A Captain's Duty: Somali Pirates, Navy Seals, and Dangerous Days at Sea »

Captain Richard Phillips grew up in Underhill, Vermont, with seven brothers and sisters. He married Andrea Coggio, an emergency room nurse, in 1988, and together they have two children. Phillips is a 1979 graduate of the Massachusetts Maritime Academy.

"I share the country's admiration for the bravery of Captain Phillips
and his selfless concern for his crew.
His courage is a model for all Americans."
—President Barack Obama

It was just another day on the job for fifty-three-year-old Richard Phillips, captain of the Maersk Alabama, the United States-flagged cargo ship which was carrying, among other things, food and agricultural materials for the World Food Program. That all changed when armed Somali pirates boarded the ship. The pirates didn't expect the crew to fight back, nor did they expect Captain Phillips to offer himself as hostage in exchange for the safety of his crew. Thus began the tense five-day stand-off, which ended in a daring high-seas rescue when U.S. Navy SEALs opened fire and picked off three of the captors.

"It never ends like this," Captain Phillips said.

And he's right.

A Captain's Duty tells the life-and-death drama of the Vermont native who was held captive on a tiny lifeboat off Somalia's anarchic, gun-plagued shores. A story of adventure and courage, it provides the intimate details of this high-seas hostage-taking—the unbearable heat, the death threats, the mock executions, and the escape attempt. When the pirates boarded his ship, Captain Phillips put his experience into action, doing everything he could to safeguard his crew. And when he was held captive by the pirates, he marshaled all his resources to ensure his own survival, withstanding intense physical hardship and an escalating battle of wills with the pirates. This was it: the moment where training meets instinct and where character is everything. Richard Phillips wasready.

Publishers Weekly

Starred Review.

In this fascinating, suspenseful first person account of his capture by Somali pirates, which dominated news media for five days in April 2009, captain Phillips brings the growing pirate threat (up 20 percent in 2009's first quarter) to life. An experienced Merchant Marine, Phillips was recently made captain of the cargo vessel Maersk Alabama, and, like all captains, was weary of the threat from pirates: "since 2005... captains had been going out fifty, then one hundred... then six hundred miles" to avoid the Somali coast. His feeling that "if pirates got onboard, it was all over" proves unfortunately correct; it took the armed criminals just five minutes to board the ship and take the bridge. Phillips has a sailor's penchant for the dramatic, which he puts to good use alternating between his own five-day ordeal-replete with Navy SEALs and a daring escape attempt-and the plight of his family in Vermont, watching the drama unfold on cable news. Despite his harrowing experience, Phillips stays afloat with steadfast faith and an unfailing sense of humor that are, ultimately, rewarded. Phillips's story is not just riveting and timely, but also an informative, heartening look at perhaps the least-celebrated branch of the U.S. military, the Merchant Marines.
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Contents

Acknowledgments....................ix
Introduction....................1
ONE -10 Days....................9
TWO -8 Days....................29
THREE -7 Days....................47
FOUR -6 Days....................63
FIVE -3 Days....................74
SIX -2 Days....................84
SEVEN -1 Day....................98
EIGHT Day 1, 0600 Hours....................105
NINE Day 1, 0735 Hours....................115
TEN Day 1, 0900 Hours....................127
ELEVEN Day 1, 1100 Hours....................146
TWELVE Day 1, 1530 Hours....................160
THIRTEEN Day 1, 1900 Hours....................167
FOURTEEN Day 3, 0200 Hours....................199
FIFTEEN Day 3, 1800 Hours....................217
SIXTEEN Day 3, 1900 Hours....................231
SEVENTEEN Day 5, 0300 Hours....................252
EIGHTEEN Day 5, 1945 Hours....................267
NINETEEN....................277