Pirates continually threatened Phillips

Further details provided by Commander Castellano of the destroyer Bainbridge to the AP give a fuller sense of how harrowing Captain Phillips’s situation was. Imagine being a prisoner for five days and being repeatedly told by your captors that they are going to kill you. And then, as the situation keeps deteriorating and your death by murder seems imminent, instead of them killing you, they are all shot dead in a single instant and you are freed. One thing that amazed me was the photo of Phillips standing with Castellano shortly after the rescue—his eyes bright, his face full and healthy looking. How did he look so good after having undergone such an ordeal, consisting of spending five days tied up in a small closed boat, with poor food, little sleep, no sanitation, and in the delightful company of four increasingly unhinged teenaged Muslim African thugs constantly threatening his life? I guess being delivered from the jaws of death will do that to you. Or, more likely, Phillips has a tremendous spirit that is unquelled by anything.

Cmdr.: Pirates threatened hostage captain
By Adam Schreck—The Associated Press
Apr 14, 2009

MANAMA, Bahrain—The skipper of the guided missile destroyer Bainbridge said Tuesday that pirates repeatedly threatened to kill the American sea captain they held captive off the coast of Somalia before his rescue this week.

Cmdr. Frank Castellano told the Associated Press that the pirates who held Capt. Richard Phillips hostage aboard a life boat for five days indicated multiple times they were prepared to kill him.

“I can tell you throughout the entire event there were threats against his life,” Castellano said. “There had been times of rising tension where they had verbally said it was their intention to kill him.”

He added that it seemed “to be inevitable that that was their intention.”

During the standoff, relations with the hostage-takers rose and fell as negotiators tried to bring a peaceful end to the ordeal, Castellano said. He described the showdown as a “roller coaster ride” with signs of progress that were then followed by “steps backward.”

By the fifth day, Castellano said the pirates seemed agitated after what little sleep they probably had aboard the life boat and as weather conditions deteriorated.

“They were very uncomfortable,” he said. “There was imminent danger to Capt. Richard Phillips’ life due to that tension out there.”

U.S. special forces on the warship ended the standoff Sunday with three well placed, nighttime shots that killed the three pirates in the lifeboat after one of the captors could be seen holding his assault rifle toward Phillips.

- end of initial entry -

April 16

Graye writes from Great Britain:

Cmdr Castellano may be unprepossessing, although I think that a lot of women will disagree, but don’t forget that Audie Murphy was just 1.65 m short with a babyface.

LA replies:

Yes, I’ve duly taken some heat for that remark (in the entry with the photo of Phillips and Castellano). I accept the criticism.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at April 16, 2009 12:08 AM | Send