U.S. crew retakes hijacked ship, captain held hostage

The Maersk Alabama was carrying food aid bound for the Kenyan port of Mombasa when it was seized. Twenty American crew members were on board.

Quinn said the pirates were armed with Kalashnikov assault rifles, but the freighter's crew carried no weapons.

The Americans locked themselves in the compartment that contains the ship's steering gear, where they remained for about 12 hours.

The pirates "got frustrated because they couldn't find us," he said.

The pirates sank the small boat they used once they climbed aboard the freighter, Quinn said, so Phillips offered them the lifeboat and some money.

Four hijackers boarded the Maersk Alabama earlier in the day and one is in custody, according to Pentagon officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

The three others tried to escape, and their status is unknown, they said.

Earlier Wednesday, the chief executive officer of the company that owns the Maersk Alabama played down the report that the vessel has been retaken by U.S. crew members, who are unarmed.

"We have no facts that confirm the ship has been retaken," John Reinhart, CEO and president of Norfolk, Virginia-based Maersk Line Ltd., said at a news conference 12 hours after the hijacking.

The ship was en route to Mombasa, Kenya, when it was attacked about 500 kilometers off Somalia's coast, he said.

The Maersk Line is one of the U.S. Department of Defense's primary shipping contractors, but the Maersk Alabama is not under a Pentagon contract, according to the U.S. military.

The attack was the sixth off Somali coast and the Gulf of Aden within a week, but hijacking of a U.S.-operated ship in Africa is rare.

According to experts, the last pirate attack of an American vessel by African pirates was reported in 1804, off Libya.

Editor:Zhang Pengfei