Posted on 03/31/2010 7:25:34 PM PDT by Ready4Freddy
MONTPELIER, Vt. - The cargo ship captain who spent five days as a hostage of Somali pirates says in a new book it was a high-seas double-cross that led to his brutal ordeal in a sweltering lifeboat.
Richard Phillips says that one of the AK-47-wielding pirates was grabbed by the crew of the Maersk Alabama last year, but the crew agreed to release him if the pirates released their captive, Phillips.
Bad idea, he says now. The crew gave up the pirate, but the other pirates reneged on the swap and kept Phillips.
"Don't make deals with pirates," Phillips writes in "A Captain's Duty: Somali Pirates, Navy SEALS and Dangerous Days at Sea." "We should have never made the exchange."
Phillips calls that one of three mistakes he made in the encounter, which saw him beaten, tied up and threatened before he was rescued days later by the U.S. Navy.
The others: Staying too long on the bridge as the pirates shot their way aboard and not dropping a "man overboard" boat occupied by the pirates off the side of the ship when he had the chance.
Phillips, 55, who lives in Underhill, Vt., was hailed as a hero after crew members and Phillips' family said he volunteered himself as a hostage to get the hijackers off the ship.
In interviews since his release, he has said he was already a hostage and was trying to send the pirates off in a lifeboat when they went back on their word. The move landed him in the boat, starting a hellish captivity that worsened after an aborted escape attempt in which he tried to swim to freedom, only to be fired on in the water before returning to the boat.
(Excerpt) Read more at today.msnbc.msn.com ...
I still don’t get why the world’s navies just shoo pirates away instead declaring open season on them.
“Don’t make deals with pirates”
New tag line.
Colonel, USAFR
Because the rules that govern the high seas basically ties the hands of Western nations.
Don’t make deals with “moderate, pro-life” dhimmiecrats either. Same-same.
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