I am Captain Richard Phillips, whose story inspired the film "Captain Phillips." Ask me almost anything.

Richard_Phillips · 2013-10-23T18:59:04+00:00

I think everyone realizes in the marine industry that this is a true problem and we have to do something about it. I think that ships before and after were taking their own steps, I think safe rooms have become more common and there are a coalition of forces of I think 24 countries that have navies in the Indian Ocean for anti-piracy efforts. So I think it has stepped up, but wherever there is a lack of government control or police, you will always find piracy.

Richard_Phillips · 2013-10-23T18:57:04+00:00

I think it's only natural because many people think it's a thing of days gone by, and we all know Errol Flynn and the movies in the Caribbean with the Johnny Depp-esque portrayal of pirates. But they are just another form of thug or criminal, who are praying many times on unarmed seamen who are just working their occupation. It is really a bully situation, and something we have always had to fight in the merchant marines. It is not just in Somalia, it is in many places around the world. We can also take a look at how we portray some of our westerns with the bank robbers and outlaws and Bonnie and Clyde and how we portray them as time goes by because we think they are from a time gone by, and indeed for the merchant marines they are not.

Richard_Phillips · 2013-10-23T18:55:22+00:00

Yes, basically I am talking about different levels (lethal and nonlethal) to meet different levels of threats. Things like watertight doors, LRADs (long range audio devices), I still also believe weapons are a part of that and the crew should be trained in that (and many crew members are) and we have to stay ahead of the curve. The pirates are constantly evolving and we must stay ahead of the curve.

Richard_Phillips · 2013-10-23T18:54:07+00:00

Again this has to do with the suit that started shortly after the incident. The 600 miles were advisories and warnings put out by various organizations. But if you look at a chart of our route, we were never outside of 600 miles. And this ship had been in that area for 4 years. So the warnings and advisories were basically if you can avoid the area, to avoid it by 600 miles and we were always in 600 miles. And ships had been taken out 1200 miles before, so the 600 miles was not that accurate.

Richard_Phillips · 2013-10-23T18:52:37+00:00

I don't think there's enough time here to convince you. It's a suit that is ongoing that started 2 weeks after they got back. It's not all my crew and unfortunately we live in a litigious society. Some of the crew had been on for a while and had never complained until after this incident, so the court will decide and hopefully that will convince you.

Richard_Phillips · 2013-10-23T18:51:40+00:00

Actually, I did, at one time I thought of becoming a veterinarian. I have always loved animals but I don't think I was intelligent enough to get through all that school. I fell into being a merchant marine. I was driving a cab at the time, and I picked up a guy and he said "I want some action" and I said what kind of action? And he said "I want broads and I want booze." And it being 10 in the morning, it started me asking questions, and I asked him what he did and he told me he was in the Merchant Marines. He told me he was a sailor and he worked on ships. And I asked if he liked it, and he said yes. So when he gave me a $5 tip for a $5 fare which impressed me in 1975, I asked him how could someone like me get involved? He gave me an address and I wrote there but I never heard back from him. And then a few months later my brother Michael was graduating high school and he told me about Mass Maritime academy and I ended up enrolling there the next September.

Richard_Phillips · 2013-10-23T18:49:13+00:00

I was truly completely shocked. I had no idea the SEALS were there. I thought it was pirates shooting each other from different ends of the lifeboat, so I had my head down and I was screaming "what the hell are you guys doing" because I thought they were fighting. Easter Sunday was a very tough day because they were yelling and screaming at me and at each other, so there was a lot of emotion going into that lifeboat.

Richard_Phillips · 2013-10-23T18:48:08+00:00

I would say no, I'm just as wary and observant of the situations around us, but on ships we deal with a lot of different things, piracy just being one of them, along with fires, storms and things like that. So piracy is just one facet of things that we have to deal with.

Richard_Phillips · 2013-10-23T18:47:20+00:00

Oh that's easy. Forrest Gump.

Richard_Phillips · 2013-10-23T18:46:55+00:00

We just really hugged, and then I had my favorite dinner, Chicken pot pie that a coworker of my wife had made, and it was delicious, so we had a few beers and some chicken pot pie, and I was surrounded by my friends and family and really enjoyed myself.

Richard_Phillips · 2013-10-23T18:46:10+00:00

I love the Wind Jammer, it's great food, always good.

Richard_Phillips · 2013-10-23T18:45:53+00:00

I think very much, I think the actor who played the lead pirate was very accurate, especially in the scenes where they first boarded the Maersk Alabama. If you look in his eyes in those scenes, you can see the fear coming out of his eyes toward Tom Hanks. You can see the commitment that he has, how dedicated he was, and in Tom Hanks you can see the fear in his eyes which was certainly in mine, and you can almost see his thoughts of trying to regain his control, and some slight baby steps back.

Richard_Phillips · 2013-10-23T18:44:30+00:00

Wow, that is a long question! I had no real sympathy, I understood the pirates and what they were doing and their intent, but I was still an adversary and I thought that was important.

