Captain Richard Phillips (yes that Capt. Phillips) is set to deliver this spring's commencement address at the Massachusetts Maritime Academy (where else?).
Adm. Richard Gurnon told the Cape Cod Times the school's initial plan was to invite both Phillips and Tom Hanks, the actor who portrayed the captain in the "Captain Phillips" film, to the campus. Neither Hanks nor Phillips were able to the first time around, but the latter has since agreed to speak at the June 21 commencement ceremony.
Hanks declined for a second time, but the school is still excited to have the real Captain Phillips deliver the "charge" to its cadets.
"We thought it would be cool to have both of them," Gurnon told the Times. "Tom Hanks has two movies back-to-back, so there was no physical way he could make it here. But the real Captain Phillips will be here June 21 at 10 a.m."
Phillips has already been to the Taylor Point campus; one year after Somali pirates took his ship hostage. In May 2010 Phillips attended the school's change of command, an event where the seniors relinquish leadership to the juniors.
Earlier this month, the school voted to give Phillips an honorary degree, cementing him as the commencement speaker.
"I've met him a bunch of times. He's low-key, but he's genuine," Gurnon said. "I was most impressed by his quiet confidence. He has genuine appeal to young people, and we're all looking forward to what he might say."
The "Captain Phillips" film, nominated for the Best Picture Oscar, was based on Phillips' book A Captain's Duty: Somali Pirates, Navy SEALs, and Dangerous Days at Sea." Phillips was even at the Academy Awards ceremony in Los Angeles earlier in the year.
Phillips ordered his crew to lock themselves in a cabin when his ship was taken hostage in April 2009. Meanwhile, he was held at gunpoint for five days in a lifeboat under the unrelenting sun. Phillips and his crew were then rescued when a team of snipers killed three of the four pirates.
"We feel that it is better to have a guest step up, particularly in Captain Phillips' case," Gurnon told the Times. "As a 1979 graduate, he certainly would have a lot of important things to say to a group of almost 300 young men and women who are getting their undergraduate and graduate degrees."
