CREW'S SOLIDARITY ACTION WITH VIETNAMESE BRINGS PUNISHMENT ON COMPANY
A novel lawsuit, arising out of the refusal of a crew of Greek seamen to transport military matériel from the U.S. for use against the Vietnamese is being heard at Norfolk, Virginia. The U.S. government, accusing the Marilena Navigating Company of breach of contract, attached the Marilena P. when she arrived from Canada with a load of pig iron. Washington is seeking $65,962 for losses involved in loading and unloading 400 tons of arms and having to charter a substitute carrier. The shipping company is expected to file a counterclaim for $65,000 plus interest and lost profits.
En route between Seattle and Tacoma in September 1965, the crew were told that they were to pick up cargo and sail for Vietnam. When the ship reached Tacoma and the crew saw tanks and guns coming aboard, they balked. The crew complained to U.S. immigration officials, who took a vote among them. The vote was 26 to 3 to. stay away from Vietnam. Chief Engineer C. Dimitrakis, the only member of the original crew still aboard the ship, was quoted as saying through an interpreter, "All men told, one by one, I don't go to Vietnam now because I'm afraid for my life." Only he, the captain and the chief officer voted to go.
At the time, West Coast antiwar demonstrators sent a telegram of congratulations to the crew. When the militant seamen returned home, the Greek government, as a gesture of appeasement to the State Department, suspended their papers for six months.