In April of last year, we followed the story of the Maersk Alabama and how its captain Richard Phillips was held hostage by pirates and then freed through an operation by the Navy SEALs. The vessel in the center of this hostage drama was a lifeboat, and that lifeboat has since been acquired by the Navy UDT-SEAL Museum in Fort Pierce, as mentioned in a previous post. It first went on display on August 14th 2009.

The lifeboat, however, was loaned to the Nauticus Museum. It was used as the centerpiece of the Museum’s “Real Pirates” display.

It will be returning to the Navy UDT-SEAL Museum on April 22, according to a feature on TC Palm, and will certainly attract visitors to the Navy UDT-SEAL Museum. Incidentally, Capt. Richard Phillips just released his memoirs, “A Captain’s Duty: Somali Pirates, Navy SEALs and Dangerous Days at Sea.”

Capt. Michael Howard, a retired Navy SEAL, says the following of the modern artifact: “This is a treasure, and not only does it drive home what the SEALs are about, it puts things in a modern context, which makes it more culturally relevant to our younger visitors.”

To those who are not yet familiar with the Navy UDT-SEAL Museum, it is the only one of its kind that is dedicated to the history of the Navy SEALs. It houses artifacts that tell the story of how the SEALs evolved to the elite team that it is today, sharing its beginnings with the Underwater Demolition Teams and the Navy Combat Demolition Units, among others.