Captain Richard Phillips

Adjective Web (By Me)

I chose to read about Captain Richard Phillips because I saw a movie called "Captain Phillips" and it was amazing, I just felt the urge to make him known, at least in my classroom. My book is sort of an autobiography, he wrote it with Stephan Talty. My book has 286 pages. My book was published in 2010. Mr. Phillips played basketball, football and lacrosse in high school. When he played basketball, his coach took him and a guy named Gunk aside after practice and said to Mr. Phillips, "I'm not gonna play you because your father never played me and Gunk, I'm not gonna play you because I don't like you." I think that was rude. There weren't many dates in the book. Mr. Phillips has been doing his job for 30 years. He has two kids who were in college when this tragedy occurred, Mariah and Dan.

Richard Phillips (By Me)

He was born in Winchester, Massachusetts. Mr. Phillips went to college in Massachusetts, but he dropped out after the 1st semester. College just wasn't for him. He didn't know what he wanted to be. He didn't have anything figured out. He became a college drop out cab driver, when one day he had a customer who told him about where he went to school and how he is a Merchant Marine. Then Mr. Phillips decided to go to the Massachusetts Maritime Academy to become a Merchant Marine. He learned discipline, which he says was good for him, but the only downfall was, "That there were no girls" Hahaha. He was really into sports. Both of his parents were teachers, but not once did his father ever tell him he loved him. He has a brother named Michael and a sister named Patty. (not much is said about them) In 1998, he was unloading a fire truck in Greenland with some guys from the army who hadn't ever seen a ship before. All of a sudden, the ship rolled and 4 tons of metal was swinging down right at him. He thought, either he could duck down and it may crush his head, or he could take the hit. He decided to take the hit. He snapped his collar bone, broke 4 ribs in 2 places each, collapsed a lung, and separated his shoulder. Eeeeks!

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The main challenge that he faced in his life was being taken hostage by the Somali Pirates. That is basically all my book was about. He kept a sense of humour through practically everything. Of course there were some times when he was sad or scared, for example, the pirates would do a ritual where they would threaten to kill him, and a pirate would stand behind him with an AK-47 and threaten to shoot (but wouldn't) and he would just say, "Can you just shoot already?" The U.S Navy, the U.S Navy Seals and most of his crew were a great help. He admitted to making several different mistakes, like for one, trusting the pirates. (read the book to find out why they even dared to trust the pirates) Not much humour happened in my book, it was mostly sad, but it isn't the depressing sad kind, it is a great book. Mr. Phillips has not received any awards that I know of.

Book Cover (By Me)

I was disappointed with the fact that the pirates abused him. I wasn't surprised at the fact that the Somali Pirates didn't follow through on some promises they made. Three questions that I would ask my hero if I ever got to meet him would be: 1: Are you afraid of Sharks? 2: Have you ever been hurt by an animal in the sea? 3: Were you ever, not really scared? I don't know if I would want to be this person's child, because he had two kids and his 1 kid, Dan, would always say "I don't have a dad, he is never here. He doesn't love me." Of course he loves him, but it is his job to be away for three months. I like having a dad who won't go away for three months. I like this book a lot. It definitely proves that life isn't perfect, and sometimes, the worst can happen. I definitely learned about how to be more brave, and to think of others before yourself even more. You would love to read this book, it is a true heroic story. I'm happy that I chose this person to write and read about. I thought it was just an amazing story. I definitely look up to him as a role model, because he risked his own life to save 20 other guys on the ship.