MURPHY

AP photo

SEEKONK, Mass. — Attention Shane Murphy: The Somali Community Association of Ohio wants to take you out to dinner and ask for your help in protecting the Indian Ocean from pirates.

Murphy, of Seekonk, was chief officer of the Maersk Alabama in April when Somali-based pirates took over the ship. He no longer works for Maersk, but is still a merchant marine and consults for a private marine security company.

Bashir Haji, vice president of the Columbus, Ohio, Somali group, tried to reach Murphy on Wednesday after pirates attacking the Maersk Alabama were driven off by the ship’s crew armed with guns. Haji said the group wants to ask Murphy “to come to Columbus to give a speech about his ordeal with the pirates.”

Murphy said Wednesday night that he would consider the invitation. “Personally, I’m just willing to do anything to make it a safer area and help protect the mariners that are working out there,” he said.

“I have many friends in Africa, and I don’t hold anybody accountable for the actions of a few people,” Murphy said from his father’s home in Massachusetts. “I know there’s a lot of good people over there.”

Haji also wanted to ask for Murphy’s help in persuading the international community to “send a lot of money” to build a coast guard.

“They could watch and battle with the pirates,” Haji said. “We want Shane Murphy to be our voice. Somalia has not had a government in 20 years.”

About 45,000 Somalis live in the Columbus area, according to the group’s Web site.

Murphy spoke of the differences between himself and Abdwali Muse, a pirate who threatened Murphy’s life in April and was captured in Wednesday’s attack. “I started going to sea when I was a child; I worked hard and educated myself and made a career for myself. Somebody just handed him a weapon and said, ‘Go see what you can find.’ ” Murphy said he wants to help train Somalians to defend their coast and make a living.

“If I can help give these people an opportunity to learn what I have, maybe we could turn some people around,” he said.

Murphy works for Nexus Consulting Group, which provides armed security in the Gulf of Aden to three major U.S.-flagged shipping companies, said Elizabeth R. O’Keefe, a lawyer in Woburn, Mass., who represents Nexus and Murphy.

Nexus president Kevin Doherty “is very much interested in being a part of the formation of a coast guard to fight piracy,” O’Keefe said.

Murphy said he and Doherty brainstormed Wednesday about “how to make a coast guard.”

“People tend to assume I’m a warmonger,” Murphy said. “But I’m not. I like to educate people there about America, our history, the language. I’d be happy to teach them how to be seamen, how to patrol waters, how to make a life.”

O’Keefe said Nexus hires former U.S. military operatives such as Navy Seals who could disable a pirate skiff before it comes within range to launch a rocket-propelled grenade, the preferred weapon of pirates.

Having a proven deterrent aboard “is actually lowering the cost of kidnap and ransom insurance by as much as 40 percent” for the shipping lines who hire them, she said.

Maersk is not a client of Nexus, she said.

dnaylor@projo.com