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Navies and Soft Power

Historical Case Studies of Naval Power 

and the Nonuse of Military Force

Bruce A. Elleman

and S. C. M. Paine, Editors

NAVA L WA R COLLEGE PR ESS

Newport, Rhode Island
Naval War College

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Newport Paper Forty-Two

June 2015

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To the unsung heroes of crisis response—federal, state, and local government employees, 

members of firms in the private sector and of faith-based organizations, tribal 

representatives, political representatives of the people, and volunteers. Each contributes 

to a collective capacity and capability that is unmatched in any other nation.
Contents

Foreword, by Michael F. Pavković v

Preface, by Bruce A. Elleman vii

List of Acronyms and Abbreviations ix

Introduction: Navies Are Not Just for Fighting, 

by Bruce A. Elleman and S. C. M. Paine 1

CHAPTER ONE Sailors and Slaves: USS Constellation

and the Transatlantic Slave Trade 7

by John Pentangelo

CHAPTER TWO Overwhelming Force and the Venezuelan

Crisis of 1902–1903 21

by Henry J. Hendrix

CHAPTER THREE Starvation Blockade and Herbert Hoover’s 

Commission for Relief in Belgium, 

1914–1919 47

by Bruce A. Elleman

CHAPTER FOUR The Allied Embargo of Japan, 1939–1941: 

From Rollback to Deterrence to 

Boomerang 69 

by S. C. M. Paine

CHAPTER FIVE After the Fall of South Vietnam: 

Humanitarian Assistance in the 

South China Sea 91

by Jan K. Herman

CHAPTER SIX Continuing to Serve: Deploying Naval 

Vessels as Artificial Reefs 109

by Tom Williams
CHAPTER SEVEN Naval Sonars, Strandings, and 

Responsible Stewardship of the Seas 127

by Darlene R. Ketten

CHAPTER EIGHT U.S. Coast Guard Response to the 

Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill 145

by Rear Adm. Mary Landry, 

U.S. Coast Guard (Retired)

CHAPTER NINE Deep Blue Diplomacy: Soft Power and 

China’s Antipiracy Operations 163

by Andrew S. Erickson and 

Austin M. Strange

Conclusions: Breaking the Mold, by Bruce A. Elleman and

S. C. M. Paine 181

Selected Bibliography 201

About the Contributors 207

Index 211

The Newport Papers 229
Foreword

This book is the last in a series of seven collections of case studies over the past twelve 

years that have examined the institutional roles played by navies throughout history. 

The series has collected an impressive group of scholars who have examined a variety of topics from the history of blockades and commerce raiding, the role of navies in 

coalitions, and naval mutinies in the twentieth century. This final volume, edited by 

Bruce A. Elleman and S. C. M. Paine, expands the series to cover the use of navies as 

instruments of “soft power,” which includes a wide variety of missions.

The use of navies for purposes other than war is a phenomenon that goes back to 

antiquity and has continued ever since. For example, the great historian and keen 

observer of res navales Thucydides was well aware of the importance of ancient 

Greek antipiracy operations for promoting wealth and security. Perhaps one of the 

most interesting cases from antiquity is the humanitarian mission led by Pliny the 

Elder in ad 79, when, as commander of the Roman fleet at Misenum, he went to 

Pompeii to rescue civilians imperiled by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius, losing his 

life in the process.

Navies have thus always carried out a variety of operations that went beyond those 

necessary for the fighting and winning of wars and they continue to do so. During 

the last two centuries the U.S. Navy has engaged in an ever-broader array of non-warfighting missions. For example, the Navy was famously involved protecting against 

piracy in the Mediterranean in the early nineteenth century and carried out equally 

important patrol missions, such as attempts to stop the illegal slave trade beginning in 

the mid-nineteenth century. After the end of the Cold War, many other nonmilitary 

missions came to the fore, in particular maritime humanitarian aid missions after 

natural or man-made disasters. One recent example of such a mission was the posttsunami Operation Unified Assistance in Southeast Asia during 2004–2005.

Beginning in 2006, the U.S. Naval War College was engaged in the process of writing the Navy’s latest strategy document, called A Cooperative Strategy for 21st Century 

Seapower. This document was published in October 2007, and updated in March 2015. 

While the Cooperative Strategy has a strong focus on traditional missions, embedded in 

concepts such as deterrence, sea control, and power projection, it also discusses broader 

missions such as maritime security and humanitarian assistance / disaster relief. It is the 

latter two missions that form the focus of the current volume, which examines nine 
case studies ranging from the nineteenth through the twenty-first century on a wide 

spectrum of non-war-fighting missions.

michael f. pavković

William Ledyard Rodgers Professor of 

Naval History

Chair, Strategy and Policy Department

Naval War College
Preface

For well over two centuries, the U.S. Navy has engaged in an ever broader array of 

nonmilitary missions. Although a fundamental raison d’être of navies concerns hard 

power, in the twentieth century an awareness of the uses of soft power developed. For 

example, since ancient times protecting against piracy has been a common naval problem, while since the mid-nineteenth century equally important patrol missions, such as 

attempts to stop the illegal slave trade, have been conducted by the U.S. Navy. After the 

Cold War, many other nonmilitary missions became important, in particular maritime 

humanitarian-aid missions like the post-tsunami Operation Unified Assistance in 

Southeast Asia during 2004–2005.

