This weekend, the world witnessed a dramatic rescue of a captain who was being held by Somali pirates. The article I'm citing from is entitled, "
Three shots brought down pirates who took Maersk Alabama captain hostage."
The three Somali pirates thought the American warship was doing them a favour when it offered to tow the drifting lifeboat in which they were holding captain Richard Phillips after it ran out of fuel.
The USS Bainbridge fed out a 200-foot line but as the seas grew more choppy the American sailors hauled the rope in and brought the lifeboat much closer. Sitting in the wake of the US warship's broad beam riding on the tiny craft would have been a lot less rough.
But it also brought pirates within range of three snipers perched on the Bainbridge's stern and made the Somalis more stable targets. When the order came, it took just one shot each from the three sharpshooters to end the five-day stand off and rescue Phillips after he was seized from an American-registered container ship, the Maersk Alabama.
Vice admiral William Gortney, commander of the US fifth fleet, told reporters that US navy special forces were dropped by parachute in to the sea at night close to the Bainbridge and brought on board under cover of dark after President Obama authorised the use of force to free Phillips if his life was in danger.
Gortney said that one of the pirates was seen to be pointing a weapon at the captain's back and the snipers "took it that the pirate was ready to use that weapon". He said that when all three pirates where in their sights "with their heads and shoulders exposed" - two of them emerging from the covered lifeboat while the third could be seen through a window guarding the bound hostage - the sharpshooters opened fire simultaneously hitting each of the pirates in the head.
The navy special forces then hauled themselves along the tow rope to the lifeboat to rescue Phillips.
The Bainbridge would have been relatively stable but the lifeboat was still moving around, and the snipers fired in darkness using night sights. Gortney said that the sharpshooters were able to pick off their targets with a single shot because they were "extremely, extremely well-trained".
The pirates had accepted the US warship's invitation to take a tow as their situation grew increasingly desperate after the Americans refused to discuss paying a $2m ransom for Phillips. The lifeboat ran out of fuel and was adrift in the searing heat. The pirates said they would drop the demand for money and release the US captain in return for their own freedom. The Americans refused that too.
One US official told the Associated Press that negotiations for Phillips release had been "going up and down".
"Discussions would be going well, and then they would get discouraged and real angry," the official said.
The Somalis used a satellite phone to appeal for other pirates to use one of 17 other captured ships to come and rescue them but the presence of the US warship apparently scared them off. Phillips's captors were on their own.
As it was getting dark on Sunday, one of the pirates fired a tracer bullet toward the US warship. Then one of the pirates was seen holding his Kalashnikov so close to Phillips that it appeared to be touching him. The order to kill the pirates was given.
A fourth pirate, believed to be in his late teens, had surrendered earlier by jumping in to a small craft delivering food to the lifeboat.
The rest of the crew of the Maersk Alabama, now docked in Mombassa, cheered the news of their captain's release and called him a hero who had saved their lives after offering himself as a hostage to the pirates in order to get them off the ship.
One crew member, Shane Murphy, told reporters: "We are lucky to be out of it with every one of us alive."
I'm sure there's going to be a movie made about this story. Strangely, it's kind of nice to focus on a story other than the economy. I'll have more posts later this week because talking about pirates is awesome.
