamen engaged in a standoff on the high seas after the crew of a freighter loaded with food for Africa fought off the hijackers -- who fled in a lifeboat with the captain as a hostage.
The assault on the U.S.- registered Maersk Alabama cargo ship far off Somalia's coast marked the first attack against a U.S.-flagged vessel off Africa since the days of the Barbary pirates more than 200 years ago, a maritime official said.
The 20-member crew, unarmed, according to the ship's owner, managed to overpower at least four pirates and regain control, U.S. officials said. But the captain, 55-year-old Vermont resident Richard Phillips, was being held by the pirates, a U.S. Defense official said.
The attempted seizure of the Danish-owned vessel marks the latest chapter in the piracy saga off Somalia. Poverty, civil war and the lack of a functioning government since 1991 have turned the waters around the Horn of Africa nation into the most crime- infested on Earth.
The attack on the cargo ship was the second in two days, U.S. officials said. After rebuffing the first attempt, the ship's crew radioed Wednesday that two skiffs were closing in. Thirty minutes later, the ship told maritime officials that pirates had attached a grappling hook and were climbing aboard.
It remained unclear how the American crew retook the ship, and with Phillips in pirate hands, second-in-command Shane Murphy was in control. A crew member told CNN that one of the pirates had been detained, but then was released in an unsuccessful bid to exchange him for the captain.
U.S. Defense Department officials said the U.S. destroyer Bainbridge arrived on the scene early today and was monitoring the situation. Navy P-3 surveillance planes also were keeping watch.
Officials said the destroyer would establish communication, watch the situation and seek to negotiate the hostage's release, which could take some time.
"I wouldn't expect it to resolve itself like an episode of "CSI" in 45 minutes," a Defense official said.
Both Murphy and Phillips are graduates of the Massachusetts Maritime Academy, where Murphy's father teaches a course in anti-piracy tactics. Academy President Rick Gurnon said it was his understanding that the crew had disabled the cargo ship in a bid to thwart the hijackers.
