Word: shipful
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...would-be defector was quietly returning to the Marshal Konev until an officer of the ship talked to him at the gangplank. Then Medvid suddenly jumped into the water once again and swam back to shore. There he was caught by the pursuing Soviet officer and handcuffed while struggling violently. He even began beating his head against rocks. He was carried aboard the Konev, still kicking and screaming. On the ship, he slashed his left wrist in a possible suicide attempt...
...Medvid be interviewed. He was examined and questioned by State Department representatives as well as by the Navy doctor and Air Force psychiatrist, both of whom concluded that he was not under the influence of drugs and was competent to decide what he wanted to do. While his ship's skipper, its doctor and two Soviet diplomats watched, Medvid insisted that he had merely fallen overboard and had no intention of deserting...
...psychiatrist, however, said the evidence showed that Medvid had jumped "purposefully from his ship" and that when he was returned to it, he "probably felt very afraid of the consequences and very much trapped in a corner." The Soviets apparently threatened to retaliate against the sailor's family at home, and he became "rather guilty at having jeopardized their safety," the psychiatrist theorized. The State Department ruled that he could not be held against his expressed wishes and let him return to the Konev...
...inept handling of the case set off a storm on Capitol Hill. Since corn shipments were involved, North Carolina Senator Jesse Helms, chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee, issued a subpoena ordering Medvid to appear before the committee. Helms' aides served the paper on the ship's captain, but Soviet officials announced that they would not comply. In fact, the Senate committee had no practical way to enforce its subpoena, and the ship's departure showed the futility of trying to clean up a diplomatic mess through congressional intervention...
Last September French officials belatedly admitted that unnamed secret-service frogmen had carried out the attack, in which a photographer died, to keep the ship from protesting French nuclear tests on the Pacific atoll of Mururoa. The incident had badly shaken the administration of Socialist President François Mitterrand and forced the abrupt departures of two senior government officials. Last week's hearing was expected to reveal new details in the convoluted affair...