History Buffs: Captain Phillips

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[Music] hello and welcome history buffs my name is Nick Hodges and join me in a modern day high seas adventure from the movie captain Phillips the Golden Age of piracy may be a footnote in the history books but its legacy still lingers into the 21st century the lawless African nation of Somalia carries on the tradition with a vengeance as pirate bands patrol the country's coastline to turn them into their own personal hunting grounds all the way from the Gulf of Aden to far out into the Indian Ocean their prey varies in size and scope from small civilian yachts to Goliath cargo ships almost no vessel is safer than these waters the story of captain Phillips is one that took place in April 2009 when an American cargo ship was hijacked by Somalian pirates and the whole world held its breath as the drama unfolded over the course of this review you'll find us how it happened how accurate was the film in betraying these events and was the captain's actions as heroic as the movie made them appear this is captain Phillips [Music] to understand the recent history of piracy in Somalia we need to go back to the end of the 20th century in 1991 the central government of Somalia collapsed under the weight of a brutal civil conflict and the country descended into anarchy and chaos the law of the land could no longer be enforced and his territory became splintered and was taken over by various warring clans as the people of Somalia struggled to survive greedy eyes looked upon its now unguarded coastline with no Somalian Navy to stand in their way foreign fishing fleets pounced at the opportunity and began illegally fishing in these waters corporate vessels also exploited the situation by dumping industrial toxic waste off the Somalian coast both of these acts would severely depletes emolia's natural fish reserves as well as robbed the livelihood of its fishermen like my guys and hey I got it come on batter a legitimate heir yeah well you're gonna be referred by what I'm involved what video a miracle W go faraway sorrow oh goodie Teixeira agree to go to Rocco Oh couldn t where Julia widows no way Tommy Oliver frustrated and angry some of these fishermen turned vigilante and started attacking these illegal fishing fleets wants a board they would take the crew hostage and sell them back to their respective countries in their eyes these ransoms served as a warning and a means to pay back for the lost income but gradually over the years the original message became lost as these fishermen realized that they can make more money through hijacking and hostage-taking than they could ever through honest fishing abandoning the net and the rod they took up arms and went beyond Somalia's coast line and into international waters from there they targeted any ship that they could find godless of their nationality or innocence they were no longer fishermen by this point but fully committed pirates this is despite what they believe as these pirates prefer to label themselves as saviors of the sea but not even this colorful name change could win the hearts and minds of their fellow countrymen Holly had on Beware head in a young that cannot howl me that we heard in Tara but I'm startin t support how I brought that terminal which I had since you watch somebody tell you you talking and how are you at him oh yeah I Stan you had come back and I'm in them on the key marker in Hawaiian right below each other I've been inaudible throughout the Northeast pirate activity dramatically increased and the reason why is thanks to Somalia's ideal location to the east is the vast expanse of the Indian Ocean and to the north is the Gulf of Aden which connects to the Red Sea and the vital Suez Canal this is one of the busiest shipping routes in the world were 25,000 ships passing through it every year that carry 1 trillion dollars in cargo and these Pirates try to hijack every bit of it unfortunately since Somali has become a failed state piracy has become the nation's biggest source of income bringing in about 200 million dollars a year and the way they're able to do it is remarkably effective when they're far out at sea they used large vessels as a base of operations to coordinate their attacks dubs mother ships by the international community their purpose is to arm and supply their smaller but faster moving skips doing it this way meets the Pirates are able to stay out of the open ocean for long periods of time and could travel many hundreds of miles from Somalia an example of this can be seen with the kidnapping of Paul and Rachel Chandler a British couple who were sailing off the archipelago of the Seychelles on October 23rd 2009 despite being almost 1,000 miles from Somalia pirates able to track their sailing boat in the dead of night and took them hostage the car then transported back to the smiling mainland and the Pirates issued a 7 million dollar ransom demand to the British government our kidnappers are losing patience they are concerned that there has been no response at all to their demands for money so we asked the government and people of Britain and our family to do to enter into negotiations with buy back online for 13 months Paul and Rachel were kept hostage under the diarist of conditions but fortunately they were returned to the UK unharmed after the Pirates agreed to settle for 400 thousand pounds instead but as dreadful as kidnapping tourists may be it is not their main means of income whenever possible Somali pirates