Crewmember of M/V Maersk Alabama Recounts Initial Day of Pirate Attack

You know what happened to the captain of the M/V Maersk Alabama after it was attacked by pirates.

Now read exclusive details of how the crew handled the attack.

Village Voice writer Graham Rayman obtained e-mails from a crewman describing how shipmates took control of the engine and steering rooms.

Here’s a sample:

“We kept swinging the rudder side to side,” the crewman says. “The
pirates’ boat capsized … after about 20 minutes, the engine was
killed, I don’t know by whom. At that point I shut off the air bottles
and Mike [the chief engineer] killed power. He was also able to get
outside and trip the fuel shutoff for the EDG [emergency generator].”

E-mail shows tense standoff