How the US crew fought off Somali pirates

The "only redneck on board," John, who lives in Lake Helen, Fla., got his first seafaring job nearly five decades ago aboard a Polaris submarine. Gray-haired and, of late, slightly potbellied, he's a proud owner of 87 acres of lakeside Alabama country and is a drawly, drawn-out storyteller in the southern tradition. It was his first hijacking, and before he set off on the Alabama he'd barely heard of Somalia, never mind Somali pirates.

It was suffocating inside the engine room – 130 degrees, he estimated. John tried to fan himself with a scrap of cardboard, but that just exhausted him more. And he had no idea how long they'd have to stay down there.

Capturing one pirate

Two hours went by, and there was a shot heard above. One of the pirates had pressed an AK-47 rifle into the forehead of the chief engineer, a short, wiry Indian-American named A.T.M. Reza, and then squeezed off a round about an inch from Reza's ear.

The pirates spoke just enough English to make their intentions known. "Tell us where they are or I'll kill you," one said to Reza.

Reza agreed to lead one of the teenage pirates below deck. But before they reached the engine room, another crewmember stepped out from behind them and jumped onto the pirate. Reza stabbed the Somali's skinny hand with an ice pick and they hauled him into the engine room.

The pirate was pushed to the floor. A boot was jammed into his neck. The Somali gasped for breath and seemed to pass out. Someone jerked him up from the floor and he coughed back into consciousness.

"If any of our crew gets killed, I'd have killed him," John said of the pirate. "I wanted my pound of flesh." But Reza reminded them that the pirate could be a bargaining chip.

Many more hours passed. John unbuttoned his shirt to his navel in a futile attempt to get some air. He glanced over from time to time at the pirate, who was tied up and now lying very still.

"I thought, at least he's more uncomfortable than me," he said.

A pirate for a captain

They'd spent 12 hours down there when, finally, they were summoned to the deck. Phillips had offered himself up as a hostage in exchange for the captured pirate and climbed into one of the Alabama's 28-foot lifeboats, now bobbing alongside the ship. True to character, he was yelling at his crew to fill the boat with water and fuel so he could come back aboard.

"What the hell took you so long to get here?" Phillips shouted.

The deal was that the crew would lower the injured pirate into the lifeboat in a harness, and Phillips would climb aboard. But the pirate surprised the crew by jumping into the lifeboat. "Let's go!" he said, and the pirates shoved off with Phillips in custody.

It would be five days before they would hear from him again. On Monday, the morning after Phillips' rescue, first mate Shane Murphy said the crew had "an extremely emotional" phone conversation with Phillips.

"Everyone you see here today has captain Phillips to thank for their lives and their freedom," Murphy said.

There were other heroes, of course. Take Reza, the middle-aged father who stabbed the pirate's hand. That wound eventually became infected, forcing the pirate to ask US sailors to board the USS Bainbridge for medical care Sunday, hours before the Navy assault killed his three comrades.

The young man remains in military custody and could face charges in the United States – the only pirate alive to tell their side of this story.

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