Here is a first hand account of the Hijacking of the Maersk Alabama by Chief Officer Shane Murphy
<!--quoteo--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec--><b>High-seas terror: Shane Murphy of Seekonk recounts hijacking by Somali pirates</b>
01:00 AM EDT on Saturday, April 25, 2009
By Paul Davis
Journal Staff Writer
The Providence Journal / Paul Davis
Chief Officer Shane Murphy heard the threat before dawn.
“Stop ship,†said a voice on the radio. “This is Somali pirate.â€
Not long after, Murphy saw a tiny green blip on the radar.
He went out on the deck of the Maersk Alabama, a 17,000-ton cargo ship bound for Kenya, and after a few minutes he spotted a following ship about three miles away.
“I see pirates attack ships all the time,†Murphy, who spends half the year at sea, recalled Friday from the safety of his home, in Seekonk.
But Murphy, a graduate of the Massachusetts Maritime Academy, had never dealt with pirates coming aboard.
Now, just after dawn, a pirate ship was closing in.
Murphy, joined by Capt. Richard Phillips, a veteran seaman from Underhill, Vt., knew the waters off the rugged Horn of Africa were dangerous. The day before, in the middle of an afternoon drill, three pirate ships had chased and failed to catch the Alabama.
But this time it would be different. This pirate boat was fast.
At the sound of an alarm, each of the 20 American crew members knew what to do. Murphy went below to secure the ship’s more than 100 locks and doors. While meeting with other crew members, he heard Phillips, above deck, yell: “Shots fired! Shots fired!â€
The men grabbed improvised weapons: hatchets, saws and homemade shivs.
“They were coming aboard,†Murphy said.
SITTING AT HIS dining room table, the 34-year-old mariner matter-of-factly recounted the harrowing April 8 attack, which ended April 12 when Navy SEALs killed three pirates and captured the fourth.
While some of the crew hid in a safe room, Murphy went back to his office — a possible entry point from the main deck — and shoved the desk and chairs against the door.
One of the pirates fired an AK-47 military assault rifle outside the door. Murphy — who now wears one of spent shells on a cord around his neck — thought, “It’s going to be a fight.â€
“I wasn’t willing to give up the ship to these guys yet.â€
When the pirates left the area, Murphy went on deck. Above him, over a radio, he could hear the pirates yelling at Captain Phillips. They wanted to find the rest of the crew.
Phillips sounded calm, “but you could tell he had a gun pointed at his face,†Murphy said.
A jogger, Murphy sprinted 30 feet along the side of the ship, aware that the pirates, on the bridge above, might shoot.
“The whole time, I’m thinking the back of my head will explode from a bullet.â€
In a defensive maneuver, the Alabama broke away from the untended pirate ship.
Soon after, the chief engineer shut down the ship: lights, engine, everything.
Now, the four Somalis were “stuck on the ship with no lights, no power and no way to get off.â€
Back in the safe room, more than a dozen crew members remained in an airless, pitch-black room with no food or water. The temperature was 100 degrees.
Murphy and the chief engineer, using secret passageways and tunnels to meet, hashed out their options in the darkness.
The two of them could try to escape. Or they could try to get the men in the safe room to safety. Or they could try to rescue the captain.
Elsewhere on the ship, crew member Zahid Reza, at the wheel when the pirates boarded, offered to help one of the pirates search for the crew, but only if the pirate, Abduhl Wali-i-Musi, left his weapon behind. He agreed.
The two men went below. Suddenly Reza and the engineer jumped the pirate, knocked him down and took him to the safe room. Murphy gave the men duct tape to cover his mouth.
On the radio, Murphy could hear the other pirates screaming.
“They said they would shoot someone if their friend did not come back,†Murphy said. “For me, that was the toughest moment.â€
What should he do? Should he give himself up?
Instead, he went to the kitchen to find food and water for the crew.
“It was kind of eerie,†he said. That morning’s meal — cereal, juice, fruit — was laid out on a table, untouched. Murphy grabbed some food and a kitchen knife.
“On a ship, there are all kinds of tools you can use to inflict pain on someone,†he said.
“But,†he added, “our minds are the best weapons.â€
MURPHY DELIVERED the food to the safe room and then located the ship’s emergency radio beacon. He triggered the tracking transmitter, used to send signals by ships in distress. He wrapped a blanket around the equipment, shielding the beacon’s strobe light.
He then made his way to the captain’s quarters. On a yellow legal pad, he left a note for Phillips:
Capt.
We have 1 pirate in steering gear
Murphy, hearing the voices of Phillips and a pirate approaching, hustled to the nearby hospital room where he ducked under a desk.
“The pirate was so close I could see his foot,†Murphy said.
“See, there’s no one here,†Phillips told the pirate. They moved on.
Armed with the captain’s radio, Murphy found a high point on the ship to make emergency calls.
Aware that the pirates were listening, Murphy started talking directly to the Somalis.
“I told them I was in charge now, and I had their friend.†If they wanted their friend back, they would have to negotiate, he said.
Murphy told the pirates they could escape in a lifeboat, taking the ship’s money with them.
The pirates agreed to exchange Phillips for Wali-i-Musi, and the crew turned on the engines. The crew members who had been hiding in the safe room emerged, pale and dehydrated.
Murphy thought it was over. It wasn’t. Wali-i-Musi got into the lifeboat, but Captain Phillips stayed with the pirates to ensure the safety of his crew.
“I thought he was going to jump†from the lifeboat. But he didn’t.
Now in charge of the ship, Murphy took the Alabama to Mombasa to unload its cargo of food.
After a five-day standoff, Navy sharpshooters aboard the destroyer Bainbridge killed three of the pirates. Wali-i-Musi was arrested and is now in New York City where he will be arraigned in federal court Tuesday.
On April 16, Murphy flew back to the United States where his wife, Serena, and their two young boys were waiting. He expects to speak to a congressional committee next week about what the government can do to protect U.S. cargo ships.
But on Friday, he tried to relax as he fielded phone calls from the media, spoon-fed his youngest son, and reconstructed the entire ordeal for a reporter. He was wearing a white sleeveless shirt and a ball cap. On his right bicep flashed the tattoo of a mermaid. On his left arm swam a shark.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
original story here :
<a href="http://www.projo.com/massachusetts/seekonk/content/SHANE_MURPHY_TALKS_04-25-09_NGE20P9_v35.3864a05.html" target="_blank">http://www.projo.com/massachusetts/seekonk...35.3864a05.html</a>
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