"Pirates Again Target Maersk Alabama" - Armed Guard Shots ScareThem Away

Oh, I doubt they knew which ship they were going after, but Pirates Again Target Maersk Alabama:

The Maersk Alabama was targeted again by suspected Somali pirates today, a U.S. official told ABC News.

Maersk Alabama

This is at least the third time pirates have targeted the Alabama, including the famous attack involving Capt. Richard Philips in the spring of 2009.

The official said that four suspected pirates approached the ship in a skiff, and a hook ladder could be seen in the boat. When the skiff came within half a nautical mile, the ship's captain authorized warning shots to be fired.

The pirates continued to approach, and the captain ordered aimed shots, which convinced the skiff to turn around and sail away.

Those shots likely were fired by contracted security on board, something that was added to the Alabama after the 2009 attack.

ABC News suggests that this NATO Update specifies the area of the attack:

March 8, 2011
Latitude: 07 33 S Longitude: 048 48 E
Alert number 115/2011
At 1345 UTC / 08 MAR 11 / a Pirate Attack Group consisting of 1 white skiff with 4 POB with hooks and ladder was reported in position 07 33 S 048 48 E.
The Pirate Attack Group is still in the area

Somali Pirates : Maersk Alabama Attacked, Fights Back

Reported here:

On the early morning of 18 November 2009, 350 nautical miles east from the Somali coast, pirates attacked MV Maersk Alabama, a US flagged, Danish owned, 155 meter long, Container ship.

Pirates fired automatic weapons on MV Maersk Alabama who responded with fire from an embarked Vessel Protection Detachment. The crew managed to repel the attack and no casualties were reported. The vessel was previously hijacked in April 2009.

An EU NAVFOR Maritime Patrol Aircraft from Djibouti was tasked to investigate the situation and the closest EU NAVFOR naval vessel was tasked to search for the pirate attack group and neutralise the area.

UPDATE: Fixed the photo to represent the right ship. Thanks for the anonymous note calling the error to my attention.

Somali Pirates: "The Ship was never taken"

Some highlights from the testimony of Maersk Alabama Captain Phillips here:

"One solution is not going to solve this problem," Capt. Richard Phillips told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. "Nevertheless, I do believe that arming the crew, as part of an overall strategy, could provide an effective deterrent under certain circumstances."
***
Senators agreed with Phillips that private security or senior crewmembers need to be armed to thwart attackers.

"We have an inherent right to self-defense in international waters," said Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va.

Lawmakers basked in the captain's reflected glory.

Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., called Phillips "an inspiration" and said it was "great to be in someone's presence who is so esteemed."

Committee chairman John Kerry, D-Mass., said he was "thrilled" to meet Phillips, who traded in his blue work shirt and ball cap for a gray suit, baby blue button-down shirt and blue tie for the occasion. But when Kerry mentioned the reaction of average people when they heard that "an American ship got taken," Phillips jumped in.

"If I could interrupt the senator," he said, "the ship was never taken." The hearing room broke out in applause.

The Maersk chairman sounded a rational note (rare in DC) by discussing the adaptive pirates:

Phillips said ships need to do more to deter pirates from getting aboard vessels. But he rejected as impractical Kerry's suggestion that razor or electrified wire be draped on ship railings and noted that although the Alabama had fire hoses, which can be used to repel attackers, the pirates "went where the fire hoses weren't."

The pirates, he said, "are evolving, and we must stay with the curve and evolve with them."

Senator Kerry highlighted the difference between himself and a sea captain in this exchange:

Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry, D-Mass., asked Phillips whether he was going to return to sea in the dangerous region off the Horn of Africa. Phillips said he would.

Curious, Kerry asked whether that was OK with Phillips' wife. Behind the captain, Andrea Phillips nodded.

"She's a good wife. She supports whatever I" decide, Phillips answered.

Kerry's eyebrows went up.

"I couldn't get away with that," he noted, referring to his outspoken wife, Teresa Heinz Kerry.

A spine is what Capt Phillips has . . .