Somali pirates attacked the Maersk Alabama on Wednesday for the second time in seven months, though private guards on board the U.S.-flagged ship repelled the attack with gunfire and a high-decibel noise device.

A U.S. surveillance plane was monitoring the cargo ship as it steamed on to its destination.

Pirates hijacked the Maersk Alabama last April and took ship captain
Richard Phillips hostage, holding him at gunpoint in a lifeboat for
five days. Navy SEAL sharpshooters freed Phillips while killing three
pirates in a daring nighttime attack.

Somali pirates attacked the ship with automatic weapons early Wednesday
about 350 nautical miles east of the Somali coast, but guards on board
the craft fired back and thwarted the attempted hijacking.

Cmdr. John Harbour, a spokesman for the EU Naval Force, called it “pure
chance” that the Maersk Alabama had been targeted a second time.

“It’s not the first vessel to have been attacked twice, and it’s a
chance that every single ship takes as it passes through the area,”
Harbour said. “At least this time they had a vessel protection
detachment on board who were able to repel the attack.”

An EU patrol aircraft from the Horn of Africa nation Djibouti was
called in to investigate, and the closest EU Naval Force vessel was
tasked with searching for the pirate attack group, the EU Naval Force
said in a statement.

Phillips’ ordeal last spring galvanized the attention of the U.S.
public to the dangers of operating merchant ships in the Horn of
Africa, one of the busiest and most precarious sea lanes in the world.

Pirates have greatly increased their attacks in recent weeks after
seasonal rains subsided. On Monday, a self-proclaimed pirate said that
Somali hijackers had been paid $3.3 million for the release of 36 crew
members from a Spanish vessel held for more than six weeks — a clear
demonstration of how lucrative the trade can be for impoverished
Somalis.

Phillips told The Associated Press last month from his farmhouse in
Vermont that he was contemplating retiring from sea life after his
ordeal. He’s been given a book deal and a movie could be in the works.

Source: Associated Press

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