Captain acted heroically during hijacking, crew members say

Crew members of a U.S. container ship whose captain is being held hostage by Somalian pirates are crediting him with saving their lives.

The 19 U.S. sailors who escaped the pirate hijacking off the Horn of Africa reached harbour on Saturday in Mombasa, Kenya. 

One member of the crew, who identified himself as ATM Reza, said the pirates boarded the ship at the stern using hooks and ropes and were firing into the air when they got on board.

Crew members said the captain, Richard Phillips, told his crew to lock themselves in a cabin and surrendered himself to safeguard his men.

"He saved our lives!" said second mate Ken Quinn. "He's a hero."

Phillips is still being held hostage in an enclosed lifeboat by four pirates.

Crew members also praised Reza for leading one of the pirates to the engine room, where he stabbed him in the hand with an ice pick and tied him up.

While they didn't go into detail on Saturday, crew members have told family members they eventually released the pirate.

Quinn told reporters the experience was "terrifying and exciting at the same time." Asked what he thought of the pirates who seized the boat, Quinn said: "They're just hungry."

The crew is being interviewed by FBI investigators. The U.S.-flagged Maersk Alabama was en route to Mombasa with a cargo of food aid and 20 American crew members when it was attacked Wednesday in the Indian Ocean, 560 kilometres off Somalia.

Somalian pirates boarded and briefly took control of the ship. The unarmed crew thwarted the hijackers and the pirates fled to a lifeboat with Phillips, 53, as a hostage.

In a bid to escape, Phillips jumped off the lifeboat Friday and began swimming, said unidentified U.S. Defence Department officials.

One of the pirates then fired an automatic weapon, the officials said, although it was not clear whether shots were fired at Phillips or into the air. He returned to the lifeboat.

Three U.S. warships are nearby, monitoring the situation, but their presence has not acted as a deterrent to other pirates, who on Saturday seized a U.S.-owned and Italian-flagged tugboat with 16 crew members in the Gulf of Aden.

Shona Lowe, a spokeswoman at NATO's Northwood Maritime Command Centre in Britain, said the tugboat was hijacked as it was towing two barges.

She said 10 of the 16 crew were Italian nationals, adding that the Italian government and the company that owned the vessel were trying to secure their release.

FBI agents from New York, meanwhile, were investigating how the hijacking of the Maersk Alamba unfolded, according to two officials who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The involvement of the FBI raises the possibility of U.S. federal charges against the pirates if they are captured.