Days later, a team of SEALs parachuted into the Indian Ocean and boarded the Bainbridge. The USS Bainbridge, a destroyer that had responded to the hijacking, gave chase as the pirates headed toward the Somali coast. The pirates eventually abandoned the Maersk, jumping into a lifeboat and taking the cash and Phillips at gunpoint. In a failed attempt to get the pirates to leave, Phillips gave them $30,000 from the ship safe. Four armed Somali pirates scurried up the side of a large cargo ship, Maersk Alabama, and took the crew and Phillips hostage.

The unvarnished story begins on April 8, 2009. In fact, many more than three shots were fired, $30,000 went missing and the integrity of the SEALs was questioned. But the official version that unfolded in the Indian Ocean wasn’t as tidy as Hollywood’s, or the versions in Phillips’ own book or in contemporaneous news reports. It was an unbelievable story, with a new retelling that hits the big screen Friday with Tom Hanks playing Capt. It was the lethal, coordinated precision that has made SEALs famous and feared.

The military said SEAL snipers killed a trio of pirates in a tense standoff. WASHINGTON- Dramatic accounts of the Navy SEALs rescuing the captain of an American cargo ship made headlines around the world in 2009.

Captin philips