go on the hunt for much bigger targets like cargo ships the largest vessel ever to be seized was the Saudi super oil tanker the sirius star it contained over 2 million barrels of crude oil there was worth close to 100 million dollars whilst the Sirius star itself was valued at 150 million dollars it was hijacked on the 15th of November 2008 and was ransom backed for three million dollars both ship and crew were freed after the ransom money was dropped in by parachute now when you look at the sheer size of that tanker you may be wondering just how on earth were they able to capture these giant ships by using nothing but tiny skiffs well let's find out in the next chapter when I go over how pirates hijacked the Maersk Alabama on the 8th of April 2009 on the first of April 2009 the Maersk Alabama was getting ready to leave the Salalah port in Oman to head to its final destination at Mombasa Kenya there it would deliver 17,000 tons of commercial cargo much of it was foreign aid for Kenya Somalia and Uganda the Alabama's captain was Richard Phillips and upon boarding his ship he noticed that security measures has slipped things like the pirate cages hadn't been locked the door to the engine room hadn't been locked and etc it's difficult to pinpoint exactly why security was so lacks on the Alabama it could be because merchant marine companies and their crew were still getting their heads around the fact that pirates could hijack giant cargo ships it was previously believed that a ship with the free board which is the nautical term for the distance between the waterline and the upper deck of greater than 15 feet that's traveling at a speed through the water of race than 15 knots couldn't be boarded by pirates and the Maersk Alabama takes both of these boxes it could also be the fact that no ship carried the American flag had been attacked by pirates in almost 200 years is difficult to say in any case once they set sail captain Phillips made extra sure to lock the pirate cages during his checks this was because the Alabama's journey would take them 300 miles off the coast of Somalia and Phillips had also received several email bulletins with warnings about pirate activity in the area on the 7th of April 2009 Phillips ordered the crew to prepare for a pirate intrusion drill at first things were fine with everyone fulfilling their assigned tasks but then Phillips glanced over and spotted small blips appearing on the radar screen in the movie we see two but in real life there was three regardless Phillips called chief mate Shane Murphy to come to the bridge and then scan the horizon with his binoculars far off into the distance he was able to see small skips heading right for them on the intercom Shane Murphy alerted the crew that the drill they had been practicing was now happening for real the ship picked up its speed to full power and then the chase was on following procedure Phillips attempted to call the u.s. maritime security line but no one picked up so instead Phillips called the UK maritime trade operations and this time someone answered and what about to hear is pretty much how the ukmto responded to his request for help we have two skiffs approaching at a distance of 1.5 miles with a possible mothership following copy Alabama you should alert your crew get your fire hoses ready I'm relaying your transmission now but chances are it's just fishermen they're not here the fish I'm not even joking that's what happened they simply took his details and told him to do what he was already doing although that last remark she made about it's probably being fishermen might be a bit of a stretch though just because by the end of 2009 there would have been 214 pirate attacks in any case no help would come from the ukmto leaving the Maersk Alabama to fend for itself as the skiffs continued to gain on them Phillips tried another tactic by making a fake call over the radio in hope that the Pirates were listening in he disguised his voice to sound like a u.s. warship had answered their distress call and air support was just minutes away the ruse seemed to work as one of the pirate boats broke off their attack but at least one skiff ignored the fake call and continue their pursuit by now it was getting close with only a few miles left to close the distance with the pressure rising Phillips played the one big advantage the Alabama had the colossal power of its enormous engines ordering the ship to make evasive maneuvers the engines turned the water into a massive wake that hit the pirate skiff and tossed the small craft violently up and down this finally seemed to do the trick as the Pirates gave up the chase leaving the Alabama to escape unharmed shortly after the attack the crew gathered together for a debriefing and raised their concerns over what had just happened and what might also happen again I'm a union guy okay 25 years all right I'm telling you right now then they're not paying me enough to fight pirates okay you all signed up for a route that went around the Horn of Africa what did you expect I didn't sign up for the Navy over here okay I didn't sign up for the round you signed up right for cargo what did you expect not getting attacked without weapons now I figured this might be a good moment to address something you might be wondering such as why didn't they have weapons or armed guards on board their ship especially since they were sailing through such dangerous waters well back in 2009 the international maritime community was still heavily against armed guards aboard