HIJACKED CREW ANALYSIS

I received the following forwarded e mail from a friend. It answers some of my questions regarding the recent hijacking attempt and its successful outcome.

This very "matter of fact" letter from the First Engineer aboard the
Maersk Alabama was written during the pirate incident. It was forwarded
as a lessons learned event.

These abbreviations may help... he is writing to a fellow Engineer
aboard another Maersk Sister Vessel

EDG= Emergency Diesel Generator
3/M= Third Mate
AB= Able bodied Seamen
ECR= Engine Control room
C/M= Chief Mate
ER= Engine Room
MOB= Man Overboard Boat

Sent: Friday, April 10, 2009 1:58 PM
To: Maersk Arkansas - 1st Engineer
Subject: from Matt Fisher
Hey Greg
Everyone on here is okay. We're on our way to Mombasa with Navy
Protection on board. Captain Phillips is still hostage in the lifeboat
with the 4 pirates. I hear they're flying out reliefs for everyone, but
I'm not sure what all's going to happen once we get to Mombasa.
Supposedly the FBI is coming out to investigate the crime. Maybe we'll
be on the next CSI Somalia. I wanted to let you know some of the lessons
we learned so you guys can better prepare yourselves for something
similar.
The only guys actually captured by the pirates were on the bridge: Capt,
3/M,and 2 AB's. I don't really know why they stayed on the bridge until
the pirates got up there. Then they had keys to everything and were able
to unlock everyone's rooms. The pirates got up to the bridge very
quickly once they were onboard. We had a locked cage door over the
ladder well from main deck, but it only took a second for them to shoot
it off. They then got to the bridge up the outside ladders. By that time
we had taken control of the engine and steering down below. Mike stayed
in the ECR and the C/M was out on deck tracking the pirates' movement.
We kept swinging the rudder side to side.
The pirates' boat capsized, though I'm not sure exactly when or what
caused it. After about 20 minutes the engine was killed, I don't know by
whom. At that point I shut off the air bottles and Mike killed power. He
was also able to get outside and trip the fuel shutoff for the EDG. I
think this was critical. The pirates were very reluctant to go into the
dark. We will be looking at a way to shut off the EDG from the ECR in
the future. All the crew had been mustered and secured in the steering
gear. Our Pirates didn't have any grenades, so they would have never
been able to break in there. The previous day we had welded a pad-eye on
the inside of the hatch to the fantail so it was secured from the
inside. The only problem with the steering gear was the heat and the
shortage of water. In the future we will store food and water in various
spots for emergency usage. I think we will also run a fresh water line
into the steering gear. We were able to make a run from the steering
gear to the E/R water fountain and fill up some empty oil sample bottles
we had back there. The C/M was also able to get some fruit and sodas
from the galley and drop them down the line standpipe.
The pirates sent the 3/M unescorted to go look for crewmembers, so he
was able to get away. One of the pirates then went with an AB down to
the E/R to look for people. Mike was able to jump him in the dark and we
took him prisoner in the steering gear. No one else came down into the
E/R.
As the day went on the pirates became desperate to get out of there.
Their boat was sunk, and they couldn't get our ship moving. The Captain
talked them into taking the MOB boat. The three remaining pirates went
down in the MOB boat with Phillips. We were then able to negotiate with
them over the radio. We dropped some food, water and diesel to them. We
started getting the plant back on line. Unfortunately, the MOB boat
wouldn't start. A couple of guys got in the lifeboat and dropped it.
They motored over and traded the lifeboat for the MOB boat. We were
supposed to exchange their guy for the Captain, but they ended up
keeping him. They motored off in the lifeboat.
They had no way of getting back aboard, so we followed them. The Navy
showed up a few hours later. We stayed close by for some time, but then
the Navy asked us to head out. I heard that several other pirate vessels
were heading our way and the Navy wanted us out of the way. That's about
it. I'll give you all the details some other time. Just to reiterate the
most important
points:

1. Have a well fortified location with food and water supply.
2. Kill all the lights.
3. Leave the alarms going, the noise helped cover our movements through
the house.
4. Flashlights and radios are very handy, as well as the sound-powered
phone.
Anyway, it was a pretty stressful situation. I have to say I am
impressed with how the entire crew responded. We didn't have anybody whowanted to give up. I'm pretty confident that Phillips will end up ok.
They have to know that if they kill him they'll be done.
I assume the company will be forced into taking some kind of action to
assure our security from now on.Hope everything is going well there. I'll talk to you later.
Matt
Very interesting stuff. It tends to support my prior submissions.