Captured by pirates, ship captain recounts ordeal

Posted: Tuesday, December 02, 2008 10:48 AM
Filed Under: Cairo, Egypt

CAIRO – Egyptian Captain Mahmoud Hammad quickly dispelled any notion that Somali pirates treat their captives well.       

"Any movement and they would put a gun to our heads or in our sides," he said of the pirates who seized his ship. "Every second, we didn't know what would happen next." 

Hammad was transporting a cargo of cement from Karachi to Djibouti with his 24 shipmates aboard the Mansoura, an Egyptian-owned, Panama-flagged ship, when pirates struck.

"On the third of September at 7:20 a.m., pirates surrounded us in two small boats, seven men to a boat. When we saw them, we rang the alarm bell to warn the crew." 

NBC News/Mohamed Muslemany

Captain Mahmoud Hammad, safe and sound back in Cairo after his 23-day pirate ordeal.

The captain’s first thought: "How can we resist them? They have weapons. I have nothing. The second thought was that I wanted the crew to be safe. They threatened to hit us with rocket-propelled grenades and sink us if we didn’t stop." 

The crew grabbed high-pressure fire hoses and began shooting water to sink the small boats, just as they had been trained to do. But water was no match for bullets. 

'Then the pirates climbed on board'
"When the pirates shot twice in the air, everyone dropped the hoses and ran to their cabins," said Hammad as he began to recount how the ship was seized. "Then the pirates climbed on board and began to round up the crew. Two men were missing and the pirates said they would shoot them if they didn’t come out. We found the men sleeping in their cabins and brought them up. 

"They put three of the crew to work on the engines and told me to take the bridge.  They locked the rest in one cabin. Then they went through the ship’s cabins and stole everything belonging to the crew and broke into the safe and stole the money. 

"When we finally dropped anchor off the northern coast of Somalia, I asked them to split the crew up between two cabins because 21 men locked in one cabin would suffocate.  They agreed and separated them in two cabins." 

Meanwhile a British warship followed them for six hours at a distance of five miles, aware that the Egyptian ship had been captured. The pirates were fearful, but the British ship did not interfere. Hammad’s spirits were raised at the comforting presence of the ship, but soon dashed.

"I had hoped they would at least see the process and stop me," said Hammad. "At least if they stopped me in international waters they could have protected me, but they let me go to the pirate’s home where he has support."

‘When the food finished, we had even bigger problems’
When they arrived in Somalia, 25 more pirates boarded the ship in addition to the original 14, each armed with a Kalashnikov and a handgun, and a total of three RPG launchers.  They were all young, between 20 to 26 years of age, with no apparent affiliations to Somalia’s many militias, said Hammad. "They are fugitives. They are not from any tribe or faction in Somalia.  They are wanted men running from the law. They hurt the entire region." The pirates’ isolation became painfully obvious when they ran short of food and water.

With 35 extra mouths to feed, the ship’s provisions dwindled quickly. "When the water finished we had problems with them. When the food finished, we had even bigger problems." 

The pirates had no one on the mainland to re-supply them.  At first, they demanded the captain buy food and water. But he told them they had stolen the $15,000 intended to buy food.  The pirates told him they had already spent it all on qat, a mild narcotic popular in Somalia. 

"Finally they went to get food," said Hammad. "God knows if they stole it or what. But they would bring live sheep or goats, flour and sugar. We would do the butchering. They didn’t know anything. They only wanted two things: qat and money."

In the pirates lair
The pirates forced the captain to sail to Eyl, a coastal town in Northern Puntland that has become a pirate haven where many captured ships await release. Hammad noted about 11 ships from such countries as Malaysia, Japan and Iran. 

Once at ease in their lair, the pirates began to demand a ransom of $3 million. Hammad became the middleman in high-stakes negotiations that would determine their survival. For 13 tense days, from 10 p.m. until 3 a.m. Hammad, who was in direct contact with a member of Egyptian intelligence and the ship’s owner, bargained them down. 

"We told them the cement is ruined and nobody will want it. They will throw it in the sea. You damaged our ship’s equipment and now the ship won’t be worth its full price. So they came down to $2 million. I said no Egyptian will pay that price for the ship. They will say keep the ship and we will take the crew because they belong to their country.   The pirates finally came down to $600,000 and the ship’s owner agreed to the price."

How do you get ransom money to outlaws?
Hammad thought his problems were over but a new set of obstacles arose: how to get the money into the pirates’ hands. The pirates’ outlaw status and lack of affiliation to Somali or foreign groups prevented them from going inland to pick up the ransom or having it transferred to an account or individual. 

"They don’t want to take their money from a bank, from inside the country, from outside the country. There was nobody to provide an ID number, nobody to go and get the ransom," explained Hammad. "The owner of the boat is telling them the ransom is with so and so in Somalia. They say they can’t go and take it.  They say, ‘If I go to that area, they will have my head.’"

Tempers flared as the pirates waited for the ransom to be delivered. They told the captain they had only taken his boat because they couldn’t find an oil tanker. Anxious to make money, the pirates fought over the fate of their hostages.  

"They used to fight amongst themselves with guns every day on the ship. One of them was wounded when they were fighting." Hammad explained that the Egyptian crew administered first aid to one of their captors who had a bullet wound in his head.

"They fought every day because the time drew on and no ransom. Some of them wanted to sink our ship and kill the crew. But we knew they wanted the ransom." They ominously warned the captain that they had already murdered a Malaysian crew before sinking their ship.    

Finally, a member of Egyptian intelligence flew by private jet to the town of Galcaio near Eyl with the ransom paid by the ship’s owner. Two days later recounts the captain, the crew was freed after a 23-day ordeal.

 ‘The solution is international, not personal’
"I am happy to be alive. They took everything from us, money, mobile phones, clothes, presents we were bringing our children. It doesn’t matter. The problem is the horror we saw. It was not an easy thing. When will I forget it? Of course it took a big psychological toll on all of us, young and old alike. We saw things that made us say maybe we will die the next second. Maybe they will pick me and say "Come here," and they will shoot me."     

Hammad has not worked since, although he has been asked repeatedly to sail the same waters.  "When the route is safe, I will go, but not until then."

He insists that only decisive action by the international community will end piracy. "My advice is not to other captains. What can captains do? My advice is to NATO. They should give a powerful response. The law requires them to protect shipping lanes. Where is their response?  They have to see where these things are coming from and stop. You have to strike them, and not let them enter the water." 

Egypt obliges all sailors to take a self-defense course, but Hammad believes such measures fail to deter piracy. "All of us took the same course. It is not useful. The solution is international, not personal. Nobody can take an individual action against them. There are two things: Either he will kill you or he will die. When they kill them, then the problem will be solved."

Related link: Pirates chase, open fire on U.S. cruise ship

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