Beginning in 2006, the Naval War College, in Newport, Rhode Island, hosted a “blueteam/red-team” process for writing the Navy’s latest strategy document, called A Cooperative Strategy for 21st Century Seapower (CS-21, for short). These teams addressed 

a wide variety of naval missions, including offshore balancing versus high-end and 

low-end strategies, to consider how aggressive, forward-positioned naval forces could be 

used both for war-fighting and for “lesser and included” missions, such as humanitarian 

assistance and disaster relief. According to Adm. James Foggo III, former Commander, 

U.S. European Command, “You can be out there forward, totally isolationist, or do 

what we call offshore balancing. Or you can be reactive and go where you are needed 

or surged. Or you can do . . . a mixture: to be combat capable but also at the same time 

able, in a phase zero situation, . . . to provide humanitarian assistance for disasters.”1

In five different scenarios, named “Alpha” through “Echo,” writing teams discussed 

the goal of humanitarian missions, anticipating that global climate change might create 

an increased demand for them.2

 Much of this thinking was reflected in CS-21, which 

was published in October 2007 and updated in March 2015. To supplement this effort, 

this volume presents nine historical case studies examining the use of navies in nonmilitary missions. 

Notes

1. Rear Adm. James Foggo III, telephone interview, 6 February 2013.

2. Bryan McGrath, “Maritime Strategy Option Echo,” spring 2007.

List of Acronyms and Abbreviations 

C CIC Combat Information Center

CRB Commission for Relief in Belgium

CS-21 “A Cooperative Strategy for 21st Century Seapower”

CTF-151 Combined Task Force 151

D dB decibel

DCE Defense Coordinating Element

DCO Defense Coordinating Officer

DoD Department of Defense

DSCA defense support of civil authorities

E EPA Environmental Protection Agency

ESA Endangered Species Act

EU NAVFOR European Union Naval Force

F FAA Federal Aviation Administration

FEMA Federal Emergency Management Agency

FOSC Federal On Scene Coordinator

H Hz hertz

I ICS Incident Command System

J JOPES Joint Operation Planning and Execution System

L LAMPS Light Airborne Multipurpose System

LFA low-frequency sonar
M MARAD Maritime Administration

MFA midfrequency sonar

MMPA Marine Mammal Protection Act

MOOTW military operations other than war

MPHE Master Plan for Habitat Enhancement

MPRSA Marine Protection, Research, and Sanctuaries Act

N NATO North Atlantic Treaty Organization

NCP National Oil and Hazardous Substances Pollution

 Contingency Plan 

NDRF National Defense Reserve Fleet

NEO noncombatant evacuation operation

NIHL noise-induced hearing loss

NIMS National Incident Management System

NOAA National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

NRC National Research Council

NRF National Response Framework

O OPA 90 Oil Pollution Act of 1990

P PCB polychlorinated biphenyl

PLA People’s Liberation Army

PLAN People’s Liberation Army Navy

PPD Presidential Policy Directive

PSO Peace Support Operations

PTS permanent threshold shift

R RAND Research and Development

RDT Roving Diver Technique
REEF Reef Environmental Education Foundation

RIMPAC Rim of the Pacific [exercise series]

S SDOF San Diego Oceans Foundation

SDP Ship Disposal Program

SHADE Shared Awareness and Deconfliction

SINKEX sinking exercise

SLOC sea line of communications

SONS Spill of National Significance

SPL sound pressure level

T TTS temporary threshold shift

U UAE United Arab Emirates

USCG U.S. Coast Guard

USN U.S. Navy

W WHEC Coast Guard high-endurance cutter

Introduction

Navies Are Not Just for Fighting

BRUCE A. ELLEMAN AND S. C. M. PAINE

Navies are most commonly thought of in terms of warfare. Naval blockades, commerce 

raiding, and expeditionary warfare are basic missions. However, since almost their very 

beginning, professional navies have conducted many operations that are not strictly war 

related; antipiracy patrols, dating back at least to the Roman Empire, if not before, are 

just one example. In more modern times, patrols against the transportation of African 

slaves—and more recently, refugees—have become common. In addition, navies can be 

tasked to respond to a wide range of both man-made and natural disasters, including oil 

spills, hurricanes, and tsunamis.

Previous related volumes by the editors of this publication and in this series have 

examined the many force-based maritime operations that are considered to be the 

norm for professional navies.1

 This volume is different, however, in that it focuses 

primarily on the nonmilitary uses of naval forces—in other words, naval actions that 

are conducted outside of the normal actions associated with war and often (although 

not always) avoiding the firing of weapons or other uses of lethal force. With the end 

of the Cold War in 1990, the U.S. military created a special term, “military operations 

other than war,” or MOOTW, to describe such operations; not to be outdone, the United 

Kingdom created “Peace Support Operations,” or PSO. However, nonmilitary naval 

operations have existed longer than these terms and can include, but are not limited to, 

humanitarian-aid missions, civilian evacuation operations (often referred to as “noncombatant evacuation operations,” or NEOs), and a wide variety of non-war-related 

patrol functions, including (during the nineteenth century) antislavery patrols and more 

recently (in the twenty-first century) antipiracy patrols.

