Ships Monthly Magazine BETTER BULKERS - February 2014 Back Issue

The film Captain Phillips should
be compulsory viewing for all
ship captains and, in fact, anyone
interested in the maritime world.
The film is an adaptation of the
book A Captain’s Duty: Somali Pirates, Navy
SEALs, and Dangerous Days at Sea (2010), by
Stephan Talty and Captain Richard Phillips,
who was master of the container ship Maersk
Alabama when she was hijacked off Somalia.
Not only is the film fast-paced and well
made, with outstanding performances from
Tom Hanks and Barkhad Abdi, who play the
container ship’s captain and the leader of the
pirates respectively, but it also highlights the
very real problems of piracy and how difficult
it is to tackle them. For example, on a practical
level, why aren’t ships made more secure so
that boarding them at sea is impossible?
But while Captain Phillips makes for
entertaining viewing in the cinema, it also
raises questions about the wider implications
of piracy, and the underlying causes. Even if
the name of the American captain is used for
the title, the depiction of the young Somalis
who chase and board Maersk Alabama on the
shores of their homeland shows the poverty
that drives the fishermen to risk their lives in
pursuit of the perceived rewards of capturing
a ship and then gaining a ransom.
And while the film can be seen just as a nailbiting,
fast-paced and tense thriller, on another
level it is about globalisation, the business of
moving cargoes round the world, and about
what happens when the paths of the poor
and rich intersect. Although in this instance
the might of the US Navy ensures that the rich
win, piracy remains a problem for the world’s
shipping companies, and long-term solutions
to try to eradicate it seem to be some way off.