April 8th, 2009. Captain Richard Philips saw two small, white ocean skiffs approaching his ocean liner, the Maersk Alabama. The four pirates were all between the ages of 17 and 19, according to Captain Philips. Thankfully, Captain Philips had preformed a pirate drill with the rest of his crew that morning. Philips ordered over the radio to prepare for a pirate raid, and also to play the only card of defense they had. You see, the pirates in the gulf of Aden were still not a very big threat to many of the shipping lines in the area. So, no security personnel or guns were on board to help aid the Maersk Alabama.
In the act of trying to save his ship, Captain Philips ordered the engine room to turn the speed on to the fastest speed. The sheer power of the engines caused a huge amount of wake to smash into the pirate’s ship, tossing them around. Captain Philips also ordered his shipmates to turn on the jets that lined the outside of the ship. Although the jets would easily be able to repel the pirates away from the boat, the Somalian pirates saw an unguarded part of the ship. Sadly, they pushed through the wake of the ship’s engines and began to board the ship.
Although it seems like this was the first instance of a large cargo ship being taken over by pirates, the MV Seabourn Spirit was attacked by two speedboats on November 7, 2005. RPG’s and machine guns were fired at the boat. One RPG motor lodged itself in the boat and didn’t explode. A boarding attempt by the pirates was unsuccessful and the pirates were unable to board the ship. 
Captain Phillips then noticed that the pirates were boarding and ordered all of his 20 crew to the bunker room underneath the engine room. However, Philips and one other man were not able to get there in time. The pirates found Captain Philips and ordered him to start the boat and drive to Somalia. Philips tried to convince the pirates that the boat had broken down during the chase. Fortunately, The Pirates believed it. While the pirates were patrolling the boat looking fro the other crew, the crew happened to capture the “captain” of the pirates and radio the bridge. “We have your captain,” they said to the other pirates, “we will give you a lifeboat and let you go on your way, but you must let the rest of our crew go.” The pirates were FURIOUS. On the way to the lifeboat, the pirates realized that they did not know how to operate the lifeboat. Philips offered to show them, and went into the lifeboat with all of the pirates, including the Pirate Captain, who was just released by the crew. Suddenly, the door to the lifeboat slammed shut and Captain Philips was trapped with three other pirates pointing guns at his face. They pushed the button to release the lifeboat, and Captain Philips was trapped.
Thankfully, the US navy was notified quickly and the USS Bainbridge was on the way to help. Captain Philips was held captive in the lifeboat with three Somalian pirates, however, with another stroke of luck, the captain of the pirates had hurt his hand in the chase and needed medical attention. The Navy convinced him to come aboard their ship so they could help him. Aboard the ship, they immediately arrested him and treated his hand. Navy snipers were put on the bow of the ship and waited the orders to execute the remaining pirates. Finally, the order came and the snipers shot the pirates and successfully rescued Captain Philips.