PORTUGUESE REBELS SEIZE LINER

Press, Volume C, Issue 29421, 25 January 1961, Page 13

PORTUGUESE REBELS SEIZE LINER

Caribbean Pursuit By Warships After Piracy

(N.Z. Press Association—Copyright)

NEW YORK, January 24.

The British frigate, H.M.S. Rothesay, was today stalking the 20,906ton Portuguese cruise liner, Santa Maria, which was seized at inachine-gun point in the Caribbean by a band of rebels. Ihe rebels threatened to scuttle the liner with 600 passengers aboard, if any warship attempted to interfere. Two American destroyers and three naval aircraft were also heading for the scene. A radio message heard in Curacao early today said an unidentified Swedish ship had located the Santa Maria 100 miles east of Trinidad, the American Associated Press said.

First news of the uprising, in which one officer was reported shot dead and another injured by a grenade as the 69 rebels seized control of the ship, came from the Canadian Press in Ottawa, from naval sources.

Later the report was confirmed by the Defence Department in Washington and the British Admiralty in London.

The leader of the rebels was said by the Portuguese Government to be Henrique Galvao. a former Army captain from Portugal. A man bearing that name had long been a principal opponent of the Portuguese Prime Minister i Dr. Salazar) and had fled from Lisbon in 1959 after being charged with treason, the Government communique said. United Press International said that political circles in Lisbon claimed that Galvao might be heading tor Cuba, to pick up reinforcements before going to the Portuguese-held Cape Verde Islands, off the w-est coast of Africa, a voyage of about 3000 miles, to lead an anti-Government revolt.

But in Willemstad, Curacao, unconfirmed reports said that the Tebels had ordered the Santa Maria’s captain to change course and head for Brazil, where the group intended to seek political asylum. U.P I. said.

In spite of the rebels’ threat that the Santa Maria would be scuttled if a warship approached, the United States Defence Department said that three patrol planes were on their way to look for her. They would drop flares to help the United States destroyers Wilson and Damato, which were sent from Puerto Rico, find the liner.

After early confusion about the course the Santa Maria had been following, it was disclosed that she had been sailing from Curacao, in the Netherlands West Indies, to Port Everglades, north of Miami, Florida, when the uprising took place. First reports said the rebels seized control of the ship early yesterday, but later reports, quoting a boatload of injured crew merpbers put ashore on the British island of St. Lucia, put the date of the fighting aboard as .last Saturday. January 21. '

Agents for the vessel in Miami said she had been expected to dock at Port Everglades early today, but according to a spokesman, a radio message had been received yesterday afternoon saying there had been “engine difficulties,” and the Santa Maria now would not dock until later.

The Defence Department in Washington said the United States destroyers had been sent to intercept the Santa Maria under the “welldefined” terms of international law governing piracy and insurrection aboard ship. Navy officials said the warships had been told to search the ship when they found her. The H.M.S. Rothesay had been visiting St. Lucia when it was ordered to pursue the cruise liner. She set off on her mission under the command of Commodore H. J. C. Shand, Senior Naval Officer in the British West Indies.

The captain of the liner, who was reported to be in the

custody of the rebels, was identified as Mario Simoes Maia. A Lisbon communique said a group of about 70 passengers of various nationalities "assaulted” the liner at 2 a.m. yesterday after she had left Curacao. They killed the third pilot, Joao Jose do Nascimento Costa, and seriously wounded an officer trainee, a doctor and several other crew members, the communique said. Then the rebels “violently forced the rest of the crew to obey their designs and change the normal route.” The captain, named Mario Simoes Maia, was reported held captive.

The attack came while the passengers —American, Dutch. Venezuelan and Portuguese — and many of the crew were sleeping. But even so, the rebels met “strong resistance” from the crew, the Lisbon communique said. About noon yesterday the Santa Maria appeared off the

mountainous British island of St. Lucia, at the southern end of the West Indies chain, and put some wounded ashore by launch. It was learned in Bridgetown, Barbados, today that eight crewmen of the Santa Maria had been landed at St. Lucia. One of the men has two gunshot wounds. The Santa Maria’s second purser, who was among the wounded, was carried aboard the Rothesay, which was visiting St. Lucia. The purser met the Administrator of St. Lucia, the Earl of Oxford and Asquith, and Commodore H. C. J. Shand, Senior Naval Officer. West Indies.

After their conference, ships in the region were ordered to intercept the Santa Maria, and the Rothesay sailed in pursuit shortly after midday local time yesterday. A report from Bridgetown said that soon after the Santa Maria sailed from Curacao last Saturday, certain people called on the captain to sail direct to Miami. The captain’s refusal te meet this request resulted in his imprisonment and the shooting of the ship’s pilot. A.A.P. reported from London that the Rothesay reported today that the Santa Maria appeared to be headed for Brazil at a speed of about 20 knots. The British Admiralty said the Rothesay, a 370-foot submarine hunter, was trailing the Santa Maria in West Indies waters somewhere off Trinidad. The Admiralty said its frigate had been ordered to try to “arrest” the liner if she could do so outside territorial waters and by peaceful means—“without loss of life or the risk of scuttling.” The RCA radio station at Chatham, Massachusetts, said that at 2.30 a.m. it received a message in Portuguese “addressed to all newspapers” saying: “All is normal aboard. We will inform the world in due time.” RCA said the message was signed “Captain Henrique Galvao.” There was no indication of the location of the ship or of Galvao’s plans.