The companies that own the ships profit from the countries’ laissez faire practices, but this often comes at the crewmembers and the environment’s expense. As a cost-cutting measure, many shippers register their vessels under so-called “flags of convenience” or FOCs, countries willing to profit from vessels registration fees but never intending to follow through on safety inspections, enforce labor standards, or require much else. ![]() Next, the international shipping industry operates on shoestring budgets. (For first hand accounts of more lengthy hostage experiences, look for Captain Francis Roucou’s 88 Days or Paul and Rachel Chandler’s Hostage: A Year at Gunpoint with Somali Gangsters.) In Southeast Asia, in contrast, the crew is more likely to be marooned than taken hostage. In other parts of the world, such as the Gulf of Guinea near Nigeria, hostage takings tend to be shorter because pirates are motivated to loot the vessel’s oil and not to secure a ransom. Needless to say, the vast majority of these guys aren’t being rescued. The longest hostage taking that I know of was the 1,000-day ordeal of the MV Iceberg 1. ![]() According to the most recent data from 2012, the average Somali hostage event lasts 11 months and more than 50 percent of the hostages being held in Somalia at the end of 2012 had been there for over 2 years. But this was also an incredibly brief experience. Each of these four details is accurate according to the facts of the case and very different from the average hijacking, kidnapping and ransom event.Īny hostage experience is harrowing. Phillips and his crew spent 5 days in their encounter with Somali pirates, the vessel was flagged to the United States, Navy SEALs rescued them, and the pirate that was still alive was prosecuted and imprisoned. While that makes for great drama, it should not be taken as representative. But lurid “Hollywood Insider” details aside, how well or poorly does the Captain Phillips story hold up to the reality of contemporary maritime piracy? In some ways, especially visually, the film does quite well, but in others the resemblance to reality - or at least the average pirate attack - is woefully misleading.įirst things first, the story recounted in Captain Phillips is highly atypical. In fact, both his own crewmembers and their Somali attacker disagree with Phillips’ account. ![]() There is a storm of controversy surrounding whether Captain Phillips the movie is consistent with Phillips’ book and about whether Phillips’ account is consistent with the reality of what occurred onboard the Maersk Alabama in 2009.
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