Seapower - August 2009

A Different Life
Maersk Alabama master reflects on 30 years at sea, the need
for improved security to protect ships against threat of piracy

Capt. Richard Phillips, master of the MV Maersk Alabama, was thrust into the international spotlight when four pirates attacked his ship in the Indian Ocean off Somalia on April 8. The Maersk Alabama crew of 19 thwarted a takeover, but the pirates took Phillips hostage on a lifeboat. He was rescued April 12 by a team of Navy SEALs and the USS Bainbridge.

A graduate of the Massachusetts Maritime Academy in Buzzards Bay, Phillips has spent the last 30 years at sea.

“It’s a different life and not everybody can do it,” he says. “I guess I’ve been a rarity, I’ve always gone to sea.” And despite the events leading up to his rescue by those he calls “the real heroes of this story,” Phillips plans to continue doing what he loves.

LISA NIPP

Phillips, who as an employee of International Shipholding Corp. has been chartered to Maersk Line Ltd. for the last two years, says the United States must push the international community into improving security on the high seas, and commercial vessels must be hardened, better equipped and better armed to face the threat of pirates.

While in Arlington, Va., June 13 to receive the Navy League’s Adm. Arleigh Burke Award for Exceptional Leadership, Phillips discussed his career, the challenges facing the commercial shipping industry and what he thinks can be done to improve safety and security on the high seas with Editor in Chief Amy L. Wittman. Accompanying him was his wife, Andrea. Excerpts follow:

What are some of the jobs you’ve had over the years?

PHILLIPS: I’ve been on oil tankers. I’ve been on break-bulk, container ships. … I’ve been sailing captain for 19 years, since 1991, and once I sailed captain, I was pretty much on general cargo break-bulk, which I truly liked, and then car carriers, container ships and RO/ROs [roll-on/roll-off vessels], some of which were prepositioned ships for the military.

How long are you usually away?

PHILLIPS: When you’re first starting out as third or second mate, you’re new, it’s an entry-level officer posi-

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tion and you’re also new in the unions, so you have to get seniority. In the beginning, there were times when I would do six months straight. I think the longest I’d ever been was 189 days. That’s before we were married. But since I’ve been sailing captain and chief mate, it’s pretty much been three months on, three months off, which I especially like. That’s just the right amount of time for me because it gives you enough time on the ship and it gives you enough time at home.