At some point, after so many stories, so many assignments, it’s not often you come across one that is unique on so many levels. Then again, it’s not like ‘pirates’ appear in the headlines too often either.

As a matter of fact, to illustrate how random the subject matter used to seem, I would try to liven up our morning meetings most of last year with various ‘pirate updates’, getting the reactionary ‘arg’ from the room before I’d proceed recounting whatever the Somalis were up to and their latest attacks. However, the act had grown old and played out and I stopped giving them…until last week when we revived the topic only on a more sobering platform.

So by now, I’m sure you’ve all heard the story of the Maersk and its captain. You’ve likely chatted with friends about the ‘Tom Clancy-esque’ details of the military actions that ended the standoff. I too was captivated. Then, this week I found a heightened appreciation for the story after interviewing some of the crew members.

They were staying at the Gaylord Hotel at National Harbor. My assignment was to get as many interviews as possible and put together a story. And it went from quickly went from ordinary to exhilarating when talking first hand with crew members about what happened, behind the scenes.

ATM Reza, (from India) told me how he and tricked one of the pirates into following him to the engine room…supposedly to round up the rest of the sailors.

“I told him trust me I am Muslim you are Muslim, trust me Abdul”, Reza remembered with a grin.

“He was going down to the engine room to find the rest of the crew”, Reza said.
And you decided to take action, I asked.
“Take action. My planning was to kill him and save myself.”

Reza told me how the pirate, named Abdul, followed him. How it was dark because the power on the ship had been turned off. How there was another seaman already there and the two jumped Abdul. Reza says he pulled a knife, and stabbed him through the hand…began kicking him, hitting him, and eventually tied him up. But Reza says he wanted to kill him.

So did Miguel Ruiz.

“I pull a knife,” he told me in broken English. “On his face and say I’m gonna kill you. We get on the radio and my supervisor say Miguel, don’t do nothing to this guy.”

But he too, wished to kill Abdul.

It’s not often you interview an otherwise ordinary person (they called themselves truck drivers at sea) who readily admit on camera that they either tried to, or wanted to kill another person. And say it with enough conviction that you don’t doubt them.

Their stories were riveting.

If you didn’t hear them during our newscast…I’m sure you will elsewhere. Undoubtedly, deals are being struck, contracts written, checks cut and movie scripts formulated. These victims of circumstance know they can cash in on their newfound fame. (One of the more high-profile crew members who’d done a couple of network interviews and likey with big deals in the works…already seemed to have a too lofty opinion of himself, shoving his hand over a camera lens as a lone photographer tried to get a picture of the sailor as he walked through the hotel lobby)

Some will emerge heroes in the public’s eye, others will be back on the water and into anonymity before the month’s end. Either way, they’ll do so with amazing stories to tell, and now appreciatively, I will too.