Liberty Sun Crew Member's E-Mails

Below follows the series of emails sent from Liberty Sun crew member Thomas Urbik to his mother and father, Katy and Mike Urbik, starting at about 11:30 a.m. Eastern on Tuesday, just as his ship came under attack by Somali pirates in the Gulf of Aden.

To read the full story on how the Liberty Sun evaded capture, click here.

The emails from Thomas are verbatim. Email addresses have been removed to protect the privacy of the Urbik family.

Date: Tue, 14 Apr 2009 16:11:33 +0000
Subject: I love you all

We are under attack by pirates, we are being hit by rockets. Also bullets.. We are barricaded in the engine room and so far no one is hurt. a rocket penetrated the bulkhead but the hole is small. Small fire too but put out.. Navy is on the way and helos and ships are coming. I'll try to send you another message soon. got to go now. I love you mom and dad and all my brothers and family.

Dont worry too much. I am fine and we are being well monitered by the US navy who is demanding we send them a report every six hours on our position and status. We had several fly bys from US helicopters and planes. We are to arrive into mombasa in a little over a day from now. We in fact are going to be the second amarican ship to arrive into mombasa after the Maersk Alabama. I should be interesting to say the least. I can recall the old curse "May you live in interesting times" At least we have not had anyone throw hooks on our ship yet, though we have had small boats get too close for comfort, but turn away after following us for a bit. we are keeping a good eye out for them. We have had several drills to prepare ourselves to secure ourselves in the engine room. we can do it pretty quick by now. pluse the only way to get inside the ship is via the bridge doors. every other door is barred shut. and to get to the bridge you need to climb five storys of ladder. so that will buy us enough time to retreat into the engine room were bullets cant reach us. We have told the navy of our plan and said they can board and explel the pirates without worrying about hitting innocent sailors, if need be. Sorry I didnt send an email yesterday. I fell asleep in my bed right after I got off overtime last night.
-Love Tom

the navy has showed up in full force and we are now under military escort.. all is well. I love you all and thank you for the prayers.
-Tom