(CNN) -- Friends and family of Jean and Scott Adam -- avid sailors killed by pirates while on a round-the-world boating adventure -- mourned their losses Wednesday and tried to make sense of the tragedy.
The Adams, along with fellow sailors Phyllis Macay and Bob Riggle, were found shot to death after U.S. forces boarded their hijacked vessel around 1 a.m. Tuesday, U.S. officials said.
The 58-foot yacht, named the Quest, was being shadowed by the military after pirates took the ship off the coast of Oman on Friday.
The forces responded after a rocket-propelled grenade was fired at a U.S. Navy ship about 600 yards away -- and missed -- and the sound of gunfire could be heard on board the Quest, U.S. Navy Vice Admiral Mark Fox told reporters.
"Despite immediate steps to provide life-saving care, all four hostages ultimately died of their wounds," U.S. Central Command said.
"We're trying to deal with the grief of the loss," Clayton Schmit, a friend of the Adams, told CNN. "We've been praying earnestly over the weekend, and (since) we had the news that thing went bad, we've all been deeply in mourning".
Schmit, a Lutheran minister, is a professor at Fuller Theological Seminary in California, where Scott Adam taught as a graduate student.
The Adams were from Marina del Rey, California. Macay and Riggle were from Seattle.
The killings took place as negotiations involving the FBI were under way for the hostages' release, Fox said. Two pirates had boarded a U.S. Navy ship Monday for the negotiations, he said. He told reporters he had no information on details of the negotiations or whether a ransom had been offered.
Two pirates were found dead on board the Quest, he said. In the process of clearing the vessel, U.S. forces killed two others, one with a knife, Fox said. Thirteen others were captured and detained along with the other two already on board the U.S. Navy ship. Nineteen pirates were involved altogether, he said. CNN
