Richard Phillips and Stephen Talty. A Captain’s Duty. Harper, 2010.

Richard Phillips captained the Maersk Alabama, the American flag container ship hijacked by Somali pirates ten years ago. This is his story. It is a good one that, thankfully, had a happy ending—well. except for the pirates.

Phillips was truly able to do what the title suggests, his captain’s duty. He willingly gave himself up for the safety of his cargo and crew. Unlike traditional pirates of bygone eras, the pirates operating out of the Horn of Africa and the Arabian Peninsula are not interested in looting. They take ships and crewmen or passengers as hostages for ransom. Some shipping companies have forked over millions of dollars at a time. The four heavily armed pirates that climbed aboard the Maersk Alabama thought they had hit the jackpot: a ship owned by rich Americans. They could get millions!

Phillips tells how his pirate drills actually worked. Most of his crew were never discovered by the pirates. He willingly surrendered to the hijackers as a hostage to let his ship go. He was taken by the four intruders onto one of the Maersk Alabama‘s lifeboats, trussed up for most of five days while the U. S. Navy tracked him and eventually freed him.

The lifeboats on this modern merchant ship are not like the open rowboats of the Titanic movie. They are covered power boats capable of rolling over and righting themselves. Much of the time Captain Phillips could very little outside because he was tied up in a sheltered space on the lifeboat. And the Indian Ocean near the Equator in April is very hot.

Phillips’ strategy ultimately worked. He was uncomfortable and could not move most of the time. He was occasionally struck in anger but never tortured. The raiders wanted to keep him alive for the ransom. Experience had shown that when the ransom was paid, hostages and ships were freed. Their plan was to get the hundred miles or so back to Somalia and disappear until the ransom was paid and the prisoner released.

For Phillips the most difficult part of the captivity was the way the leader of the pirate band tried to convince Phillips that he worked for the U. S. Navy and this was part of a training exercise. At times Phillips half believed him. The pirate leader seemed to know the Somali translator the Navy was using to speak to him, and he even carried a U. S. Navy pistol.

A Captain’s Duty also tells about how Mrs. Phillips, his family, and his neighbors coped. He lives in rural Vermont, not far from Mt. Mansfield, the highest peak in the state. (Coincidentally in the same town where the crime in The Double Bind takes place.) For a week, though, the house was surrounded by the media. One well-known reporter acted surprised when Mrs. Phillips told him all the reporters were a nuisance. Imagine that!

We also read a little of the Phillips family’s faith. They had rediscovered their Catholic faith a few years before. Now both Captain and Mrs. Phillips knew that many people were praying for them. It is no coincidence that Captain Phillips was released on Easter morning—Resurrection Day!

We learn the positive part that President Obama played in this drama. After all, he was trying to withdraw American troops and influence out of the Middle East. It became clear, too, that the Navy and especially the SEALs knew what they were doing. Somali pirates have learned to steer clear of American vessels.

Although the ships, lifeboats, and methods of the pirates were different from the days of Blackbeard and Captain Kidd, one thing about the lives of pirates noted in Matthew West’s The Pirates has remained the same. Their careers were were short and usually ended in death.