A Captain's Duty

networks. They were her only lifeline to what was happening thousands of miles away. No special arrangementshad been made to keep her or the other families informed of unfolding events.
    One thing did help her through that first day, she told me later. I never say good-bye when I leave for a job. I hate hellos and good-byes and want to hear only what Andrea calls “the plain living part” in between. So I always say, “I’ll see you later” or “I’ll be back.” One of the two.
    That helped sustain Andrea. “He told me, ‘I’ll be back,’” she kept telling herself. “And I believe him.”
    She went to bed having no idea what awaited her in the next few days.
     
    I pulled up forward on the port side where the pilot ladder was. Four or five crew members were standing at the top of the ladder. I could see them through one of the lifeboat’s windows. The visibility was much more constricted than on the open MOB—you had to duck and weave to get a view of what you wanted through the foot-long windows.
    “Okay, we’re ready for the exchange,” I said to Shane. “Look, make sure you start the Leader going down as we pull up. I don’t want these guys hopping up on the ladder and retaking the ship. Got it?”
    “Roger,” said Shane.
    “I’m coming in with the lifeboat,” I said. I saw two crew men escorting the Leader along the deck. He had a white rag around his hand.
    “Let him come down and when I get a chance I’ll come back up,” I said. We came alongside, bumped up along the Maersk Alabama . The end of the ladder was about four feet above thecanopy of the lifeboat. I saw him descending and then he jumped the last bit and I felt the lifeboat rock.
    “Pirate aboard,” I radioed. The Leader came back to me. His hand was obviously hurting him, but he seemed to be in good spirits.
    I was grinning, too. I’d done my duty as a captain. Now all I had to do was save myself. If I saw a chance, I could take it. The oldest instinct—survival—kicked in.
    “Show me how to run the boat,” the Leader said.
    I did. I killed the engine and restarted it a couple of times. I showed him how to steer it, start it, where the compass was. He had a course he wanted to steer—340 degrees—and I showed him how to do that. Then I stepped down and let him up into the con—that is, the conning station, which is elevated above the rows of seats. He took the wheel and turned it away from the Maersk Alabama and pushed the speed up.
    “What about the deal?” I said, shocked.
    “No deal,” the Leader said.
    My mistake number three: Don’t make deals with pirates. We should have never made the exchange.
    I wasn’t surprised by the double-cross. I still felt I was ahead of the game. I’d solved three of my four problems: my crew, ship, and cargo were safe. And I was depending on my luck and my tenacity to save myself.
    The Somalis pushed me toward the front end of the boat. I spotted the hatch up there and I thought of trying to bust out through it and jump overboard. But it was a horizontal hatch door. I’d have had to pull myself up four feet and then dive into the water. I would probably have had a few slugs from one of the AK-47s in my back by then, so I abandoned the idea.
    “We’re taking off,” I said into the radio. “No exchange.”
    The Leader was getting the hang of steering, sweeping one way and then the other. Once he got a feel for it, he set off in a straight line. Next stop, Somalia, I thought. I knew that’s where the pirates would take me. That was their MO. That’s where they would negotiate the price for my head. That’s where their backers and their reinforcements were.
    It was getting close to dusk. In the tropics, the twilight is extended because you’re so close to the equator. And the moon was nearly full. We could still see the Maersk Alabama not too far away. Its running lights were lit and smoke was pumping from its stack, a wake churning behind it.
    The pirates looked back in amazement as if to say, Wow, the ship’s running. Imagine that. There it was, the ship that was broken beyond repair, working perfectly. There was the missing crew running back and forth doing their jobs. The pirates were incredulous.
    I was just about to key the radio and tell the ship to watch out for other pirate boats when I heard Mike on it, saying, “Make sure no other small boats are coming at us from astern.” I nodded. I knew the ship was in good hands.
    I was damned glad to see they