DISHU/WASHINGTON: A US Navy destroyer arrived off Somalia yesterday to apply pressure for the release of an American ship captain taken hostage in the first seizure of US citizens by increasingly bold pirates.

Gunmen briefly hijacked the 17,000-ton Maersk Alabama freighter on Wednesday, but the 20 American crew retook control after a confrontation far out in the Indian Ocean, where pirates have captured five other vessels in a week.

The four gang members were holding the captain on the ship's lifeboat and the crew were trying to negotiate his release.