US Warship Rescues Captain...Pirates Vanish

"USS Bainbridge had arrived off the Horn of Africa near where the pirates were floating near the Maersk Alabama", reported Maersk's spokesman Kevin Speers.
U.S. destroyer on Thursday reached the waters where Somali pirates held the American captain of the hijacked cargo ship.
The Bainbridge was among several U.S. ships that had been patrolling in the region when the 17,000-ton U.S.-flagged cargo ship and its 20 crew were captured Wednesday.
The unarmed sailors, in an hours-long drama, managed to capture a pirate and use him as a hostage to secure their own release, but the pirates took Capt. Richard Phillips with them as they escaped into a lifeboat.
Wednesday was the first pirate attack on American sailors for around 200 years, although hundreds of sailors from other nations have been held hostage, sometimes for months.
Captain Phillips' family were in his Vermont farmhouse, anxiously watching news reports and taking telephone calls from the U.S. State Department to know if he would be freed by the pirates.
Gina Coggio, 29, half-sister of Phillips' wife, Andrea, told reporters: "We are on pins and needles, i know the crew has been in touch with their own family members, and we're hoping we'll hear from Richard soon."
Phillips surrendered to the pirates to secure the safety of the crew, Coggio said.
He added: "What I understand is that he offered himself as the hostage,". "That is what he would do. It's just who he is and his reaction as a captain."
With one warship nearby and more on the way, piracy expert Roger Middleton from London-based think tank Chatham House said the pirates were facing difficult choices.
According to Middleton: "The pirates are in a very, very tight corner, they've got only one guy, nowhere to hide him, they've got no way to defend themselves against the military who are on the way and they are hundreds of miles from Somalia."

Probably the pirates would try to get to a mothership, he said, one of the larger vessels that tow the pirates' speedboats out to sea and resupply them as they lie in wait for prey. They must also be aware that if they try to take Phillips to Somalia, they might be intercepted. And if they hand him over, they would definitely be arrested.
And Middleyon to add: "If I was a pirate at this point, I think I would resign and take up gardening."
This story is to be followed closely