ships at sea and many nations had their own laws regarding ships bringing weapons to their ports there are also many Merchant Marine companies that weren't prepared to pay additional costs to hiring armed security or the international maritime community wanted to do instead was use non-lethal methods to deter pirates such as placing powerful sea hoses around the ship to prevent boarding or acoustic hailing devices kollel rads that when aimed at people creates this ear-splitting sound that forces the targets to flee in pain on paper they seem to be good alternatives to using lethal weapons but the reliability of the LRAD was called into question when pirates attacked a chemical tanker called the MV Buscaglia on November 28 2008 this is where you really wish that we had weapons to defend ourselves here as well we try deploying the elders when they fit the buzzer on the LRAD you get a really high-pitched screech carry on firing and was not taking any notice of me once well maybe fit into open sea you didn't have enough power for the effect it was meant to help after the peak of Somalian pirate attacks between 2008 and 2009 international maritime laws regarding armed guards were relaxed and merchant marine companies realized the benefits to hiring additional security these days the maritime security industry has grown into a thriving business and they do seem to help reduce pirate attacks but in any case I'm getting a little ahead of myself so let's get back to the movie on the 8th of April 2009 the Pirates have returned again to attack the Alabama in the movie this is presented as the second pirate attack but this is actually the third one which seems to been condensed into two for the interest of time as before Phillips ordered the Alabama to increase its speed and call the emergency line for help reporting only a single skip heading their way as it approached the Pirates opened fire on the bridge in response Phillips ordered that the sea hoses be switched on and began firing flares at the Somalis to prevent them from boarding as the pirate swerved around the ship to avoid getting hits they spotted a small undefended section that they could exploit bringing their skiff alongside they pulled out a long ladder to hook onto the upper deck and climbed aboard the game was up for Captain Phillips leaving a little choice but to inform the crew that pirates had boarded their ship most of them headed for a safe room that was hidden in the engine room boss Phillips and a few others stayed on the bridge a call was then made to the engine room to lock off the steering of the ship had to take over its controls from there minutes later the Pirates had made their way onto the bridge and aggressively held everybody up at gunpoint the only calm wand was their leader who approached captain Phillips and asked a question the ship well from a shit Amerika it's American ship as soon as the pirate heard that they were elated the joy convinced that they had hit the mother lode but those feelings soon turned sour were they realized that none of the controls and the bridge worked Phillips and the other officers lied by saying that the ship had broken down during the chase the Pirates then forced Phillips to order the rest of the remaining crude to come to the bridge otherwise he and the others would be shot however after a few tense moments no one came and the Pirates didn't act on their threat so instead the Somali captain organized a search party to find them but unlike in the movie Phillips wasn't the one to lead the Pirates below deck although he did try to store them whenever possible and the scene where we see Shane Murphy hiding in a room that the Pirates have entered is true but he didn't call the other crew members afterwards to lay a trap for them is there any glass or something you can break leave on the floor by the engine room door so the whole bits with the Barefoot's pirates cutting himself from the broken glass never happens but meanwhile in the engine room some of the crew members took it upon themselves to deny the pirates the use of their ship the chief engineer Mike Perry did so by shutting down the main power and disabling most of the lights once he did that the emergency generator kicked in and Perry headed there next unfortunately the generator was located on the main deck where the Pirates were amazingly though he was able to evade detection and shut everything down with the ship now dead in the water Perry rejoined the others and for several hours they waited in the dark and stifling heat some time later the pirate leader search had taken him down to the engine room armed with a knife Perry hid in the darkness and at great risk jumped to the Somali and overpowered him taking the Pirates hostage back on the bridge the other pirates were growing restless soon a call came over the radio from the hit crew members declaring that they had the Somali captain hostage and they wanted to make a deal that the Somalis returned the hostages for their captain and lead the ship of the $30,000 of petty cash kept in the safe reluctantly the Pirates agreed and headed for the Alabama's lifeboat to make the exchange because the Pirates didn't know how to control the lifeboat Phillips had to go inside to show them how everything worked when everyone was there the crew members released the Somali captain first and expected to see Captain Phillips walk out of the lifeboat but instead the Pirates broke their word and the lifeboat released into the water with Phillips still aboard the crew watched