captain richard phillips
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Web Edition 17 October 2013
Captain Richard Phillips Defended Against Frivolous Lawsuit
On April 8, 2009, the Maersk Alabama was hijacked by Somali pirates. Richard Phillips, the ship's
master, wrote a book in 2010 named “A Captain’s Duty: Somali Pirates, Navy SEALs, and Dangerous
Days at Sea.”
One of the ship's stewards, Richard Hicks, was one of the first to file a lawsuit against Waterman
Steamship Corporation and Maersk Line Ltd for knowingly sending him into pirate-infested waters.
Since then, eleven members of the crew have joined in filing the multi-million dollar lawsuit against
the ship’s owner claiming Phillips’ actions had put them in harms’ way.
The blockbuster movie “Captain Phillips” starring Tom Hanks was released on October 11th. It has
created a buzz about the U.S. Merchant Marine, U.S. food aid and, of course, about the crew's
lawsuit. While a few articles mention the lawsuit in passing, the worst was written by Maureen
Callahan for the New York Post (see below). Callahan claims Phillips is a fraud and calls him out
about the facts, but she only uses anonymous quotes from people supposedly not able to speak
because they are involved with the lawsuit. Callahan is the worst kind of sensational journalist.
In the above interview, noted Admiralty Attorney and Author, Dr. Capt. John A.C. Cartner provides a
critical analysis of the basis for claim against Maersk, questioning the motives of the attorney
representing the suing crew members, who has stated the attack was the fault of Maersk Alabama
Captain Richard Phillips. (Phillips is not named in the lawsuit)
Crew members: ‘Captain Phillips’ is one big lie
By Maureen Callahan
New York Port, October 13, 2013 | 3:34am
"Captain Phillips" star Tom Hanks with Capt. Richard Phillips
Photo: AP Photo/StarPix, Dave Allocca
It’s made for Hollywood: the story of an average American family man, captain of a cargo ship in
dangerous waters, his vessel overtaken by armed Somali pirates demanding ransom, saving his crew
by allowing himself to be removed from the boat and taken hostage.
All of this is the basis for “Captain Phillips,” starring Tom Hanks as the titular, real-life hero. The only
problem, say some members of the real Capt. Phillips’ crew, is none of it is true.
Capt. Richard Phillips, they say, is no hero, and the film is one big lie.
The Maersk Alabama leaving the Port of Mombasa, Kenya in 2009
Photo: AP Photo/Sayyid Azim
“Phillips wasn’t the big leader like he is in the movie,” says one crew member, who, for legal
reasons, spoke with The Post anonymously. He worked very closely with Phillips on the Maersk
Alabama and was alarmed by his behavior from the beginning. Phillips, he says, had a bad
reputation for at least 12 years prior, known as a sullen and self-righteous captain.
“No one wants to sail with him,” he says.
After the hijacking, 11 crew members have sued Maersk Line and the Waterman Steamship Corp.
for almost $50 million, alleging “willful, wanton and conscious disregard for their safety.” Phillips is a
witness for the defense.
“The crew had begged Captain Phillips not to go so close to the Somali coast,” said Deborah Waters,
the attorney who brought the claim. “He told them he wouldn’t let pirates scare him or force him to
sail away from the coast.”
‘REAL ARROGANT’
Phillips had taken command of the Maerskin late March 2009. Left for him, says the crew member,
was a detailed anti-piracy plan now used by all ships per the International Maritime Organization.
Should pirates get too close, the crew should cut the lights and power and lock themselves below
deck.
“He didn’t want anything to do with it, because it wasn’t his plan,” says the crew member. “He was
real arrogant.” Phillips says he knows nothing about such a plan.
Over this three-week period, 16 container ships in the same region had been attacked by pirates,
and eight had been taken hostage.
As the film opens, Hanks, as Phillips, is seen assiduously tending to safety protocols. “Let’s tighten
up security!” he orders. “I want everything closed, locked, even in port.”
Phillips has admitted that, on board, he got seven e-mails about increased piracy off Somalia —
each exhorting ships to move farther offshore by at least 600 miles.
The Maersk was 235 miles off the coast, says the crew member, though Phillips has since rounded
that number up to 300.
“I couldn’t tell you exactly the miles,” Phillips tells The Post. “I don’t know.”
In 2010, Phillips told CNN the Maersk was 300 miles off shore; published reports from that time had
the ship at 240.
Phillips ignored every missive and later admitted he didn’t share these warnings — though they were
not sent exclusively to him.
Meanwhile, another crew member was tasked with keeping track of every ship in the region that
had been attacked. Using the e-mails, a chart was built. On it were the names of each ship, the
dates and times they were assaulted, their latitude and longitude, the ransom demanded.
When presented with this data, a crew member says, Phillips ignored it, too. In the film, Hanks tells
his crew — depicted as lazy coffee guzzlers who fall back on the security of their union-protected
employment — that their job is to get the cargo ship from Point A to Point B in the shortest,
cheapest time possible.
