This is great.I know exactly what these guys must've undergone having
faced piracy attacks in Brazil,and West africa and aborted attempyts in
Malacca straits.At the time of writing,the Captain has been rescued and
three out of four pirates shot by snipers, and the fourth one captured.
May open a new chapter in deterrence in that area.
Best regards
Nine
--- On Tue, 14/4/09, naikanshuman <naikanshuman@ yahoo.co. in> wrote:
From: naikanshuman <naikanshuman@ yahoo.co. in>
Subject: [MerchantNavy] Mail from Maersk Alabama - after the piracy attack - eye witness account
To: MerchantNavy@ yahoogroups. com
Date: Tuesday, 14 April, 2009, 9:43 AM
Good day Gentlemen,
As I read happily about President Obama vowing to address the issue in
Somalia (looks like more will get done here than ever got done in
Malacca straits!) with my daily breakfast and cup of tea, here is a
mail my son just received from a friend in Maersk lines.
A mail sent from Maersk Alabama - which tells more than perhaps any book on piracy.....
From: Maersk Alabama - Master
Sent: Friday, April 10, 2009 1:58 PM
To: Maersk Arkansas - 1st Engineer
Subject: from Matt Fisher
Hey Greg,
Everyone on here is okay. We're on our way to Mombasa with Navy
protection on board. Captain Phillips is still hostage in the lifeboat with
the 4 pirates. I hear they're flying out reliefs for everyone, but I'm not
sure what all's going to happen once we get to Mombasa .
Supposedly the FBI is coming out to investigate the crime. Maybe we'll be on the next CSI Somalia. I wanted to let you know some of the lessons we learned so you guys can better prepare yourselves for something similar. The only guys actually captured by the pirates were on the bridge: Capt, 3/M, and 2 AB's.
I don't really know why they stayed on the bridge until the pirates got up
there. Then they had keys to everything and were able to unlock everyone's
rooms. The pirates got up to the bridge very quickly once they were
onboard. We had a locked cage door over the ladder well from main deck, but
it only took a second for them to shoot it off. They then got to the bridge
up the outside ladders. By that time we had taken control of the engine and
steering down below. Mike stayed in the ECR and the C/M was out on deck
tracking the pirates' movement. We kept swinging the rudder side to side.
The pirates' boat capsized, though I'm not sure exactly when or what caused
it. After about 20 minutes the engine was killed, I don't know by whom. At
that point I shut off the air bottles and Mike killed power. He was also
able to get outside and trip the fuel shutoff for the EDG. I think this was
critical. The pirates were very reluctant to go into the dark. We will be
looking at a way to shut off the EDG from the ECR in the future. All the
crew had been mustered and secured in the steering gear. Our pirates didn't
have any grenades, so they would have never been able to break in there.
The previous day we had welded a padeye on the inside of the hatch to the
fantail so it was secured from the inside. The only problem with the
steering gear was the heat and the shortage of water. In the future we will
store food and water in various spots for emergency usage. I think we will
also run a fresh water line into the steering gear. We were able to make a
run from the steering gear to the E/R water fountain and fill up some empty
oil sample bottles we had back there. The C/M was also able to get some
fruit and sodas from the galley and drop them down the line standpipe. The
pirates sent the 3/M unescorted to go look for crewmembers, so he was able
to get away. One of the pirates then went with an AB down to the E/R to
look for people. Mike was able to jump him in the dark and we took him
prisoner in the steering gear. No one else came down into the E/R. As the
day went on the pirates became desperate to get out of there. There boat
was sunk, and they couldn't get our ship moving. The Captain talked them
into taking the MOB boat. The three remaining pirates went down in the MOB
boat with Phillips. We were then able to negotiate with them over the
radio. We dropped some food, water and diesel to them. We started getting
the plant back on line. Unfortunately, the MOB boat wouldn't start. A
couple of guys got in the lifeboat and dropped it. They motored over and
traded the lifeboat for the MOB boat. We were supposed to exchange their
guy for the Captain, but they ended up keeping him. They motored off in the
lifeboat. They had no way of getting back aboard, so we followed them. The
Navy showed up a few hours later. We stayed close by for some time, but
then the Navy asked us to head out. I heard that several other pirate
vessels were heading our way and the Navy wanted us out of the way. That's about it. I'll give you all the details some other time. Just to reiterate
the most important points:
Have a well fortified location with food and water supply.
Kill all the lights.
Leave the alarms going, the noise helped cover our movements through the
house.
Flashlights and radios are very handy, as well as the sound-powered phone.
Anyway, it was a pretty stressful situation. I have to say I am impressed
with how the entire crew responded. We didn't have anybody who wanted to give up. I'm pretty confident that Phillips will end up ok. They have to
know that if they kill him they'll be done. I assume the company will be
forced into taking some kind of action to assure our security from now on.
Hope everything is going well there. I'll talk to you later.
Matt