helplessly as the small vessel slowly began making its way to Somalia although 2009 had the highest record of Somali pirate attacks it would also be the turning point in one of those rare moments in history many nations throughout the world's United together for one mutually beneficial purpose to combat piracy on the 12th of January 2009 a multinational naval task force was assembled called the combined task force 151 it would patrol the Gulf of Aden and the east coast of Somalia to protect merchant ships on the 8th of April 2009 captain Castellano of the USS Bainbridge received word that American had just been abducted by pirates and they were on their way to Somalia ordered to intercept their vessel the USS Bainbridge set sail at top speed but the journey would still take many hours fortunately the lifeboat was slow and could only travel at 5 knots it also had the Maersk Alabama hot on its tail the crew had previously fixed the ship and they were determined to not let their captain out of their sight for over a day they pursued until the following night with the USS Bainbridge had arrived once they did the Bainbridge instructed the Alabama to leave the area and a sail to Kenya with a provided navy escort to other Navy ships were also on their way to provide support the USS boxer and the USS Halyburton captain Castellano had also been told that the Navy SEALs would be joining them as well and if he couldn't resolve the situation before they arrived then they would take over for two long days negotiations dragged but the Pirates demanding millions of dollars in ransom by the 10th of April the clock had run out for Castellano finding a peaceful solution as the seals had arrived they would do a night jump and parachute to his position but as the ships held back to pick up the seals captain Phillips attempted to escape by pushing one of the pirates into the water then Phillips jumped overboard as swam as fast as he could towards the naval ships but unfortunately there was a full moon that night and the Pirates easily spotted him and Phillips was quickly recaptured additionally the Navy was just too far away to help and by the time they realized there was him in the water it was too late Phillips was brought back aboard the lifeboat the Pirates beat him in retaliation and tied him up the threats worst life was now greater than ever but a window had opened up for the seals to act by now the lifeboat have been limping toward Somalia for over three days and was running out of fuel fearful of drifting off course the pirates captain called the USS Bainbridge and asked to come aboard one reason was to seek medical attention for his hand there previously injured during a scuffle Mike Perry the second reason was to negotiate for the release of captain Phillips and had the USS Navy take the pilot safely back to Somalia the pirates feared that if they drifted too far off course then they might land in a part of Somalia that was ruled by a rival tribe the USS Bainbridge accepted the deal and offered to tow the pirates back to the mainland however the USS Navy had other intentions with the wind securely fastened to the lifeboat they were able to very gradually close the distance between the small craft and the Bainbridge without the Pirates ever realizing it on the stone of the Bainbridge Navy SEAL snipers had taken position and had the Pirates in their sights the only thing they were waiting for was the right opportunity they needed to be able to take out the three remaining pirates at the exact same time otherwise there is Captain Phillips being executed stop the tow Rodgers stomp it out execute with all three pirates taken out the last remaining aboard the Bainbridge was brought into custody he would be sent to America to stand trial facts of piracy and be sentenced to 33 years in a federal prison for captain Richard Phillips the nightmare was over he had been trapped aboard that lifeboat for five days but I come through on the other side unharmed on April 17 2009 Richard Phelps returned to his home in Vermont where he received a hero's welcome I would just like to say that nothing makes me happier when reviewing historical film than to find out how much if it was true almost all of the real events that I've covered in this video matches up with what you see in captain Phillips now of course I'm not suggesting that they didn't take some creative liberties there's quite a few scenes where they stretch the truth pretty far but overall the filmmakers tried as best they could to authentically portray the events of the Maersk Alabama hijacking one of the things that immediately jumps out at me is where they shot the film they could have done the whole thing on a soundstage somewhere or in some random cargo ship but they decided to go that extra mile and film on the mask Alexander which is the sister ship to the Maersk Alabama everything you see from the creaking bulkhead to the engine room to the bridge is an identical copy to the real ship that got hijacked by pirates in 2009 instead of filming on a set they went with the real thing a ship that they could shoot in port or even take out into the open ocean there's nothing fake or artificial with the environments we see on the screen the shooting on the Maersk Alexander which is literally a exact sistership of the Alabama well this was fascinating because everything was real you know there's a lot of places to cock your head and the decks hurt your feet after a while because it's just hard metal plates you know it's such a great resource