WASHINGTON – Across the national security establishment, the United States urgently sought answers Wednesday for what is believed to be the first American hostage-taking by pirates in 200 years — a U.S.-flag ship hijacked off the coast of Somalia.
President Barack Obama's chief spokesman said the White House was assessing a course of action. Press secretary Robert Gibbs told reporters that officials there monitoring the incident closely. Said Gibbs: "Our top priority is the personal safety of the crew members on board."
The White House offered no other immediate details about what actions it was considering.
Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said there has not yet been any communications from the pirates for ransom. But he would not go into military plans.
"I'm not going to speculate on any future military actions," Whitman said, when asked what the U.S. military may do.
Whitman said there are still no U.S. Navy ships within view of the vessel, and instead they are still "hundreds of miles away."
The UK Maritime Security Centre (Horn of Africa) issued a news release stating that a Danish-owned, US-operated 17,000 ton container ship was seized in the Indian Ocean approximately 400 miles east of Mogadishu, and said the crew was believed to be safe.
A senior Navy official had said earlier that the administration was talking to the shipping company to learn more about what happened when the Maersk Alabama and a crew of some 20 people was seized by pirates. The official refused to say what plans the U.S. had for trying to free the ship.
Reports coming into the Pentagon carried varying estimates of the number of American crew members. Some said 21, others said 19. It was not immediately clear the nature of the ship's cargo is, although one report said that it might be food aid.
Capt. Shane Murphy, a 2001 graduate of Massachusetts Maritime Academy, was second in command on the ship, the Cape Cod Times reported. It said this information was passed on by Capt. Joseph Murphy, his father, who is a professor at the academy.
The elder Murphy teaches anti-piracy tactics in his maritime security class. He said a company spokesman notified the family Wednesday morning of the incident and at last report the ship was drifting.
Murphy said his son was well aware of the threat of pirates in the area and, while home on a visit only a few weeks ago, had talked with his class about the risk. "He knows the potential danger and he talked with my students about that," Murphy said. "He connected right away with the students."
At least 12 of the Americans aboard the Maersk Alabama are members of the Seafarers International Union, spokesman Jordan Biscardo said. The union is trying to get as much information on the situation as it can, he said.
"It goes without saying we're deeply concerned and we're closely monitoring the story," Biscardo said.
Biscardo would not immediately release the names of the union members aboard the vessel. The Seafarers International Union represents unlicensed United States merchant mariners sailing aboard U.S.-flag vessels.
The Maritime Center said the ship had been tentatively identified as the Maersk Alabama, If so, it would be the first US-flag vessel taken by the Somali pirates and the crew would be the first American citizens captured by pirates in about 200 years.
In December 2008, Somali pirates chased and shot at a U.S. cruise ship with more than 1,000 people on board but failed to hijack the vessel.
The center's Web site describes it as an organization run by the European Union's Naval Force and said that it is "tasked to safeguard merchant shipping operating in the region by preventing and deterring acts of piracy in the Gulf of Aden, off the Horn of Africa and in the Somali Basin. This site provides information and guidance for the shipping community."
Though the ship is the sixth seized within a week in the dangerous region around Africa, Cmdr. Jane Campbell, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Navy's Bahrain-based 5th Fleet, said it was the first pirate attack "involving U.S. nationals and a U.S.-flagged vessel in recent memory."
A second Defense Department official, also speaking on condition of anonymity, said he had no information on the number of pirates or any details of the attack.
But a third official, asked if there were any casualties during the hijacking, said United Kingdom maritime officials had been able to contact the vessel and were told "everyone is OK."
Retired Navy Cmdr. Kirk Lippold, who was in charge of the USS Cole battleship when it was attacked by suicide bombers in 2000, said, "Although the United States and other nations are working in a loose coalition to prevent piracy, the dwindling number of ships in our Navy amplifies the impact of this menace."
Lippold said the administration deserves praises for recommending more combat ships and unmanned aerial vehicles to help interdict this type of threat, but said the Navy "simply needs more ships and at a quicker rate than we are currently building or plan to build."
"Only with a robust and capable Navy will the United States be able to defend our interests worldwide," said Lippold, now a senior military fellow at Military Families United, an advocacy organization for military families.
The crew first reported being under attack, then said that pirates had already boarded the ship, according to "talking points" prepared by the U.S. government for briefing reporters about the situation.
Though the company has had some Defense Department contracts it was not on a Pentagon job when attacked, the talking points said.
The hijacking comes one day after international maritime officials issued a warning on the area.
Following a series of attacks off the eastern coast of Somalia, the Combined Maritime Forces issued an advisory Wednesday highlighting several recent attacks that occurred hundreds of miles off the Somali coast and stating that merchant mariners should be increasingly vigilant when operating in those waters.
"While the majority of attacks during 2008 and early 2009 took place in the Gulf of Aden, these recent attacks off the eastern coast of Somalia are not unprecedented," the advisory provided by Navy officials in Washington said. "An attack on the large crude tanker Sirius Star in November 2008 occurred more than 450 nautical miles off the southeast coast of Somalia."
The advisory said the "scope and magnitude of problem cannot be understated."
The nearest ship from the international coalition working against pirates in the region was hundreds of miles away from the Maersk Alabama.
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