The crew of a container ship that narrowly escaped a pirate hijacking last week have hailed their captain a hero for surrendering himself to save them

Speaking shortly after the US registered Maersk Alabama arrived safely in Mombasa, the American sailors described how they fought off four Somali pirates who climbed on board their ship from a small pirate skiff.

The action of Captain Richard Phillips, who handed himself over to the pirates to safeguard his men saved their lives, they said.

Captain Phillips remains a hostage in a lifeboat with his captors who are believed to be preparing to transfer him to another ship. The lifeboat, which has no fuel and is drifting off the coast of Somalia is being closely watched by U.S. warships in an increasingly tense standoff. A Pentagon spokesman said negotiations were ongoing.

Today the Alabama's crew described how the pirates crept onto the boat unnoticed by the 20 strong crew.

"They came from the stern of the ship and came on with hooks and ropes and were firing in the air when they got on board," said ATM Reza, a crew member who said he was the first to see the pirates.

As the pirates fired shots in the air, Captain Phillips, 53, told his crew to lock themselves in a cabin and surrendered himself, his sailors said.

"He saved our lives!" second mate Ken Quinn declared from the ship as it docked in the Kenyan port of Mombasa. "He's a hero," he said.

Mr Reza, a father of one told how he led one of the pirates to the engine room, where he stabbed him in the hand with an ice pick and tied him up.

The rest of the crew did not give more details, but have told family members by phone that they took one pirate hostage before giving him up in the hope their captain would be released. Instead, the Somalis fled with Captain Phillips to the lifeboat.

The ship, transporting food aid to Kenya, was the sixth seized in six days as Somali pirates range farther south to avoid the fleet of warships guarding the approaches to the Suez Canal through the Gulf of Aden. It is thought to be the first pirate seizure of a US merchant ship since the Barbary Wars 200 years ago.

In Mombasa, as the crew faced questioning from a throng of journalists, one sailor told them: "Don't disrespect these men like that. They've got a man out on a lifeboat dying so we can live."

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