Petting the Somali Pirates -- Pt 3

It is in the events that followed the pirates gaining access to the deck of the Maersk Alabama that the mystery of that hijack attempt really deepens.

All news accounts say the same thing, and that is very brief, and so far little that sounds really plausible is known, especially when compared to how things have gone in the numerous other Somali ship jackings.

 It looks as if the pirates took control of the Maersk, though only for a short and unrevealed length of time.  That repulsion after they had actually gamed the deck with their weapons is unprecedented.

  At some point and in some unknown way the crew members, supposedly unarmed, supposedly fought off the heavily armed attackers, and the pirates all ended up in a small boat back down on the water, though not before they were able to bring the ship's captain with them, and all his supporters say he volunteered to be their hostage, "to save the lives of his men." 

That is all of what's been reported of the events aboard the Maersk Alabama, and it may be boorish to raise questions about it, in a country that lately has had a definite shortage of legitimate heroes, and there's a whole town in Vermont, and maybe the entire state, too, that has gone positively delirious with exclamations of pride in the captain..   Still, can I say it?  Can I ask it?

Exactly how did the commandeering of the Maersk go down?   And did the captain really need to make such a bargain with the devil and devils?

 After five days that information, safely in the hands of the Navy and the FBI, is still being kept closely under wraps, like all "Top Secret" flipdoodle, and instead  yesterday we were told that the  hijackers were on a second ship that they had already grabbed, and they happened to notice  the Maersk chugging along nearby, and four of them decided to nab that one, too, while they were at it.  So they jumped into a dinghy belonging to the  ship that they had already taken, and off they sped, and that is supposed to account for the small number of only four attackers, and the sense that it was all done on an impulse.  So maybe in the case of the Maersk the Somalis didn't have their thing as together as usual.   ...Maybe.   But still....

Okay.   They find themselves aboard a large ship without at all knowing what is there, except they can see the big containers.  They might not have known that those containers contained a large amount of food meant for some highly needy fellow Africans further south, though, if they did divine that, it is quite likely that that would not have mattered one iota to them.  All that mattered was the big juicy ransom that they could feel now, palpitating warmly in their hands, like a heart freshly extracted with an Aztec obsidian blade.

This new quarry has an entirely American crew, with all that that implies in that part of the world.  But for a while they don't know that.  The crew has 21 men, but how would they discover that?  Couldn't some of those men be elsewhere on that large boat, and already looking for big wrenches to take to the reckoning?   Unless they all delivered themselves up in a body to be iron-assed by a mere four scruffy Somalis even with firepower.  That's doubtful, but it is what the poll-parrot news accounts would have us believe.

So the 20 equally scruffy and naturally salty American swabbies are nevertheless all rounded up and lined up  (you have to forgive me --  I was in the Air Force on a troopship a couple of times), to take orders under threat of being shot.   But the captain rises to the occasion and in so doing becomes an instant hero.

To save his men ,,,though from what?   From execution, or from being under captivity on their own ship for days, weeks, or months, as has happened so often to many crews of many nationalities, the biggest number of those so inconvenienced being Filippinos, who then survived despite having to eat a lot of goat meat. 

  To "save his crew" the captain volunteers to be a hostage, and he is escorted down into presumably one of his own lifeboats, though what boat he and his abductors are in is not clear.   Is it the dinghy from the first commandeered ship, or  did it belong to the Maersk?  It was reported that after boarding the Maersk the hijackers for some unknown and unfathomable reason destroyed the small boat they came in, and then, having no lack of what my mother used to call "cheek,"  they cranked being recompensed for that into their early demands for payment, though nothing has been said about that lately.

So the captain is now down on the water in a lifeboat with his captors -- a covered lifeboat and so not at all like the one in the classic movie of that name that starred William Bendix and Tallulah Bankhead.  But how many of the captain's  captors accompanied him at first, and exactly how was that worked out?   Because early on we also were told, variously, that the crew meanwhile overpowered the hijackers, or that they overpowered just one and then tried to trade him for the captain, and not having seen enough other movies about such scenarios, they bungled the exchange, that left the pirates in a lifeboat instead of on the big, juicy ship though still with all four of their guys, while the Maersk ended up without their all-important leader.  But if the crew smacked their boarders so thoroughly, how was it that all four pirates ended up safely in the lifeboat while being none the worse for the wear and with a big prize, theship's  captain, well in hand.  And a little later, and true to form -- because it is the money first, last, and always in their eyes, and furthermore it's their money that they earned fair and square and which is now unfairly being withheld from them - the pirates, who on the face of it would appear to be sitting out on the end of a thin, watery limb, nevetheless see themselves as still in total command of things, and they are demanding a big ransom. 

