Navy warship arrives where captain held off Somalia

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Navy warship arrives where captain held off Somalia

1 hour, 3 minutes ago

By Wallis and JoAnne

NAIROBI/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. Navy warship arrived on Thursday off the

Somali coast, where the captain of a U.S.-flagged freighter has been taken

hostage by pirates, the shipping line said.

The ship was briefly hijacked by pirates on Wednesday but the crew of 20

Americans had retaken control of the vessel and were trying to negotiate their

captain's release, second mate Ken Quinn told CNN. The captain was being held on

a lifeboat.

The Danish-owned freighter's operator, Maersk Line Ltd, said the U.S. Navy

destroyer Bainbridge arrived on the scene before dawn on Thursday. Spokesman

B.J. Talley said the company was in touch with its ship and was also talking

with the Navy.

Talley declined comment on what action, if any, the Navy might take.

CNN reported the lifeboat where the captain was being held was very near the

Maersk Alabama. The Alabama crew can see the Navy destroyer and has been in

contact with the Navy, CNN said. A U.S. defense official in Washington would say

only that there were U.S. assets in the area.

Maersk earlier confirmed that the U.S. crew had regained control of the

17,000-tonne Maersk Alabama after the pirates left the ship with one hostage.

The seizure was the latest in an escalation in pirate attacks off the lawless

Horn of Africa country of Somalia.

A spokesman for the company said no injuries had been reported for the rest of

the crew left aboard.

" We are just trying to offer them whatever we can, food, but it is not working

too good, " Quinn told CNN of efforts to secure the freedom of the captain. He

said the four pirates were holding the captain hostage on the ship's lifeboat.

Maritime officials said the Maersk Alabama was carrying food aid for Somalia and

Uganda from Djibouti to Mombasa, a Kenyan port, when it was seized far out in

the Indian Ocean.

" We can confirm that our crew has control of the ship. The pirates have departed

the ship and they have taken one crew member with them as a hostage, " the Maersk

Line spokesman said, but could not confirm whether the hostage was the captain.

The ship seizure, about 300 miles off Somalia, was the first time Somali pirates

have seized U.S. citizens.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said she was very worried by the

hijacking and called for world action to end the " scourge " of piracy.

" We are deeply concerned and we are following it very closely, " Clinton told

reporters in Washington.

" Specifically, we are now focused on this particular act of piracy and the

seizure of the ship that carries 21 American citizens. More generally, we think

the world must come together to end the scourge of piracy. "

CREW TIE UP PIRATE

Second mate Quinn said the four pirates sank their own boat when they boarded

the container ship. However, the captain talked them into getting off the

freighter and into the ship's lifeboat with him.

The crew then overpowered one of the pirates and sought to exchange him for the

captain, Quinn told CNN.

" We kept him for 12 hours. We tied him up, " Quinn said. The crew released their

captive to the other pirates, but the exchange did not work and the captain was

still being held by the pirates on the lifeboat, he told CNN.

" They are not aboard. We are controlling " the ship, he said.

Maersk Line president and chief executive Reinhart told reporters he had

received a cell phone call from the crew at about 11 a.m. EDT (1500 GMT) saying

they were all safe.

He said company protocol advised the U.S. sailors not to attempt to retake the

ship once hijackers were on board.

" Once boarded, the crew has safe rooms and they are not to take on active

engagement because they have no weapons. It would be a risk to their lives, "

Reinhart said.

Maersk Line is a Norfolk, Virginia-based subsidiary of Denmark's A.P.

Moller-Maersk, the world's biggest container shipper.

Among the ship's cargo were 400 containers of food aid, including 232 containers

belonging to the U.N.'s World Food Program that were destined for Somalia and

Uganda.

U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Kerry said a thorough

policy debate on piracy off Somalia is long overdue.

" I plan to hold hearings to further examine the growing threat of piracy and all

the policy options that need to be on the table before the next fire drill

becomes an international incident with big implications, " Kerry said in a

statement.

The seizure was the latest in a wave of pirate attacks. Gunmen from Somalia

seized a British-owned ship on Monday after hijacking another three vessels over

the weekend.

In the first three months of 2009 just eight ships were hijacked in the

strategic Gulf of Aden, which links Asia, the Indian Ocean and the Red Sea to

Europe via the Suez Canal.

Last year, heavily armed Somali pirates hijacked dozens of vessels, took

hundreds of sailors hostage -- often for weeks -- and extracted millions of

dollars in ransoms.

Foreign navies sent warships to the area in response and reduced the number of

successful attacks.

The Seafarers International Union, which has 12 members aboard, said the Maersk

Alabama was enrolled in the U.S. Maritime Security Program (MSP), a fleet of

militarily useful, privately owned vessels.

(Additional reporting by McAllister, Boadle, Jim Wolf, JoAnne

and Sue Pleming in Washington and Rasmus nsen in Copenhagen; Writing

by Wallis and Boadle; editing by Todd Eastham)