NAIROBI, Kenya A U.S. destroyer kept watch today in waters where Somali pirates held an American captain in a drifting lifeboat near a cargo ship that was hijacked and later retaken by the crew in an hours-long, high seas drama.

The pirates took Capt. Richard Phillips as a hostage as they escaped into a lifeboat Wednesday in the first such attack on American sailors in around 200 years.

Kevin Speers, a spokesman for the ship company Maersk, said the pirates have made no demands yet to the company. He said the USS Bainbridge had arrived off the Horn of Africa near where the pirates were floating near the Maersk Alabama.

"It's on the scene at this point," Speers said of the Bainbridge, adding that the lifeboat holding the pirates and the captain is out of fuel.

"The boat is dead in the water," he told AP Radio. "It's floating near the Alabama. It's my understanding that it's floating freely."

The Bainbridge was among several U.S. ships that had been patrolling in the region when the 17,000-ton U.S.-flagged cargo ship and its 20 crew were captured.

Phillips' family was gathered at his Vermont farmhouse, watching news reports and taking calls from the U.S. State Department.

"We are on pins and needles," said Gina Coggio, 29, half-sister of Phillips' wife, Andrea, as she stood on the porch of his one-story house Wednesday in a light snow. "I know the crew has been in touch with their own family members, and we're hoping we'll hear from Richard soon."

Phillips surrendered himself to the pirates to secure the safety of the crew, Coggio said.

With one warship nearby and more on the way, piracy expert Roger Middleton from London-based think tank Chatham House said the pirates were facing difficult choices.

"The pirates are in a very, very tight corner," Middleton said. "They've got only one guy, they've got nowhere to hide him, they've got no way to defend themselves effectively against the military who are on the way and they are hundreds of miles from Somalia."

The pirates would probably try to get to a mothership, he said, one of the larger vessels that tow the pirates' speedboats out to sea and resupply them as they lie in wait for prey. But they also would be aware that if they try to take Phillips to Somalia, they might be intercepted. And if they hand him over, they would almost certainly be arrested.

Other analysts say the U.S. will be reluctant to use force as long as one of its citizens remains hostage.

The Maersk Alabama, en route to Kenya with relief aid, was attacked about 380 miles east of Mogadishu.