A: Through exploring the true story of Captain Philip, we learned that the container ship Maersk Alabama was attacked by Somali pirates on the way from Salalah in Oman to Mombasa in Kenya on April 8, 2009.
Q: When the pirates attacked, was Captain Philip doing a safety drill?
A: Not exactly. It was not a safety drill, but a fire drill. When learning that the pirates were approaching in a small boat, Captain Philip ordered that the annual fire drill must be completed anyway. Captain Philip said: "They (the boat) were still 7 miles away at the time. We were unable to do anything. We don't know the exact situation." Some crew members disagreed with him. They believed that the pirates were less than 7 miles away from the ship and the crew should have Go to their pirate stations (do not know how to translate, guess it should be an anti-pirate station or something).
Q: Did Captain Philip really pretend to contact the Navy to scare away pirates?
A: Yes. When observing the pirate ship coming in his direction, the real Captain Philip used his radio to pretend to contact the U.S. Navy. He disguised his voice as the navy's response, hoping that the pirates would overhear their conversation and believe that rescue was coming. This successfully scared off the pirate mother ship and the two accompanying speedboats (one less speedboat in the movie), leaving one pirate speedboat chasing the Alabama.
Q: How many Somali pirates participated in the hijacking?
A: When comparing the real story of Captain Philip with the movie, it was confirmed that, as in the movie, 4 Somali pirates participated in the hijacking.
Q: Do they really use fire hoses to drive away pirates?
A: Yes. Just like in the movie, the crew of the Maersk Alabama opened the fire hose on the ship. Captain Philip fired a flare at the pirate, and the ship kept turning to make it sway back and forth. However, the pirates eventually managed to hang up a ladder, board the ship and control the bridge.
Q: Did Captain Philip lock the bridge before the pirates boarded the ship?
A: No. At the beginning of the movie, Captain Philip followed the safety protocol meticulously and told his crew, “Let’s strengthen security! I demand that everything be closed, locked, and even in the port.” However, according to Chief Engineer Mike Perry, the real Philip The captain did not even lock the bridge after learning that the pirates had boarded the ship. "Even at that moment, he didn't lock them," Perry said. When Philip and the other three crew members stayed at gunpoint, most of the crew fled below the deck, locked themselves in the engine room, and spent more than 12 hours in the 130 degrees Fahrenheit heat.
Q: Did Captain Philip really try to tell the pirate ship that it was broken?
A: In the movie, the character played by Tom Hanks tried to tell the pirates that they drove the ship too hard and broke the ship. The story of the real Captain Philip shows that in order to slow the progress of the pirates, the real captain did try to pretend that the ship was broken. In addition, he tried to pretend not to understand what they meant.
Q: Did they really take $30,000 from the ship’s safe to the pirates?
A: Yes. Just like in the movie, Captain Philip and several crew members did try to get $30,000 from the safe to the pirates, but they wanted more. The pirates still took the money and took it on the lifeboat. However, when the Navy shot three pirates dead and boarded the lifeboat to rescue Captain Philip, they found no trace of the $30,000. The money has never been recovered.
Q: Did the crew really drop broken glass as a trap to design one of the pirates?
A: No. In the movie, the crew threw broken glass in the door of the engine room and let one of the pirates step on it, causing his bare feet to be injured. Force the pirate to go back so that the crew can use a knife to subdue another pirate as a hostage. But in reality, the broken glass trap has never happened. Philip never led the pirates to the hiding place of his crew under the deck. Instead, he sent a crew member and an unarmed pirate to search for the ship. Chief Engineer Mike Perry ambushed the pirate with a pocket knife and took him hostage.
Q: Did the crew really take one of the pirates hostage?
A: Yes. When the Somali pirate Abduwali Abdukhadir Muse was searching under the deck, Chief Engineer Mike Perry wrestled with Muse with a knife in the dark engine room and subdued him. Before taking the hostage, he severely injured his hand.
Q: Did Captain Philip really sacrifice himself to save the lives of his crew?
A: No. "I didn't have to give up on myself," Captain Philip said. "I was already a hostage." Unlike Tom Hanks's role in the movie, he shouted to his crew when he voluntarily climbed into the rescue boat. "I must let them leave this ship!" In reality, Captain Philip has never given up on his own initiative for the crew. He was already a hostage at that time. According to Philip, as in the movie, he went into the lifeboat to help the pirates start it. However, they violated the agreement to exchange Philip for Muse, and after the crew released Muse, they left Philip on the rescue boat. For this reason, some crew members see Philip more as a victim of exchange failure than a sacrificed hero created by the media.
"We swear that we are going to take it to the grave," said Mike Perry, Chief Engineer of the Maersk Alabama. "We are not going to say anything, but when we hear about him giving up himself and still being a hostage like this When the PR stuff came out, all the crew members were like, "What a great horse?!" Everyone was shocked."
Q: Captain Philip really said: If you want to shoot anyone, shoot me! "Really?
A: No. The real Captain Philip never gave up his life for the crew.
Q: Do the crew of the Maersk Alabama really think Captain Philip is a hero?
