Pirates hold U.S. ship captain

NAIROBI, Kenya - In a riveting high-seas drama, an unarmed crew wrested control of their U.S.-flagged cargo ship from Somali pirates Wednesday and sent them fleeing to a lifeboat with the captain as hostage.

A U.S. warship and at least six others were speeding toward the ship as crew members negotiated with the pirates for the return of the captain.

Details of the day's events emerged sporadically as members of the American crew were reached by satellite phone, providing a glimpse of the maneuvering.

A sailor who spoke to The Associated Press said the entire 20-member crew had been taken hostage but managed to seize one pirate and then successfully negotiate their own release. The man did not identify himself during the brief conversation.

The crisis played out hundreds of miles off the coast of Somalia - one of the most lawless nations on Earth. President Obama was following the situation closely, foreign policy adviser Denis McDonough said.

The Maersk Alabama was the sixth vessel seized by Somalis pirates in a week. Pirates have staged 66 attacks since January, and they are still holding 14 ships and 260 crew members as hostages, according to the International Maritime Bureau, a watchdog group based in Kuala Lumpur.

Somalia's 1,900-mile long coastline borders one of the world's busiest shipping lanes and offers a perfect haven to the heavily armed pirate gangs. They often dress in military fatigues and use GPS systems and satellite phones to coordinate attacks from small, fast speedboats resupplied by a larger "mother ship."

The pirates usually use rocket propelled grenades, anti-tank rocket launchers and automatic weapons to capture large, slow-moving vessels like the U.S.-flagged 17,000-ton Maersk Alabama, which was carrying food aid for Uganda and Somalia.

According to reports from the crew, the pirates sank their boat when they boarded the ship and the captain talked them into getting off the vessel using one of its lifeboats. The crew held one of the pirates hostage for 12 hours. They returned him in an attempted swap for the captain, but the pirates reneged on the deal.

Maersk Line Limited CEO John F. Reinhart said his company received a call that indicated the crewmen were safe. But the call got cut off, and the company could not ask any more questions.

It remained unclear how the unarmed sailors could have overpowered pirates armed with automatic weapons.

ROUGH WATERS

The International Maritime Bureau says 260 crew on 14 hijacked ships are being held off the coast of Somalia. Those ships include:

► Bulk carrier African Sanderling and its 21 Filipino crewmen, seized in October.

► Turkish tanker Karagol, seized in November carrying 4,500 tons of chemicals and 14 Turkish personnel.

► Liberian-flagged MV Biscaglia, seized late November with 30 crew on board.

► Greek-owned MV Saldanha and 22 crew members, seized in February.

► Panama-registered, Greek-owned Nipayia, with 18 crewmen, seized in March.

► St.-Vincent flagged, Greek-owned cargo ship Titan, with 24 crewmen, seized in March.

► Bahamian-registered, Norwegian-owned Bow Asir, with 27 crewmen, also seized in March.

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