Pirates: The Maersk Alabama

Now given the new mission of returning Phillips to a flight to his Vermont home, the USS Bainbridge was briefly diverted to deal with yet another pirate threat to an American vessel, the MV Liberty Sun, that happily evaporated. Meanwhile, Phillips' wife, Andrea, an emergency room nurse, and their two children, Mariah and Daniel, were back in Underhill, Vt., holding a vigil with their neighbors for the snowboarder, Celtics fan and former Boston cabdriver.

Phillips' crew lauded him as one the best captainsindeed, one of the best menthat they had ever known. Second Mate Quinn, of Bradenton, Fla., said Phillips saved their lives. The crew was proud of their captain, and each other, for not giving in to their assailants.

Andrea, Mariah, Daniel, and Phillips' mother, Virginia, met him at the airport. They brought him home to Underhill to chicken pot pie, beer, and browniesand a town of 3000, who celebrated him as a hero.

Phillips modestly maintained he was just doing his job and thanked the unnamed SEALs, calling them the real heroes.

Reza, the engineer who stabbed Muse in the hand, was unsure whether to continue working as a merchant marine. For awhile he'd stay with his wife and son at their home in West Hartford, Ct. But he did announce that he'd no longer participate in humanitarian missions to Darfur, which the former political science student had carried out in the past.

William Rios, a Puerto Rican sailor living in East Harlem, just said that as a New Yorker he was not afraid of anything, including pirates.