Somali pirates holding an American hostage on a drifting lifeboat hauled him back when he jumped overboard to escape and vowed yesterday to fight any attack by US naval forces stalking them at sea.
Ship captain Richard Phillips leapt into the sea during the night, but at least one pirate quickly followed and brought him back, a defence source said.
The pirate gang holding Capt. Phillips far off the Somali coast in the Indian ocean since Wednesday remained defiant despite the arrival of US and other naval ships in the area.
"We are not afraid of the Americans," one of the pirates said by satellite phone.
"We will defend ourselves if attacked."
Despite such militant talk, maritime groups tracking the saga - the first time Somali pirates have captured an American - say a more likely outcome is a negotiated solution, possibly involving safe passage in exchange for the captive.
Four pirates have been holding Phillips, a former Boston taxi driver, since Wednesday's foiled bid to hijack the 17,000-tonne Maersk Alabama several hundred miles off Somalia. According to certain sources, the pirates holding US ship captain Richard Phillips want $2 million for his release.
The ship's lifeboat has run out of fuel and two boats full of heavily armed fellow pirates have taken to sea in solidarity with the four on the lifeboat, but are too nervous to come near due to the presence of foreign naval ships including the USS Bainbridge destroyer which is up close.
"Other pirates want to come and help their friends, but that would be like sentencing themselves to death," said Andrew Mwangura, coordinator of the East African Seafarers' Assistance Programme that monitors the region's seas.
"They will release the captain, I think, maybe today or tomorrow, but in exchange for something. Maybe some payment or compensation, and definitely free passage back home."
Friends of the pirates on the lifeboat holding Capt. Phillips said the situation was becoming desperate.
"The captain might be harmed and so might my friends," said a pirate on one of the two boats that left the Somali coast. "We see more warships coming to the scene. We cannot go further."
The USS Bainbridge has called on the FBI and other US officials to help negotiate with the pirates.
Meanwhile a French hostage died yesterday and four others were freed when French forces attacked pirates who had seized their yacht off Somalia, President Nicolas Sarkozy's office said in a statement yesterday.
Two pirates were also killed in the military operation and three others seized.
The sailing boat, the Tanit, which was carrying two couples and a three-year-old child was seized by the pirates far from the coastline of the African country on April 4.
Mr Sarkozy's office said the child was saved by its forces but gave no details of who had died.
The statement said the French navy established contact with the pirates on Thursday. It added that a decision to launch a rescue operation was made after the pirates refused to accept their terms and tried to sail towards the coast.
"During the operation, a hostage sadly died," the statement said, adding: "(Sarkozy) confirms France's determination not to give into blackmail and to defeat the pirates."
Capt. Phillips is one of about 270 hostages being held at the moment by Somali pirates, who have been preying on the busy sea-lanes of the Gulf of Aden and Indian Ocean for years.
They are keeping 18 captured vessels at or near lairs on the Somali coast - five of them taken since the weekend alone.
Yet the fact Capt. Phillips is the first US citizen seized, and the drama of his 20-man American crew stopping the Alabama being hijacked on Wednesday, has galvanised world attention.
It has also given President Barack Obama another foreign policy problem in a place most Americans would rather forget.