Captain Carlsen Alleges Piracy

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30677, 17 February 1965, Page 13

Captain Carlsen Alleges Piracy

(N.Z. Press Association—Copyright)

NEW YORK, February 16.

Captain Kurt Carlsen, the Danishborn seaman who won fame in the 1951 sea drama of the sinking Flying Enterprise, said today that Viet Cong guerrillas have increased raids on American merchant ships carrying aid to South Vietnam.

Pirating by the unarmed Communists has been going on for two years but now is “more vicious than usual,” Captain Carlsen said. His vessels had lost “quite a bit of cargo,” including munitions, from the raids. Captain Carlsen said he protested on the latest incident to U.S. consular representatives in Saigon and to U.S. Naval Intelligence in Formosa but has received no assurances of any help. Captain Carlsen said he and other American ship captains want U.S. officials in Vietnam to supply armed troops to the

ships as they near Indo-Chin-ese ports.

The latest raid occurred on December 2, 1964, said Captain Carlsen, who returned home last week after a fourmonth around-the-world voyage.

Six Communist guerrillas climbed aboard his 9000-ton freighter, Exbrook, as it steamed eight miles off the Vietnam coast.

The crew, alerted to a possible raid, struck the raiders with night sticks and they scrambled overboard, he said. After the ship docked, more than 25 other “unauthorised persons” boarded to loot, but they were driven off by the crew. Next time, Captain Carlsen said, he intends to shoot the pirates.

On Christmas night in 1951 Captain Carlsen began his heroic battle to save the Flying Enterprise when the ship’s hull cracked under the strain of mountainous waves off the southern coast of England.