A Captain's Duty

were under way. We were still in bandit country, and there was nothing to prevent another pirate team from appearing out of nowhere and taking the Maersk Alabama . If the ship was dead in the water, the crew would have no chance.
    The ship turned its bow toward us, and the smiles disappeared from the Somalis’ faces. The Maersk Alabama was coming at us fast, and from that angle it looked like the Queen Mary . I wasn’t worried. I knew if the ship rammed us, the life-boat would just punch under the water’s surface and then bounce back up. I didn’t inform the Somalis of this amazing feature of the modern lifeboat, however.
    “That chief mate is going to run us over,” the Leader said.
    “Damn right,” I said. “He wants my job. He’s been after it ever since we left Salalah.”
    Musso had his gun on me and his eyes went wide.
    “You get up here!” the Leader shouted and jumped down from the con.
    “All right,” I said.
    “Tell them to stop getting close to us,” the Leader said. “Tell them to let us back onboard.”
    I got into the cockpit and we moved around the Maersk Alabama . It would cut across our bow, and then swing around and do it again. I held the wheel for thirty minutes, and finally the Maersk Alabama went dead slow in the water and lay off about a hundred yards.
    Night fell.
     
    The pirates got on the radio and were talking back and forth with Shane.
    “Hey, we’ll come on back tomorrow,” they said.
    “Oh sure, we’ll start afresh,” Shane said. “It was just a misunderstanding.”
    “Yes, you let us on,” the Leader said.
    “Definitely,” Shane joked. “Come back in the morning, we have food and water for you.”
    Strange, really, but everyone was relieved at how things had turned out.
    The only thing that was bothering the pirates was the sky. The Somalis were sitting on the stern of the lifeboat, scanning the night sky, looking for planes and helicopters. They still had in the backs of their minds, I thought, the idea that people were coming for me. The sky was so clear you could even see satellites passing overhead. And we did spot two planes—a big one and then a smaller one that flew over and came back and circled.
    The pirates seemed to be expecting a plane to come to my rescue. They didn’t like that idea. They kept squatting down and listening for the buzz of a plane’s engine. It was like they thought the air force was going to start dropping bombs on us or drop a magical ladder and rescue me.
    I keyed the radio. “Four pirates, two by the stern hatch, one at the cockpit, one at forward hatch. Two AKs at stern hatch, one pistol at cockpit.”
    I heard Shane roger that. I continued: “I’m going to be coming out the rear door. If you see a splash back there, it’s me. Bring the ship to the splash and I’ll come to the other side of your ship.” If I escaped—and that was a big if—I wanted to get the Maersk Alabama between me and the lifeboat.
    The Somalis installed me in the third seat, port side. It gave me a good view of the cockpit and the rest of the ship and I wanted to stay there. And I wanted to stay in one place, so any allies that pulled up on the scene would know exactly where I was located. Friendly fire will kill you just as dead as enemy fire. I keyed the radio and let my crew know what seat I was in.
    The pirates closed both hatches. I guess they feared frog-men coming up and climbing down into the boat. That’s whenthe heat began: unbearable, unrelenting saunalike heat just permeated the entire vessel. It was pure hell.
    I probably nodded off a couple of times. I came to at around 2 a.m., Thursday morning. I looked out and saw one of the most beautiful sights I’ve ever seen in my life: an American navy ship steaming toward us at thirty knots, bright lights shining from the deck, sirens wailing and loudspeaker blaring. The spotlight was so intense it lit up the inside of the lifeboat like it was a movie set.
    “Shut off the light, shut off the light,” the Leader was screaming into the radio. “No action, no military action.”
    My countrymen had arrived. I felt my spirits lift.
     
    On Wednesday, the media was reporting that the pirates had taken me onto a lifeboat. Andrea said, My God, how did that happen?
    The news channels had by this point reached my second mate on the Maersk Alabama, who told them, “They have one of our crew members. I have to go! I’m steering the boat!” Then he hung up. The second mate wasn’t steering