When the American skipper of a U.S.-flagged cargo ship was rescued from the clutches of four Somali pirates last month, Capt. Richard Phillips became a household name.
His crew, not so much.
But Jimmy Sabga, a veteran sailor from Aurora, Ont., who has spent 46 years on the high seas, knows exactly what went on that day.
Sabga was one of the two dozen crew members on board the Maersk Alabama, the day the pirates first came aboard on April 8.
The 65-year-old says the pirates' attempted hijacking happened in a flash.
"It happens so fast that you can't think," Sabga told CTV Toronto in a recent interview.
For nine hours, the crew hid in two groups, in two separate parts of the ship.
Sabga won't say where he and his fellow crew members were, but said it was very hot where he was hiding. And it was stressful.
"I started to get irritable that I couldn't take it," he said. "But, if the pirates had stayed on...it was frightful to know what would have happened to us."
Eventually the crew members took control of the ship and the pirates left, taking the captain hostage in a lifeboat.
Phillips spent five days waiting to be rescued in the lifeboat, until U.S. Navy Seals ended up killing three of the Somali pirates during a brief -- and daring -- raid on April 12.
A fourth pirate was taken into custody and brought back to the U.S., where he is expected to face trial on piracy charges.
The Maersk Alabama crew eventually left the scene, off the Horn of Africa, reaching port in Mombasa, Kenya, the day before Phillips was rescued.
Seven days after the ordeal, Sabga was reunited with his wife and family.
His wife, Darlene, said he was speechless.
"He couldn't talk, he couldn't talk," she said. "He was emotionally overwrought."
Safe and sound, and back in Canada, Sabga said he had intended for the fateful voyage on the Maersk Alabama to be his last.
But he admitted to CTV Toronto that if his ship called again for his services, he would answer that call.
With a report from CTV Toronto's Galit Solomon and files from The Associated Press
