Pirates strike aid ship off Somalia

by Media Services on 9 Apr 2009 A US cargo ship's crew ferrying food to African refugees battled against Somali pirates on Wednesday, the first US merchant ship hijacked since the North African Barbary Wars in the early 19th century.

As military help is on its way, news has emerged that the captain, Richard Phillips, is still being held captive. The high-seas drama in the lawless shipping channel off war-torn Somalia started when pirates seized the US-flagged Maersk Alabama, a 17,500-tonne container vessel whose home port is Norfolk, Virginia.

The 20 unarmed crew members fought back against the four hijackers and hours later regained control of their vessel, according to second mate, Ken Quinn.

Quinn made a brief mobile phone call to CNN, and told the network that the crew had released one of the pirates they had tied up for 12 hours. But the hijackers were refusing to return the Captain.

'Right now, they want to hold our captain for ransom and we're trying to get him back,' Quinn told the US network.'He's in the ship's lifeboat,' he said, explaining the four pirates had taken the lifeboat off the Maersk Alabama and that Phillips was in touch with his crew using the ship's radio.

'So now we're just trying to offer them whatever we can. Food. But it's not working too good.'

Quinn added: 'We have a coalition (vessel) that will be here in three hours. So we're just trying to hold them off for three more hours and then we'll have a warship here to help us.'

US officials say an American warship and a half dozen others are headed to the area.

One official says the destroyer USS Bainbridge is headed there. Another official says there are six or seven ships on the way.

The 155-metre vessel had been due to dock in the Kenyan port of Mombasa on April 16 where the United Nations World Food Program (WFP) was to have taken possession of more than 5000 tonnes of relief food supplies.

It was the sixth ship to be hijacked off Somalia in the past five days, after a running battle at sea reportedly lasting at least five hours during which the US crew tried to evade the hijackers and then turned hoses on them.