This is the true story that was made into Paul Greengrass’s terrifying 2013 film Captain Phillips. That film attracted controversy, with some members of the ship’s crew disputing its accuracy, but having now read the book I can fully believe this account of what happened.
Richard Phillips was captain of the Maersk Alabama, a US cargo ship travelling off the Horn of Africa. The ship was boarded by Somali pirates hoping for a huge ransom pay-out. After a few desperate hours, during which he played for time and helped his crew to escape, Phillips managed to get the pirates off his ship and onto a lifeboat. While his crew were saved, he was forced to join them as a hostage. What followed was a five-day siege at sea.
Like the film, this survivor diary is tense and gripping. Phillips lives with fear around the clock. His captors practise fake executions, observe baffling religious rituals involving the ropes that he’s tied up with, and attempt various kinds of psychological torture.
“We all set our endurance levels low, out of fear we will fail,” he writes at one point. “We think, So long as I have this job, or this house, or this partner, or this amount of money, I’ll be okay. But what happens when those things are taken away from you? And more—your freedom, your dignity, even things we take for granted, like your ability to use a bathroom? What happens when people try to take away even your life? You find that you are a larger and a stronger personality than you ever imagined you were. That your strength and your faith don’t depend on how secure you are. They’re independent of those things.”
Riveting stuff.
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