(CNN) -- A U.S. warship arrived before dawn Thursday near a 28-foot lifeboat holding four pirates and the kidnapped captain of a U.S.-flagged cargo ship, officials said.
The USS Bainbridge, a guided-missile destroyer, is heading to the area to assist.
Also nearby was the Maersk Alabama -- which had been seized early Wednesday off the Horn of Africa. All 20 of its remaining crew members were in good physical shape, said Ken Quinn, second officer of the ship, in a satellite call placed by CNN.
"There's four Somali pirates, and they've got our captain," Quinn said.
Maersk spokesman Kevin Speers said the guided-missile destroyer USS Bainbridge was near the Maersk Alabama and that its crew was talking to the Navy.
"When the Navy comes in, they're in charge," Speers told CNN.
The hijackers boarded the Maersk Alabama early Wednesday, when it was about 350 miles off the coast of Somalia, a haven for pirates attacking shipping through the Gulf of Aden. Capt. Richard Phillips was being held in the lifeboat after the pirates reneged on their agreement to exchange him for one of their own, who himself had been captured by the crew members, Quinn said.
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