In fact, says this crew member, the Maersk veered off course by 180 degrees south — this was
during the first attack, on April 8. Phillips denies this, and says the boat only picked up speed.
“We had two pirate attacks over 18 hours,” says this crew member, not just the one shown in the
film.
The crew didn’t know whom to fear more: the pirates or Phillips.
According to this crew member, during the first attack, as two pirate boats came into view, clearly
chasing them, Phillips was putting the crew through a fire drill. In the film, it’s a security drill.
“We said, ‘You want us to knock it off and go to our pirate stations?’ ” the crew member recalls.
“And he goes, ‘Oh, no, no, no — you’ve got to do the lifeboats drill.’ This is how screwed up he is.
These are drills we need to do once a year. Two boats with pirates and he doesn’t give a s- -t. That’s
the kind of guy he is.”
At first, Phillips maintains this is a lie. “No,” he says. “The mate called up and said, ‘Do you want to
stop the drill?’ They [the boats] were seven miles away. There was nothing we could do. We didn’t
know the exact situation.”
But is it true that he ordered the entire drill completed anyway?
“Correct,” Phillips says.
“Yeah, seven miles. What’s the dif?” the crew member says. “I saw them, and they were closer than
that.”
The Maersk eventually made a narrow escape, and Phillips ordered it back to its original route.
One of the crew mutinied — he refused to do it, instead going below deck, sleeping with his boots
on and his flashlight by his side, waiting for the inevitable.
At 3 a.m., the pirates radioed the boat to stop; Phillips had left the stern light on and the bridge
open. At 7 a.m., came the third and final attack: Four armed Somali pirates stormed the Maersk.
The crew was on their own. “Phillips didn’t say what he wanted to do,” says the crew member. “His
plan [was], when the pirates come aboard, we throw our hands in the air and say, ‘Oh, the pirates
are here!’ The chief engineer said, ‘We’re going downstairs and locking ourselves in.’ One of the
mates said, ‘Let’s go down. We’re on our own.’ ”
They hid in the engine room, in 130 degree heat, for 12 hours. Phillips and three other crew
members were held at gunpoint, yet Phillips tells The Post things weren’t that dire. “The ship,” he
says, “was never actually taken.”
DEATH WISH
Chief Engineer Mike Perry, who has a small presence in the film, was perhaps the most heroic. He
led most of the crew downstairs and locked them in; he disabled all systems; he attacked the chief
pirate, seizing him and using him as a bargaining chip for Phillips.
Most of this is accurately depicted in the movie — until, Perry has said, the moment of exchange,
when the Maersk crew tries to swap the pirate for Phillips.
“We vowed we were going to take it to our graves, that we weren’t going to say anything,” Perry
told CNN in 2010. “Then we hear this p.r. stuff about him giving himself up . . . and the whole crew’s
like, ‘What?’ ”
“If you’re gonna shoot somebody, shoot me!” Hanks pleads in the film.
It didn’t go down like that, say several crew members: The pirates just reneged on the deal,
grabbing their guy and making off with Phillips in a Maersk lifeboat.
While the remaining crew waited for the Navy to reach them, they sat and wondered: What just
happened?
Four days later, Phillips was rescued by SEAL Team Six. He was hailed as an American hero. He met
with President Obama in the Oval Office and wrote a memoir.
For some of the crew, it was too much. In their version, Phillips was the victim of a botched
exchange. In 2009, he told ABC News he was taken after promising to show the pirates how to
operate their escape boat. His book was packaged as the story of a man who gave himself up for his
crew, which Phillips later said was a false narrative spread by the media. Today he tells The Post, “I
was already a hostage,” but remains vague on the exchange.
Perry and third engineer John Cronan went to CNN, speaking of Phillips’ recklessness, claiming he
endangered all their lives.
Perry said he and other crew believed Phillips had a perverse desire to be taken hostage. “That’s
what many of us officers were saying to ourselves,” he said.
The crew member, who is not part of the suit, agrees Phillips had a death wish: “Yeah,” he says.
“Because he went through that area, and the company is sending him e-mails, and I know he saw
that chart [of prior attacks] 50 times.”
“It is galling for them to see Captain Phillips set up as a hero,” Waters said. “It is just horrendous,
and they’re angry.”
In the run-up to Friday’s release of “Captain Phillips,” Hanks has appeared on the cover of Parade
magazine with Phillips and the headline “The Making of an American Hero.” The film won the
opening-night slot at the New York Film Festival on Sept. 28 and opened the London Film Festival
last Wednesday. It has won raves, all of which note the film is based on real events. The two men
have walked the red carpet together.
Not all of the crew cooperated with the movie, and those who did were paid as little as $5,000 for
their life rights by Sony and made to sign nondisclosure agreements — meaning they can never
speak publicly about what really happened on that ship.
It’s the film’s version of events — and Hanks’ version of Phillips — that will be immortalized.
“They told us they would change some stuff,” says the crew member, laughing. By the end of
Friday, opening day, he had seen the film. “It’s a good movie,” he says dryly. “Real entertaining.”
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