US Captain in Unsuccessful Escape Attempt From Pirates

The American ship captain held by pirates on a lifeboat off Somalia tried to escape by jumping into the sea and swimming toward a U.S. warship, but was quickly recaptured, U.S. media reported Friday.

Citing defense sources, CBS, ABC and CNN said Captain Richard Phillips, who is being held on a lifeboat adrift in the Indian Ocean, jumped overboard, but did not get far.

He was captured by the armed pirates and pulled back into the lifeboat, within view of a U.S. warship, they reported.

CNN said that U.S. officials believe Phillips was unhurt in the escape attempt.

Four pirates have been holding Phillips since a foiled bid to hijack his container ship, the 17,000-tonne Maersk Alabama, several hundred miles off Somalia.

Phillips apparently volunteered to get in the lifeboat with the pirates to act as a hostage and secure the safety of his 20 American crew members, who managed to retake control of their ship.

The freighter, which is carrying food aid for Uganda and Somalia, is now on its way to Kenya, its original destination.

The USS Bainbridge is close to the lifeboat and has called on the FBI and other U.S. officials to help negotiate with the pirates.

CNN said two more U.S. warships were on their way to join the destroyer.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Navy prepared on Friday to increase pressure on Somali pirates to give up an American ship captain.

The standoff was sparked when four gunmen briefly hijacked the 17,000-ton Maersk Alabama freighter on Wednesday in waters that are a busy shipping zone for oil tankers and other commercial vessels but infested with pirates.

The USS Bainbridge, a naval destroyer, was patrolling the area while FBI and other U.S. officials attempted to negotiate with the pirates and persuade them to surrender the freighter's captain.

Phillips apparently volunteered to get in the lifeboat with the pirates, acting as a hostage for the Alabama's 20 American crew members, who retook control of the ship after a confrontation 300 miles (500 km) off the coast of Somalia.

U.S. military officials said more forces were on the way and that all options were on the table to save the captain, a former Boston taxi driver who is now the first U.S. citizen seized by Somali pirates.

"We're definitely sending more ships down to the area," a defense official told Reuters. He said one of the ships would be the USS Halyburton, a guided missile frigate that has two helicopters on board.

The attack on the Alabama could lead to a new phase in the international struggle against piracy in the region, galvanizing political support in the United States for a more active U.S. security presence on crucial trade routes off Africa's coasts.

FBI Fully Engaged

An upsurge in piracy has disrupted shipping in the strategic Gulf of Aden and busy Indian Ocean waterways, delayed delivery of food aid for drought-hit East Africa, increased insurance costs and made some firms send cargoes around South Africa instead of through the Suez Canal, a critical route for the oil trade.

Heavily armed sea gangs hijacked dozens of vessels last year, including a Saudi supertanker with $100 million of oil and a Ukrainian ship with 33 tanks. The Saudi and Ukrainian ships fetched about $3 million each.

Pirates hold 18 vessels with a total of 267 hostages, many of them from the Philippines, according to the Kenya-based East African Seafarers' Assistance Program.

"Piracy may be a centuries-old crime, but we are working to bring an appropriate, 21st century response," U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Thursday, adding that "a number of assets" were being used to resolve the Alabama situation.

The FBI said it had been called in to assist, and its negotiators were fully engaged in resolving what Attorney General Eric Holder called the first act of piracy against a U.S. vessel "in hundreds of years".

In the face of the growing U.S. response, the four pirates appear to have realized that they may have overplayed their hand.

Reached by Reuters via satellite phone, they sounded desperate. "We are surrounded by warships and don't have time to talk," one said. "Please pray for us."

The Maersk Alabama was sailing from Djibouti to Mombasa with a cargo of food aid for Somalia and Uganda when it was attacked.  In a statement the Danish-owned freighter's operator, Maersk Line, said the ship had since left the area for Kenya. It said latest communications indicated the captain was unharmed.

In Somalia's Haradheere port, an associate of the pirates said they were armed and ready to defend themselves.

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"Our friends are still holding the captain, but they cannot move, they are afraid of the warships," he said. "We want a ransom and, of course, the captain is our shield. The warships might not destroy the boat as long as he is on board."

Analysts said Somali pirates would not be eliminated or even deterred until there was a political solution in Somalia, which has endured chaos since its central government collapsed about two decades ago.  The country, located in the Horn of Africa, is often described as a failed
state.

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