Vermont House defends its own in pirate saga
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Lea Coggio, the sister-in-law of Captain Richard Phillips, talks to the media at Phillips home in Underhill, Vt., on Thursday. Phillips, 53, taken hostage by Somali pirates, were adrift in a lifeboat Thursday off the Horn of Africa, reports said. Toby Talbot / The Associated Press |
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By Louis Porter Vermont Press Bureau - Published: April 10, 2009
MONTPELIER The Vermont Statehouse is a long way from the waters off the coast of Africa where Somali pirates briefly seized a vessel this week. But the fact that Capt. Richard Phillips of the Maersk Alabama lives in Underhill and that as of late Thursday he remained in the hands of those pirates brought the high seas crime closer to Montpelier.
Gov. James Douglas said Thursday he talked to Andrea Phillips, Richard Phillips' wife, by telephone.
Andrea Phillips told him she didn't get much sleep the night before and asked for police assistance dealing with crowds of television and news crews, Douglas said.
"We hope this situation will be resolved soon," Douglas said. "She said, as she has publicly, that he responded as she would have expected."
Meanwhile, the House of Representatives approved a resolution expressing concern about Phillips' safety and calling for his release.
House members stood with heads bowed as the resolution was read aloud at the outset of the afternoon session. A moment of silence followed.
Rep. Bill Frank, a Democrat who represents the embattled captain's hometown, asked fellow members to join him in praying for the "courageous Vermonter's" safe return.
"We certainly would like to offer our thoughts and prayers
and recognize his courageous action to offer himself as a hostage to help keep the other crew members safe," Frank said.
There are a number of merchant marine ship officers or crew living in Vermont. One of them is Charles Davis of Danby, who worked for Maersk among other companies during his decades working at sea.
"If you can live anywhere in the world and fly to your ship where are you going to live? You are going to live in Vermont," Davis said Wednesday.
Even large ships have small crews now, with automation doing much of the day-to-day work, and that leaves few hands to take care of major problems if they do crop up, said Davis, who was chief engineer among other jobs on cargo ships and tankers until his recent retirement.
Except on ships doing work for the military, which may have a contingent of U.S. Marines or soldiers, most ships have one pistol in a safe in the captain's quarters hardly enough to stop pirates, Davis said.
"That is typical armament," he said.
So ships including some of those he worked on use large electric lights or powerful water hoses to try and fend of pirates. Hiring private security or soldiers could mean paying more than it costs for the crew, he said.
"It's just a function of poverty. Those people there are starving," Davis said. "It's desperados who are desperate because they are poor."
Davis, who once visited the Maersk Alabama when both his ship and it were in port in the Middle East, said he expects he may know one of the engineers who are now on the vessel.
"The chances of me knowing one of them is pretty good," he said.
louis.porter@rutland herald.com
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