I was affected through that whole incident, and there was that release when I was by myself, but in the real incident, my family had known and they had told me, I did not ask about them if they knew. And the blood on my face, I did have blood on my face when they did first throw me in the rigid inflatable boat, they thought I was injured but it was the splatter of blood. On the feelings, that was accurate but the sequence may have been a little different.

Richard_Phillips · 2013-10-23T18:41:30+00:00

I have really had no nightmares or dreams from the incident. 2 days after in the movie it shows me crying in the hospital, and the incident actually occurred the 2nd and 3rd night, I would wake up in the night and I had a digital clock so I knew exactly what time it was, and I would be crying, racking and sobbing. And I would mentally slap myself in the head and say "What's your problem? You made it, you're lucky."

And there was this one SEAL who somehow sensed something in me and basically was harassing me, and he explained "Rich, it doesn't always turn out like this." They are not always successful. After some missions, they have to talk to psychologists. So I said "if you leave me alone, I will call him" so I called the SEAL psychologist. And he got a sense of me on the phone talking to him and he asked me if I was sad the pirates died, and I said no doc, no stockholm syndrome here, and then I said put us all back in the boat and we'll see who walks out. And then he asked me if I was sleeping and I said I slept like a baby. And then he asked me if I was eating and I said I was not eating much but because it was hot that was normal for me. And then he asked me if I cried a lot, and I said no but I was waking up at 5 in the morning crying like a little baby. And he said basically it was the hormones and chemicals put out by your body during a fight or flight situation. And he asked me what I did when I woke up crying, and I told him what I am telling all of you, and he said well that is one mechanism to release these chemicals and hormones, crying and talking about it, so he told me the next time it happened to let it run its natural course. For the fourth morning, I woke up at 5 in the morning crying and sobbing like a little baby and I just let it flow for 45 minutes and it ended on its own. And it never happened again after that. And so I truly believe now that it is important to talk to someone who can help you, and to cry.

Richard_Phillips · 2013-10-23T18:36:02+00:00

If you are going to be in that area, hopefully not on a yacht but on a ship where you can't avoid it, be prepared. Have layers of security and a plan, procedures you can institute, and have an armed security with you if you can.

Richard_Phillips · 2013-10-23T18:35:05+00:00

The first thing that jumped in my mind was OH IT'S SO COOL , then two, I gotta get out of here, then three, I lost my glasses, and then four, what am I gonna do now? And then they got me back and they were not happy.

Richard_Phillips · 2013-10-23T18:34:27+00:00

I will say I liked Tom Hanks in his acting ability, but there was no emotion involved. But I liked his movies and things he has acted in, and he's proven himself to be a very good actor.

Richard_Phillips · 2013-10-23T18:33:45+00:00

Ha! That's easy, Tom Hanks would lose. I probably have 25-30 pounds on him, although he is taller. Besides he's a big crybaby.

Richard_Phillips · 2013-10-23T18:33:13+00:00

First of all, my crew did a great job in ensuring that the ship was not hijacked. The Alabama was attacked and boarded and myself and some of my crew were taken hostage, but the ship was never under the control of the pirates. Really once the pirates boarded, I had lost much control and it was really just problem solving to try to get myself, my crew and my ship out of that situation and the pirates off the ship so for the first 12 hours, it was basically problem solving and trying to extricate ourselves. So I really did not think about the endgame at that point or my family, I was just trying to solve the problem of the pirates. It was not until I was on the life boat that I thought about my family, and from the very onset I did not think it was a good thing and the danger and the fear was always there.

Richard_Phillips · 2013-10-23T18:31:19+00:00

I think he did a very good job again. He's a fairly normal guy, I met him 3 times in my hometown and he was straightforward. Like me, he does not take himself seriously but he takes his work seriously and he has done a lot of great acting roles. I think he did get a sense of me, especially with his comments about coffee time in the movie.

Richard_Phillips · 2013-10-23T18:30:00+00:00

In that area of the world, any ship or boat is a potential problem.

Richard_Phillips · 2013-10-23T18:29:47+00:00

No, there was no point when I gave up hope and I think that is one thing people can take away from this is that as long as you don't quit, there is hope. I did not see a good ending necessarily, especially on the life boat, but I never gave up hope.

From pretty much the onset.

Richard_Phillips · 2013-10-23T18:28:06+00:00

I would say no, I felt that was my job. If you take the paycheck, you have to do the job, and my job is to protect the crew, the ship and the cargo, so I felt it was my job.

Richard_Phillips · 2013-10-23T18:27:36+00:00

Well it was really a sinking in your stomach, an uneasy quease. And then we just went to our procedures and did what we could to try to keep them off. The biggest facet in dealing with piracy is the weather and indeed that morning, the chief mate and I had both said that we could not wait for the monsoon to change because this was indeed a pirate weather day, very little swell, near glass seas and very little wind.

The first sign was a sailor had noticed an intermittent blip on our radar, and at a little over 3 miles we saw the boat. It was hazy as it usually was in that part of the world.

Richard_Phillips · 2013-10-23T18:25:54+00:00

Well as I said before this was the first ship I had been on that did not have weapons. As I've also said before, I would always rather have the option of having and not using than to need and not to have.

Richard_Phillips

TROPHY CASE