

I didn’t believe 1,200 miles would make you safe. When asked last year why he decided not to take the boat farther offshore, Phillips testified, “I don’t believe 600 miles would make you safe.
#Captain phillips movie trial
Phillips is a witness in the lawsuit between some of the crew and the shipping company, scheduled to go to trial in December. Phillips said to CNN’s Drew Griffin in 2010 and in a court deposition last year that he ignored the numerous warnings that urged him to go farther out to sea.Īccused high-ranking Somali pirate gets life sentences “Vessels should consider maintaining a distance of more than 600 nautical miles from the Somali coastline,” one of the Securewest messages advised. naval authorities and one urged the Alabama to stay clear of the shipping lanes where Phillips was heading.


After failing to take control of the ship, the pirates seized Phillips and held the captain on a small lifeboat for five days until Navy SEALs shot and killed three of the kidnappers and captured the fourth.īefore the incident, a private maritime security agency called Securewest International had sent e-mail warnings about piracy in the region to all ships in the area one was sent specifically to Phillips.Įach e-mail was based on information from British and U.S. On April 8, 2009, four armed Somali pirates boarded the Maersk Alabama about 380 miles off the Somali coast. Many of the Alabama’s crew members are suing the shipping company, the Danish shipping line Maersk, in part because they say Phillips deliberately sailed the ship into harm’s way to shorten the trip to Mombasa, Kenya, and save money. In reality, Phillips ignored numerous warnings to stay farther off the coast of Somalia, the site of dozens of hijackings, which hit their peak in 2008 and gained international attention. (“If you want to shoot someone, shoot me!” Tom Hanks bravely yells at one of the armed Somali pirates, in the movie’s trailer.) Phillips’ crew members say he is not the hero the film will likely present him as. “When we met, I told Rich, I said, ‘Hey, look, I’m going to say things you never said and I’m going to be places you never were, but what I’m going for is … authenticity.’ “ That can be difficult, Hanks said, because of “the fakery that goes on” in creating a cohesive screenplay based on real-life events. “I don’t want to ruin his life by, you know, turning his motivations into something they weren’t,” Hanks said earlier this month. When asked about taking on the leading role in the film, Oscar-winning actor Tom Hanks said his main focus was accurately portraying Capt. The real-life events that surrounded the 2009 attempted seizure of the Maersk Alabama inspired the film “Captain Phillips,” which will be released on Friday. It reads like the plot of a Hollywood movie.Īnd now it is one. They seize the captain and, after negotiations fail, Navy SEALs stage a daring rescue. Ruthless pirates try to hijack an unarmed American ship.
