Word: gunboat
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...been a burning issue until he picked it up: U.S. control of the Panama Canal. He started blasting the fact that both the Nixon and Ford Administrations had been negotiating a new treaty with Panama on the canal and its tenmile-wide zone, which the U.S. secured under gunboat pressure in 1903. Sensibly, Ford is willing to yield outright domination of the canal, but the move would be gradual and not completed until the next century (TIME, April 26). Even then, according to the Ford-Kissinger position, the U.S. would retain passage rights, share operational duties, and help defend...
...bitter winter wind churned up the North Atlantic waves last week, the Icelandic gunboat Thor headed for a covey of British fishing trawlers that had moved into a forbidden conservation area. Guarding the trawlers, the British frigate Yarmouth kept close cover on Thor. While both vessels were running closely abreast at a brisk 16 knots, one of them-the accounts differ-veered toward the other. Warning blasts were sounded, engines were thrown full astern. It was too late. Yarmouth's bow sliced into Thor, ripping away the starboard wing of the gunboat's bridge...
Inevitably, things got nasty. While crossing the bow of the British tug Euroman, the Icelandic gunboat Thor was rammed and damaged. The British claim it was an accident; the Icelanders believe it was deliberate. In any case, given the North Atlantic's chronic wintertime high winds and rough waters, such naval games of chicken were bound to produce collisions. A fortnight ago the confrontation grew more serious. While seeking shelter from a gale two miles off Iceland's coast, the unarmed British ocean-going tug Lloydsman was fired on by the Thor. Iceland says the Thor fired...
Three hours later, the U.S. planes reported that the gunboats were headed toward the mainland. Following Ford's instructions, the warplanes first fired across the boats' bows. When that failed to stop the Cambodian craft, the planes attacked with rockets and machine-gun fire, sinking five boats and hitting two others. A U.S. helicopter dipped down to pick up Cambodian survivors, but lifted off without any after it came under Cambodian fire. On Ford's orders, the eighth gunboat was allowed to proceed toward Kompong Som because a pilot reported seeing eight or nine men with "Caucasian faces" on deck...
...Mayaguez's crew later explained that their captors had kept them on the move?on Tuesday night to Koh Tang, on Wednesday to Kompong Som aboard the one gunboat that was unharmed by U.S. planes, and finally to the island of Rong, about 50 miles north of Koh Tang. More than an hour before the Marine assault on Koh Tang, the Cambodians had released the Americans and Thais, putting them aboard the fishing boat to make their way back to the Mayaguez...