EXCLUSIVE: Eagle tours USS Bainbridge, ship that rescued Captain Phillips from Somali pirates
One of the—if not the most—prestigious and famed naval ships in the U.S. Navy’s history docked at the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal in Red Hook on Wednesday for Fleet Week New York.
The ship is none other than the USS Bainbridge, an Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer that was the key ship involved in the rescue of Capt. Richard Phillips, who was taken hostage by Somali pirates in April of 2009.
The story goes that on April 8, 2009, four Somali pirates hijacked the U.S.-flagged Maersk Alabama container ship off the Somali port city of Eyl. After the Maersk Alabama crew miraculously overpowered the pirates, the freebooters kidnapped Phillips as a bargaining chip and absconded in a lifeboat.