A Captains Duty

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

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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. Navy SEALs opened fire and picked off three of the captors. 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.

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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.

Richard Phillips was ready. Captain Richard Phillips knew the pirates were dangerous. And yet, it was originally just another day on the job for the fifty-three-year old captain of the Maersk Alabama, the United States-flagged cargo ship that was carrying food and other agricultural materials for the World Food Program. But they didn't expect the sailors to fight back nor did they plan for Captain Phillips to end up as a hostage in the stead of his ship and crew, and ultimately, they didn't bargain on the tough-as-nails everyman they took on board their tiny craft.

After the tense five-day stand-off--including mock executions, deadly heat, and an escalating battle of wills--ended in a daring high-seas rescue, Captain Phillips said, "It never ends like this. A Captain's Story tells the dramatic life-and-death tale of the Vermont native who, in April of , was held captive on a tiny lifeboat off Somalia's anarchic, gun-plagued shores.

It was just another day on the job for Phillips, captain of the "Maersk Alabama. Thomas, and the occasional tourist up from Manhattan. It's as different from the ocean as the other side of the moon is, and I love that. It's like I get to live two completely different lives. As a merchant mariner, I often work three months on and three months off. When I come home, I forget about the sea. I'm percent into being a dad and husband. When our kids, Dan and Mariah, were young, from the moment they got up to the minute they went to bed, I'd take care of them.

Neighbors and friends would ask me to babysit, so I'd have five or six kids in tow. French toast by candlelight, my specialty.

What Is a Captain's Duty in the Army?

I'd do Rich's Homework Club. I'd take the kids on class trips.

Whatever I do, work or home life, I do with everything I have. When I leave my family, it's for a long time. You need to do something special for them before you ship out, because it might be the last time you see them. When he was growing up, my son, Dan, would goad me, "Oh, I don't have a dad. Guess he doesn't love me.

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But what he said about my never being there would come back to haunt me. Because there's a kernel of truth there. My daughter, Mariah, and Dan would see me every day for three months and then I would be gone to some far-flung corner of the world.

It didn't matter to them that there were other merchant mariners who stayed onboard even longer than I did, that I knew one guy, a radio operator, who was aboard one ship for two years straight. As a sailor, you have to put your real life on your kitchen shelf and pick up your merchant marine life. Because on the job, you barely have a personal life.

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You're on call twenty-four hours a day to do whatever the ship needs. You eat and sleep and work and that's pretty much it. It's like you've died and gone to sea. Then you come back and take your real life off the shelf and start living it again.

You develop rituals to get through the transition from land to sea. Sailors have a phrase, "crossing the bar," which means leaving harbor for the unknown on the oceans it also can refer to the death of a sailor , and you have to get yourself mentally prepared to go across.

Book Review: A Captain’s Duty: Somali Pirates, Navy SEALs, and Dangerous Days at Sea

It's a stressful time when fears start creeping into the minds of your loved ones. It was probably the dangers of my job that were on Andrea's mind that cold March -- pirates, rogue waves, desperate people in third-world ports. All the while, I'd be thinking like a captain, running through a checklist with a thousand things on it: What repairs do I need to see to? Are the guys on my crew dependable?

I used to start doing this a month before I left, which would drive Andrea around the bend.

Now, after thirty years at sea, I wait until I hit the deck of my ship. Andrea and I have a tradition when I'm getting ready to leave. About nothing at all. In the weeks leading up to my leaving, Andrea and I always have arguments about little things, about the car or the weather or her hitting her head on the old ship's bell that hangs near the clothesline in our backyard.

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