Negotiations Between Navy, Pirates Go On
Defense Department officials have confirmed to CBS News that they believe a U.S. ship's captain, held hostage by pirates off the coast of Somalia, is still alive.
CBS News correspondent Kimberly Dozier reports that negotiations between the Navy and the pirates for Phillips' release are continuing, and that they "can confirm proof-of-life indications from yesterday."
Two U.S. warships are still keeping watch on the lifeboat and another one is on the way.
Despite the intensified attention on the area, other bandits have not been deterred from committing more crimes; pirates captured another boat yesterday with 16 crewmembers on board, none of them from the U.S., said CBS News correspondent Tara Mergener.
The high seas drama began Wednesday after Somali pirates tried to hijack the Maersk Alabama, a 17,000-ton U.S.-flagged cargo ship. Failing in their attempt, they took Captain Richard Phillips hostage on a drifting lifeboat.
Days later, the pirates are not backing down. Yesterday they fired at a small Navy vessel that approached the lifeboat. No one was hurt.
Meanwhile, the remaining 19 crewmembers of the Maersk Alabama are now safe after the shipped pulled into port in Mombasa, Kenya last night.
Some crewmembers spoke to reporters just after docking. One unidentified crew member said he'd had no sleep in four days.
Captain Phillips surrendered to the pirates to keep his crew safe. They're calling him a hero.
"We appreciate his courage and know he will survive because he will never give up," said Capt. Joseph Murphy, whose son in on the Maersk Alabama.
Recalling their ordeal, the crew told reporters that one of the pirates was taken to the engine room, where a crew member stabbed him in the hand with an ice pick and tied him up. Other sailors corroborated that story.
"We take hostage, their leader guy, the leader of them. He don't look like leader, small guy, very skinny," said one identified crew member. "When they take him he was very scared."
They returned him in the unfulfilled hope the captain would be released.
Instead, the Somalis fled with Phillips to the lifeboat.
The U.S. Navy has assumed that the pirates would try to get the lifeboat to shore, even though the vessel apparently has no fuel and is drifting.
The FBI is treating the ship as a crime scene … the crew won't be able to leave until they're questioned.
The shipping line said on Saturday it was not clear when they would be allowed home.