A: No. Most of the crew did not think Captain Philip was a hero. In fact, 11 crew members sued Maersk Line and Waterman Shipping Company for nearly 50 million U.S. dollars due to the decision of Captain Philip. The reason is: willful, wanton, and deliberately disregarding their safety. Their recklessness as the captain made the Maersk Alabama sail into pirate-infested waters. "All ships are warned," Chief Engineer Mike Perry said, referring to a series of seven emails sent to the Alabama by a private maritime security agency. These emails specifically warned against pirate attacks in this area, stating that “...the ship should maintain a distance of more than 600 nautical miles from the coastline of Somalia...” According to the Alabama’s voyage records, the ship is about 300 nautical miles offshore.
"Captain Philip did not obey the order. He is responsible for the attack on the ship," said one of the crew members named Jimmy Sabga who participated in the prosecution of Maersk.
In 2012 Captain Philip's testimony to his lawsuit, he admitted that he had read these warning emails. And he admitted that he himself kept these warnings. When the hijacking was taking place in the waters of Somalia, his wife Andrea had recently told an interviewer of the Associated Press that she had received an email from her husband saying that piracy in that area was picking up. When asked why he didn’t move to get farther offshore, Philip declared, “I don’t think 600 nautical miles will be safe, and even 1200 nautical miles will not be safe... As I said to the crew, it It’s not a question of whether it happens, but a question of time. We are often in this area, so for me, this (600 nautical miles offshore) will not reduce any potential risks.
It is worth noting that Captain Philip himself also Said that he did not consider himself a hero, even though the media described him as such, his books promoted him as such, and the movie falsely described him as sacrificing himself for the crew.
Q: Did Captain Philip really try to swim and escape from the lifeboat?
A: Yes. According to the true story of Captain Philip, he was in the water where one of the pirates pushed him while urinating on the side of the lifeboat. Then he jumped off the lifeboat and started swimming away. However, the moonlight in the night sky was so bright that other pirates easily spotted him, fired warning shots on him, and quickly captured him. Then they beat him and tied him up. Philip said they even pretended to execute the execution and played with his will.
Q: How many Somali pirates were killed?
A: Just like in the movie, a sniper from the famous SEAL Team 6 aimed at the lifeboat with night vision goggles and almost exploded the heads of three pirates at the same time. The fourth pirate, Abduwali Abdukhadir Muse, boarded the U.S. Navy destroyer Bainbridge to seek treatment for his severely injured hand and negotiate the release of Captain Philip. After his pirates were killed, he remained on board Bainbridge and was detained.
Q: When the real Captain Philip was on the lifeboat, did he really write a note to his family?
A: No. This does not seem to have happened. Philip did not mention that he wrote a small note to his family like Tom Hanks in the movie. However, he did mention that he prayed for his family while in the lifeboat.
Q: Did the pirates really hurt Captain Philip?
A: When he returned to the United States, the only visible injury was the abrasion on his wrist caused by being tied up. However, when he was on the lifeboat, he had become very weak. For this reason, the navy doctor had to board the ship to check him and bring him some food. Philip said that during his time on the lifeboat, the pirates beat him, tortured him, shot him over his head and frightened him, and used an AK-47 assault rifle at his back. It was this last move that made the SEAL snipers believe that his life was in imminent danger, forcing them to take down the three pirates who were still on the lifeboat with Philip at the time. After returning to China, the real Richard Philip said that he had nightmares due to the psychological pressure of the whole incident.
Q: How long has Captain Philip been taken hostage on the lifeboat?
A: Although the movie makes people think that the role of Tom Hanks was taken hostage on the lifeboat of the Maersk Alabama for only about a day and a half, exploring the true story of Captain Phillip shows that the real Richard Philip was hijacked on the lifeboat for nearly 5 days. He was rescued on April 12, 2009, which was Sunday, and he was taken on the lifeboat last Wednesday.
Q: What happened to the arrested Somali pirates?
A: Abduwali Abdukhadir Muse is regarded as an American adult and sentenced to 33 years in prison in the United States. Since his family said that he was under 18 years old and should be regarded as a minor, his true age became a controversial issue during the interrogation. However, after changing his age several times, he finally admitted that he was 18. According to his lawyer, during his detention, Muse attempted suicide on multiple occasions. The director of a documentary about Muse called "Smiling Pirate" said that Sony Pictures made many attempts to meet Muse, but he refused, because he thought they were only going to portray him as a bad person.
Q: Did Tom Hanks prepare for the role with the real Richard Phillips?
A: Yes. In the two years before the release of the film, Tom Hanks visited Richard Phillips three times. He met with the freighter captain on his 19th-century farm in Vermont. "He came here to get to know me," Philip said. "We were just talking about it. I bought some sandwiches for the two of us from the Underhill Country Store." In addition to Tom Hanks, Philip also met with screenwriter Billy Ray several times on different occasions.
Q: Did the crew of the Maersk Alabama participate in the production of the movie?
A: Not all crew members agree with the story version of the movie. Because the crew has the right to the story, Sony paid at least $5,000 to those crew members who agreed with the story and reached an agreement that they could never openly tell anyone the true story that happened on the ship.
Q: Was the real Maersk Alabama used for the filming of Captain Philip?
A: No. The real Maersk Alabama was not used to make this movie. As an alternative, the producer used the Alexander Maersk, which is the same container ship as the Maersk Alabama. The film was shot off the coast of Malta in the Mediterranean.
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