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Covering the fate of Richard Phillips, master of the Maersk Line's Alabama, continues to be assigned to the network's Pentagon correspondents. Phillips is held hostage by four Somali pirates in his ship's lifeboat on the high seas of the Indian Ocean under the watchful eye of the USNavy destroyer Bainbridge. The Pentagon hands each recounted an overnight drama of a foiled escape attempt. The captain freed himself, dived into the ocean and tried to swim to safety, only to be dragged back.
Given that none of the correspondents was an eyewitness, they each rendered the escapade in vivid detail. NBC's Jim Miklaszewski called it "daring" as the hostage "jumped from the rear hatch…almost immediately one of the pirates fired one or more shots from an AK-47 at or near Phillips." ABC's Martha Raddatz told us that one of the pirates "jumped into the water and dragged the captain back to the boat." CBS' David Martin said that "sailors aboard the Bainbridge were close enough to see the whole thing but not to help."
That drama aside, NBC's Miklaszewski showed us that the lifeboat "is more like a capsule than a boat. It can be closed up watertight making an armed rescue mission almost impossible." ABC's Raddatz pointed to a pair of "pirate mother ships, previously hijacked vessels" heading for the scene. A trio of USNavy warships has been ordered to "stop the lifeboat from linking up with the pirate mother ships but that will not be easy. The navy vessels do not maneuver quickly." CBS' Martin commented that the United States "is the musclebound superpower. It has overwhelming military force but is unable to use it against a handful of pirates."
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