04 May 2009
Young Mariners Get Up-Close Lesson in Thwarting Pirates
Course becomes a family affair when Alabama officer visits father’s class
Buzzards Bay, Massachusetts — In the 100 years the Massachusetts Maritime Academy has taught mariners to crew merchant ships, not once had pirates hijacked a U.S.-flagged vessel. Never had weapon-wielding sea bandits kidnapped an American captain. The students’ anti-piracy training seemed abstract, until Somali raiders boarded the Maersk Alabama April 8.
Suddenly, the students had context. It wasn’t only that two crewmembers of the Alabama were graduates, but also that the incident reinforced their learning.
“With the U.S. responding the way we did, it can show the international community that we’re not going to give in to piracy and we can deal with it in a different way than just giving them the money,” said 22-year-old senior cadet Kyle Ingersoll, one of 18 students attending Captain Joseph Murphy’s security course on a recent Thursday morning.
Balding and tanned, bearded and broad, Murphy is an old salt, a Boston-bred seaman with 40 years experience on ships as large as oil tankers and as small as lobster boats. Two decades ago he brought his love of seafaring to this academy of 1,100 students on a rocky peninsula sandwiched between Butler Cove and Cape Cod Canal. Mass Maritime — as it is known — offers several undergraduate programs, and Murphy teaches in the marine transportation department. He also happens to be the father of 34-year-old Shane Murphy, a 2001 graduate and a crewmember on the Alabama. It was Shane who recently skippered the ship to safety in Kenya.
The elder Murphy’s students met Shane, who came to a class to talk about piracy. Murphy often brings experienced mariners into the classroom to “translate the theoretical into the practical.” But Shane’s visit was noteworthy, considering the course’s focus on security and anti-piracy. “It happened to someone they know. That brings it home,” Murphy said.
Murphy’s course for fourth-year cadets covers how to compose a security plan for a ship, crew and cargo; how to plan travel routes that minimize interactions with pirates; how to use speed and evasive maneuvers to avoid small craft; and what to do if taken hostage. Combating piracy, not the sole focus of the course, has gained significance as acts of piracy grow. In 2008, in the Gulf of Aden area off of Somalia, incidents more than doubled, according to the International Chamber of Commerce. The ICC reports 293 pirate attacks worldwide on many countries’ ships and more than 900 hostages taken in 2008. Today, some mariners from other countries remain hostages.
“We had none of this kind of training when I was starting out,” Murphy said. “When I started going to sea … [pirates] would come on board, steal whatever they could on deck and be gone. Now, they come on board, they grab the ship, the cargo and the crew, and they hold them for ransom.”
Historically, merchant mariners have worked for private shipping companies in times of peace and have acted as an auxiliary unit of the U.S. Navy in times of war. Last year, Mass Maritime began offering a marksmanship course to prepare students whose future employers may require them to carry firearms.
On this morning Murphy’s class is tackling the intricacies of international maritime law and the State Department’s role in securing international agreements to combat piracy. A female cadet breaks Murphy’s lecture with a question.
“Why is there any question about whether or not we can prosecute the pirate?” she asks, referring to Abdiwali Abdiqadir Muse, the Somali pirate who survived by surrendering to the U.S. Navy.
Murphy surveys the class and then his voice booms forth. “This is an occurrence on the high seas, right?”
The cadets nod.
“Legally speaking, that is an issue that is dealt with by international convention. But believe me,” he says parenthetically, “this individual was involved in the incident. I have pretty good sources.”
Outside, the sun slices through gray morning drizzle and hits the 540-foot (164-meter) training ship, the Kennedy, that gives cadets their first extended experience on the high seas. The Kennedy steams out as much as 14,000 miles (22,400 kilometers) and back on a one-semester journey. Hanging on the Kennedy are lifeboats, similar to the one in which four pirates held Capt. Richard Phillips, skipper of the Alabama, before one surrendered and the other three were killed.
Rear Admiral Richard G. Gurnon, president of Mass Maritime, said cadets make a transformation from individualistic young adults to team-oriented leaders aboard the Kennedy. When informed that Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts questioned the prudence of sending young men and women with less than a year’s training and sometimes little time at sea out to protect valuable merchant ships, Gurnon didn’t hesitate to respond: “The success of any operation depends on the training of the people and the leadership that’s involved, not the age or the experience of the players.”
Captain Murphy said that once his son’s safety was assured, his thoughts went to Phillips aboard the lifeboat. He thought about the training and leadership Phillips would have acquired, and he felt convinced Phillips would make it.
“All the things we saw in Rich Phillips — courage, dedication, respect, duty, honor — they’re all things he learned right across there, in the dormitories. It’s the regimen here,” he said.
Audio: Captain Talks Family and Piracy