MAHE, Seychelles, Nov. 7, 2005
Passengers Describe Pirate Attack
One Man On Attacked Liner Thought He 'Was Seeing Things'
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Play CBS Video Video Witness Details Pirate Attack Pirates armed with grenades and assault rifles attacked a luxury cruise ship off the eastern coast of Africa. Many American passengers were aboard and Julie Chen spoke to one who witnessed the attack.
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Video Pirates Attack Cruise Ship Off the coast of Africa, a Miami-based cruise ship was attacked by violent pirates armed with rocket grenades. But the captain knew what to do, Bob Schieffer reports.
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One of the pirates' boats (Sky News/N.Fisher)
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Fast Facts Somalia Learn about the people, economy and history.
Passengers described their horror as pirates in speedboats chased their luxury cruise liner at sea, firing rocket-propelled grenades and assault rifles — with smiles visible on faces otherwise hidden by ski masks.
"I was scared. I was very scared," said Jean Noll of Florida. But her husband said the experience was not likely to deter them from enjoying another cruise. "We cruise all the time," Clyde Noll said.
The Seabourn Spirit had been bound for Mombasa, Kenya, when it was attacked by pirates armed with grenade launchers and machine guns on Saturday about 100 miles off Somalia's lawless coast. The ship escaped by shifting to high speed and changing course.
The gunmen never got close enough to board the cruise ship, but one member of the 161-person crew was injured by shrapnel, according to the Miami-based Seabourn Cruise Line, a subsidiary of Carnival Corp.
After docking at the Seychelles, passengers boarded two buses for a tour of two of the resort islands, and reporters were kept away. Most passengers were to continue from the Seychelles to Singapore, company officials said, although some who planned to tour Mombasa were to fly there Tuesday aboard a chartered plane.
Relieved vacationers praised the ship's captain for foiling the attack that lasted for more than 90 minutes, during which pirates fired their weapons on the bridge and elsewhere in an effort to cripple the vessel.
Some passengers were lucky to escape with their lives, said Charles Forsdick, from Durban, South Africa.
A woman survived an explosion in her stateroom because she was taking a bath at the time. Others flung themselves to the floor to avoid bullets that were zipping through the ship, Forsdick told Associated Press Television News.
Retired physician and World War II veteran Charles Supple, of Fiddletown, Calif., recalled by phone on The Early Show Monday that, "I grabbed my binoculars, thinking I was seeing things" out his stateroom window. "All this time, you're hearing the bullets hit the ship and wondering what in the world is going on."
He told
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