Bedevilment

"Stand by for boarding by government agents!"

Boatswain James R. Ingraham, commanding a Coast Guard picket boat, shouted through the gloom of an early Florida morning last week at a fast little craft he had spotted on Biscayne Bay. "All right," came back a faint reply, but the boat, instead, went shooting off up Miami River.

The picket boat pursued. Boatswain Ingraham turned to Fireman's Mate Harold Lopes. "Fire a few shots across her bow," he ordered. "Aim at the superstructure of the new bridge across the river."

With his automatic revolver, Lopes fired. The quarry sped on. Then, on Ingraham's order, Machinist Samuel Jones opened machine-gun-fire from the picket boat's bow. Some 200 bullets whined through the dark. These random shots did not stop the runaway but they: 1) startled Mrs. Robert V. Latham, sitting up in bed aboard her husband's houseboat, one shot missing her by six inches; 2) "fanned" George D. Broughman, night watchman along the river; 3) penetrated the "parlors" of Undertaker John Gautier; 4) lodged in two houses on Miami's Flagler St.; 5) aroused hundreds of Miami sleepers; 7) stirred Miami's City Commission to consider a formal protest to Washington.

Fortunately for the Coast Guard, the pursued craft, found stranded and abandoned up the river, was a real rumrunner. Even so, the reckless rattle of Coast Guard bullets stirred afresh the anxiety of many a law-abiding yachtsman who had experienced the service's quick gunfire, its brusque raids, its salty backtalk. Protest after protest against officious bedevilment has been sent to the Coast Guard's squat red-brick headquarters in Washington. Invariably the Service has upheld its men for doing their duty.

Yachtsmen cite typical cases:

Jones. A prominent member of the coal business nowadays is "Tad" Jones. The public knows him better as the old-time coach of Yale football teams. Mr. Jones used to welcome to Yale physiques like coal heavers. Now he employs physiques like that professionally, and for his private yacht, the T. A. D. Jones, sturdy collier. Last week, off the New Jersey coast, the T. A. D. Jones was fired on, stopped by the U. S. Coast Guard cutter Seneca.

The Seneca searchers found no liquor. Mr. Jones grimly promised to complain to Washington.

Matheson. A bright sun was shining across Biscayne Bay in Florida one day last February as William John Matheson, retired chemical tycoon, sat on his Coconut Grove porch and watched one of his white high-sided launches return with indignant house guests from Key Biscayne six miles away. Close behind came a black speed launch in charge of Coast Guardsmen. A rough sea was running. Spray curtains had been in place. The guardsmen had fired five rifle shots at the Matheson boat to stop it.

Mr. Matheson filed a protest with Congresswoman Ruth Bryan Owen who took up the matter with Rear-Admiral Frederick C. Billard, Coast Guard commandant at Washington. Wrote Admiral Billard to Tycoon Matheson: "As your launch was innocently engaged, I express regret . . . but . . . the Coast Guard personnel involved are not censurable in this incident."

Fish. A drizzly rain fell over New York harbor at dusk one day last month. A trim little 30-foot cabin sportabout nosed out of the Kill van Kull, turned north across the Upper Bay. Aboard were Manhattan Broker Stuyvesant Fish, owner; Mrs. Fish; their two sons, and Captain A. Phillip Larsen. Mr. Fish was bringing his new yacht, the Restless, up from its builders, American Car and Foundry Co. at Wilmington, Del. From the Brooklyn shore a U. S. patrol boat slid out in pursuit of the Restless. Hard by the Statue of Liberty, the U. S. craft fired twice on the Fish boat. Capt. Larsen hove to. From the patrol boat to the Restless stepped a U. S. agent (No. 979). He had a gun. Others on the U. S. boat exhibited firearms. "Why the hell didn't you stop when we fired?" asked the agent. He inspected the Restless' papers, spent a half-hour up turning cushions, feeling in lockers for liquor. None was found. Mr. Fish was angry. He spoke his mind. From the U. S. boat came a voice: "You're damned lucky we didn't turn the machine gun on you." Later Mr. Fish learned that the patrol boat was part of the U. S. Customs Enforcement Service (not Coast Guard). Mr. Fish filed a protest at Washington against the boarding, the swaggering display of firearms, the "threatening and profane" language before Mrs. Fish and the boys. With yachtsmen fuming, pleasure-boat builders professed belief that the Government was threatening their business. President William Hartman Woodin of American Car and Foundry Co. -- a Wet Republican who supported Alfred Emanuel Smith for President -- called for united protest, thus: "Certainly the sport of boating cannot be safe if the lives and property of boat owners are subject to such perils. . . . Our Government should be asked to curtail the activities of Coast Guard boats. . . . Boat manufacturers with large invested capital are concerned about the future of the pleasure boat industry unless public confidence can be restored." To still the troubled waters of yachting, Commandant Billard, a determined officer with a "sense of duty," last week addressed a public communication to: "All Yachtsmen and Amateur Motor Boat Men." This message, issued a few hours before the Miami River episode, said:

"In the performance of duty . . . the Coast Guard must stop, board and examine vessels. Because yachtsmen and amateur motorboat men . . . are law-abiding citizens, yachts and motorboats used solely for pleasure . . . will not ordinarily be stopped . . . unless suspicious circumstances warrant such action. . . . No person is safe to be entrusted with the navigation of any vessel who does not occasionally take a glance around the horizon. Such a proper lookout will disclose . . . any Coast Guard boat . . . signaling you to stop. The Coast Guard boat will use her whistle or horn or a megaphone or visual signals ... to attract your attention. ... It may be necessary for the Coast Guard craft to fire a blank warning shot. If these fail to produce any result, the Coast Guard vessel is then justified in firing warning shots well clear of the fleeing craft and in assuming that she is endeavoring to escape. . . .

"Remember that, should your boat need assistance, the entire available resources of the Coast Guard are yours for the asking."