A US skipper held on a lifeboat by Somali pirates dived into the sea yesterday in a dramatic break for freedom before being hauled back onboard, US networks said, as his captors demanded a ransom.
Richard Phillips jumped into the water during the night and tried to swim toward a nearby US destroyer, the USS Bainbridge, but the pirates jumped into the water and recaptured him, three television networks reported.
The escape bid came as the pirates said they were demanding an unspecified amount of money for the skipper’s release and warned against using force to secure his freedom.
US military officials told CNN that Phillips was fine and that the pirates did not hurt him.
Phillips has been held hostage on the lifeboat since Wednesday when the gang of four pirates hijacked the Maersk Alabama aid ship. Although the pirates were later overpowered by the unarmed American crew, they were able to separate Phillips and bundle him into a lifeboat.
The US navy has already encircled the lifeboat and more US ships, including some from a counter-piracy task force out of Bahrain, are on the way to join the Bainbridge, which arrived on Thursday, defense officials said.
The Bainbridge, accompanied by a P-3 Orion surveillance plane, was preventing the pirates from moving their hostage to a larger ship.
“The safe return of the captain is the top priority,” US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates told reporters in Washington.
The commander of the pirates vowed that Phillips would remain a captive until a ransom was stumped up for his release.
“We are demanding to get ransom and to return home safely before releasing the captain,” Abdi Garad said by telephone from Eyl, the pirates’ lair in largely lawless Somalia.
Garad also said their men were negotiating with the US navy “not to be arrested if they release the captain and the American officials will hopefully fulfill that condition, otherwise the captain will not be released.”
With six hijackings in the space of four days, Somalia’s pirates have dashed any hope that an increasing naval presence in the region could significantly dent a scourge that is disrupting one of the world’s busiest maritime trade routes.
Since the start of the year, piracy watchdogs had recorded a slump in the number of attacks and their success rate compared to last year, during which pirates attacked close to 150 ships and harvested a bumper crop of ransom money.
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