Pirate Standoff

The Somalian pirate story is taking a new turn with a standoff between the U.S. Navy and the lifeboat where the pirates are holding the captain of the Maersk Alabama hostage.  Apparent the pirates are sending reinforcements in the shape of previously hijacked ships complete with hostages aboard.  A U.S. Navy ship is on seen, apparently leading negotiations.  According to the New York times, the captain has already tried to escape from his captors:

Am unidentified Pentagon official was quoted by CNN on Friday as saying that at about midnight local time, Capt. Phillips escaped from the lifeboat and tried to swim to the Bainbridge [the U.S. Navy Destroyer on scene], but that the pirates jumped into the sea after him and recaptured him. It was not immediately possible to confirm this report.

I'm on a Boat

One of the most interesting bits of news today was on the hijacking and re-hijacking of the Maersk Alabama, a U.S. flagged cargo ship off the coast of Somalia.  If I was a small-town conservative politician, I'd use this as an example of the superiority of the can-do American spirit and the fact that any American can kick any Somalian pirate's ass.  Although the situation is not clear as of yet, I think that we can take a couple of lessons from this.

Apparently the crew had the presence of mind to disable the ship as soon as the pirates boarded, not allowing them to board.  And then somehow, despite the captain being held hostage, the unarmed crew managed to take the ship back under control.  That's kind of badass in a Diehard kind of way.  Maybe they should film the next one on a boat.

I'm amazed at the kind of mental agility that it took to make the hard decisions and the courage on retaking the ship.  With so much news about bad sutff happening to people, its nice to know that sometimes you can fight back.