to just have an actual ship you know like Maersk gave us this the Maersk Alexandra the sister ship of the Alabama so it's not like some movie set where you're like you got some dummy prop like if you want to know you know what the engine room looks like go down to the engine you know you want to know what a radar looks like in the bridge it's right in front of you like so a lot of the work is done for you it's right there but they didn't just stop there instead of settling for one sister ship the filmmakers also wanted to go for two and that was the USS Truxtun a naval class destroyer there stood in for the USS Bainbridge and another really cool thing is that the men and women you see in the background they're not extras they're actually the crew of the Truxton which just shows how far the filmmakers wanted to make Captain Phillips look and feel believable and that is especially so with the casting of the Somali pirates it would have been so easy for the studio to go ahead and hire some famous actors from Hollywood and have them put on some African accent and wear the appropriate clothing but no the film's director Paul Greengrass wanted to cast real Somalians regardless if this is their first movie or not cast real Somalis that was important to me because I felt that it's a part of the world that's got a story to tell and it's people have a story to tell and I wanted young men who understood that part of the world to tell it these are just a few examples of how much Captain Phillips went that extra mile to make this film feel authentic however the movies also taken some flack regarding its portrayal of the real Richard Phillips and how they kind of prop him up as a hero which many of the crew who are on the Maersk Alabama had an issue with it really all began with how the media reported the original story and we just have a listen to the CBS news report from 2009 captain Phillips was held by Somali pirates for five days offering himself as a hostage in order to save his crew okay so that little part where she said how he valiantly offered himself to save the crew and me it's bullshit and if you ask captain Phillips himself he'll be the first to tell you 2010 he himself admitted if he acted as a hero it was accidental and would never claim a hero's title for himself the media got everything wrong I don't know how I could control this when I'm in a lifeboat in the end the media is saying I gave myself up for it in the book if you've read it have you read that I did I write so you know I didn't give myself up I was already a hostage by them and yet despite what Richard Phillips said and wrote in his book the movie adopts the same kind of narrative the media was spinning by having the character do heroic things for example if you look at the scene where the Pirates threatened to kill a hostage we see captain Phillips offer himself to protect his crew somebody who showed me according to the crew of the Alabama captain Phillips was the furthest thing from a hero in fact eleven of them sue the Maersk Line and the Waterman steamship corporation for nearly 50 million dollars and this was based on the decisions made by captain Phillips if you remember the scene in the movie where Phillips is reading those emails warning about pirates attacks in the area well those emails recommended that the Alabama diverts 600 miles away from Somalia but Phillips ignored the warnings in order to save money when the Alabama was hijacked it was only 300 miles offshore but Phillips would defend these decisions saying that the Pirates have been known to operate up up to 1200 miles away from Somalia so it really didn't matter how far you diverted whether it be 300 miles 600 miles or even a thousand miles you were still at risk within these waters his idea for safe bet was the shortest route possible in any case I can understand why the film felt it needed to heighten the drama by making captain Phillips heroic the audience needs to like enroute for its protagonist after all thankfully these small deviations from the truth only happened very occasionally the rest of the film is extremely accurate and respectful to the history it's trying to tell it's another shining example of what a true history buffs movie should be well that about wraps it up my name is Nick Hodges and thanks for watching history buffs and remember if you like the show help the channel grow if you wish to support history busting you can now do so at patreon and as always let me know in the comment section what you thought about captain Phillips and of course what historical movie should i review next in the meantime check out the history bus Twitter and Facebook pages from the updates until then I'll see you next time [Music]

Info

Channel: History Buffs

Views: 1,494,554

Rating: 4.9315243 out of 5

Keywords: somali pirates, based on a true story, historically innacurate, somalia (country), captain phillips, tom hanks, historical accuracy, historical film review, historical innacuracy, history (tv genre), historically accurate, history buffs, Paul Greengrass, Barkhad Abdi, CTF 151, US Navy, US Navy Seals, Seal Team Six, Somalia, Piracy, Ships, Sailing, Cargo Ships

Id: BlwIg6PYFEU

Channel Id: undefined

Length: 28min 37sec (1717 seconds)

Published: Sat May 12 2018

Reddit Comments

Misread the title as History Bluffs. Thought that would be an interesting idea for a series debunking the falseness in true stories. From my understanding Captain Phillips took some liberties.

👍︎︎ 1 👤︎︎ u/scottyatche 📅︎︎ May 12 2018 🗫︎ replies