  I was certain that they would put the amount they were owed at 3 million dollars.   That seemed to be the going price that their cohorts had earlier received for the really big prizes, namely the Ukrainian freighter with the 30 huge battle tanks aboard and the Saudi supertanker that was carrying 100 million dollars worth of crude oil.  Surely a bonafide American ship's captain, though only one man and not a ship at all, was worth the same, especially because he was sure to be seen in his boundlessly weatlthy home as a true hero.  But they asked for only 2 million, along with, of course, a definite way to get back to shore safely  with their loot, because not long ago, as they were headed back from a ransom payment scene with bags of fresh, new money, the boat of some of their colleagues capsized because of too swift a turn or something, and four or five of them drowned before they could get back to Eyl or wherever to joyfully spread around even a nickel or a dime.  And besides, they have good reason to fear that their lives aren't worth a plugged nickel until they finally do melt into the trees beyond the surf, without having their victim along..

I know that very few Americans are taking this whole incident seriously.  Still, especially aboard a destroyer where there must be some Marines with their dumb haircuts,  there are still a number of red-blooded male Americans who have roused themselves from the normal muddle of their lives  to be cooking up all sorts of scenarios in which they can see themselves kicking serious Somali butt.   Even I, while far from being your typical normal, gun-loving, red-blooded American hood,  have entertained a thought or two along such lines.

Meanwhile we can be sure that the kidnappers of the captain also want the Americans to say that they are sorry for putting the pirates through this.  But so far that has not yet been reported..

I would also like to ask what happened to the old principle that a captain never abandons his ship.   That dictum is hundreds of years old, and I thought it was still in effect, just as it's also good practice never to get out of your car should some sort of disagreement with somebody come up out in the streets -- unless you're dealing with police.   And I am sure that in the lifeboat, which, though long out of fuel, is drifting closer and closer to the forbidden shore till now it is only 20 or 30 miles from the pirate's nests, the captain, replete with all the accolades of heroism with which he has been adorned, presents a much bigger problem to the political calculus than would have been presented by a scruffy crew detained on a stationary ship.

Now,  several other things have happened, though they don't materially change the basic equation. 

One is that the captain,  apparently after making  calculations of his chances that were obviously on the same level as his appraisal of the best thing to do when he was confronted on his ship by four gun-toting Somali strangers, jumped into the sea despite the sharks and tried to swim for the American destroyer, despite the fact that, as usual, it was in sight but not at a very feasible swimming proximity, especially when your abductors were likely to shoot, besides being younger, stronger, and probably with much more practice at doing the Australian crawl.  And so  the Somalis jumped in and quickly pulled him back in, along with plenty of lectures about his ingratitude..

Another thing that happened, and much more to the point, is that meanwhile French commandos, at the order of their President Sarkozy, jumped hijackers of a sailboat with six or seven people aboard, who had been on an adventure,as carefree French people are prone to do, and they had gaily headed out from nearly Djibouti, bound for Kenya, which meant passing right by Somalia.  .(I know about Djibouti, from my long ago stamp-collecting days.   They made a lot of large, beautfil stamps, many more than you would've thought would've been needed to mail stuff from an obviously offbeat and small place that would be named something weird like "Djibouti.")  

 The French, who have taken the international lead in doing something about the pirates, and who had previously rescued two of their ships and clapped a number of the pirates into jail, their own jail, lost patience after negotiatitions in which they had seemed to be even over generous toward the hijackers, and finally they had to act in accordance with Sarkozy's decree that no French abductees are to be allowed to be taken ashore, and the sailboat was steadily drifting closer, after the French had already shot out its mast..   

In the ensuing rescue attempt, the French killed two of the hijackers and grabbed three more, while saving all the abductees -- except the captain of  the sailboat, who  got in the way of the bullets and was killed.  

Since the French had repeatedly warned him about taking that jaunt and bringing others along, including a small child, it's doubtful that the mourning in Paris will be heavy.

And also in these four or five days  another vessel has been hijacked, a tug pulling two barges through the Gulf of Aden, and it is even an American-owned boat though with a mostly Italian crew.

Concerning the Maersk, there are only two ways this thing can turn out,  and neither can escape leaving a very bad taste..   Yet I don't see how having the FBI along can help the Navy or the Obama administration with that.  But I suppose the FBI is coming in handy to grill the 19 Maersk crewmen and to make sure they all get their stories straight about what happened aboard the Maersk before being allowed to talk to anyone off the ship.  Also the Navy figured they needed someone to share the blame when either of the only two ways it can be resolved has transpired.

Either the Somalis will get back to Puntland safely with or without "their" two mil, or the captain, soon followed by his four friends, will meet an unfortunate end.

The first likelihood will fly strongly in the face of the attitude that the U.S. has long said it holds toward terrorim, which ship hijackings surely are, while the second will result in bad P.R. and heavy grief for  a family and friends in Vermont and for others in Somalia.