A Captain's Duty - Couverture souple

Phillips, Richard

Couverture souple

ISBN 10 : 0857502468 ISBN 13 : 9780857502469

Editeur : Bantam, 2013

A propos du livre

Présentation de l'éditeur :

8th April 2009 was just an ordinary day for 53 -year-old Richard Phillips, captain of the United States-registered cargo vessel, the Maersk Alabama, as it headed towards the port of Mombasa. Ordinary that is until, two hundred or so miles off the east coast of Africa, armed Somali pirates attacked and boarded the freighter. It was the first time an American cargo ship had been hijacked in over 200 years.

What the pirates didn't expect was that the crew would fight back, nor did they expect Captain Phillips to offer himself as a hostage in exchange for the safety of his crew - a courageous gesture that resulted in his being held captive on a tiny life-boat off the anarchic, gun-plagued coast of Somalia. And so began a tense five-day stand-off, which ended in a daring high-seas rescue by U.S. Navy SEALs.

In A Captain's Duty, Richard Phillips tells his own extraordinary story - that of an ordinary man who did what he saw as his duty and in so doing became a hero. It is a thrilling true tale of adventure and courage in the face of deprivation, death threats and mock executions and also a compulsively readable first-hand account of the terrors of high-seas hostage-taking.

Quatrième de couverture :

'It never ends like this...'

Richard Phillips knew of the dangers. He'd said as much in an email to his wife.

And yet 8 April 2009 began as just another ordinary day for the fifty-three year-old captain of the Maersk Alabama, the US-flagged cargo ship carrying food and agricultural materials for the World Food Program. Ordinary that is until - some two hundred miles off the Horn of Africa - Somali pirates, armed with AK47s, attacked and boarded the freighter . . .

But the pirates didn't expect the crew to fight back. And they didn't plan on the captain offering himself as a hostage in place of his ship and crew. And ultimately they didn't bargain on the plain-talking, tough-as-nails officer they took as their prisoner. What followed was a tense five-day stand-off and an escalating battle of wills that would end in a daring and deadly high-seas rescue.

Captain Phillips' astonishing story is of an ordinary man who did what he saw as his duty, and in so doing became a hero.

À propos de cette édition

• Éditeur: Bantam
• Date d'édition: 2013
• ISBN 10: 0857502468
• ISBN 13: 9780857502469
• Reliure: Broché
• Nombre de pages: 320