In the modern era, navies can also be called on to respond to a wide range of natural 

or man-made threats that have little or nothing to do with questions of war or peace, 

including disasters at sea like the Deepwater Horizon fire and oil spill. They can also 

sponsor fundamental research on ecological or environmental problems, including 
the possible impact of sonar on marine mammals. Finally, naval operations originally 

created in wartime, such as the intentional sinking of ships to block important channels, have in recent years borne fruit in more peaceable endeavors, such as the sinking of decommissioned naval ships to form artificial reefs for recreational diving and 

sportfishing.

While the military use of navies during times of international tension or war is obvious 

and well reported by the press, these nonmilitary uses can be equally important, even 

when largely ignored by the media and public at large. As with the “negative space” in 

an abstract picture, so long as the global commercial system is functioning, international trade is conducted without interruption, and peacetime maritime activities—including fishing, mining in or under the seas, and recreational pursuits, such as yachting, 

sportfishing, and scuba diving—can be carried out safely, there is no need to highlight 

the usefulness of navies. It is often only when problems arise and catch maritime security organs unawares that media organs report on them. Nobody appears very interested 

in reporting “business as usual.”

In the more than twenty years since the collapse of the Soviet Union, global navies 

appear to have adopted many new nonmilitary responsibilities—including patrolling 

sea-lanes for pirates and assisting in oil-spill cleanups—that break the traditional mold 

regarding what most people think are navies’ primary duties. But as the first chapter 

will show, such operations are not new. Although the U.S. government outlawed the 

transatlantic slave trade in 1808, only after the 1842 Webster-Ashburton Treaty with 

Britain did the U.S. Navy actively enforce this prohibition, by conducting antislavery patrols off the coast of Africa. As John Pentangelo discusses in his contribution, 

the sloop of war USS Constellation served as flagship of the African Squadron from 

1859 to 1861. During Constellation’s two-year cruise, this squadron of eight sail- and 

steam-powered vessels captured fourteen slave ships and liberated almost four thousand 

Africans from involuntary servitude. Arguably, the most important capture during 

Constellation’s patrol occurred on 25 September 1860, when it stopped the slave ship 

Cora and discovered 705 African slaves—men, boys, women, young girls, and even 

babies—whom it subsequently freed.

Naval forces can play a very important role in diplomacy without ever firing a shot. As 

Henry “Jerry” Hendrix argues, by sending practically the entire U.S. Navy Atlantic Fleet 

to conduct “winter exercises” in the Caribbean during 1902–1903, under the command 

of the famous Adm. George Dewey, President Theodore Roosevelt was able to pressure 

the German and British governments to back down from a threat to use military force 

against Venezuela and to seek arbitration instead. It is notable—although “war by algebra” has been much criticized, especially in land warfare—that in this case fifty-three 

American ships opposed only twenty-nine British and German ships; while additional 
ships could have been sent by each of these major European powers, to do so would have 

taken considerable time and left other parts of their respective empires undefended. 

Thus, an American “fleet-in-being,” backed up by U.S. Marines stationed strategically 

on island bases throughout the Caribbean, produced a diplomatic coup not only for 

President Roosevelt but also for a rising American sea power.

While blockades have always been considered an important naval operation during 

times of war, in the twentieth century the focus of “starvation blockades” could be 

fine-tuned by simultaneously conducting humanitarian relief operations. As shown by 

Bruce A. Elleman, one of the first large-scale humanitarian-aid missions by sea occurred during World War I, with the creation of the nonprofit Commission for Relief 

in Belgium (CRB). This organization distributed $927,681,485.08 worth of foodstuffs 

and clothing to Belgium and to German-occupied areas of northern France. Before this 

aid could be delivered, however, its director, Herbert Hoover, had to persuade England 

and Germany to let ships carry it through the maritime blockade lines. From 1 November 1914 until the summer of 1919, over nine hundred CRB-leased ships successfully 

navigated not only the British naval blockade but also German minefields and swarms 

of U-boats conducting unrestricted submarine warfare. By delivering this essential food 

aid to helpless civilians in Belgium and northern France, the CRB helped the British 

focus the full impact of the starvation blockade against Germany and its allies.

An embargo is an important naval function that includes patrols but usually does not 

require force. During the years immediately prior to the U.S. entry into World War 

II, the American government tried to force Japan to pull out of China by imposing 

progressively more restrictive embargoes. As S. C. M. Paine discusses, following Japan’s 

invasion of Manchuria in 1931 and the creation of Manchukuo in 1932, Washington 

adopted a nonrecognition policy toward Japanese territorial expansion in northern 

China. After the war escalated in July 1937, the United States imposed economic sanctions on Japan, including an ever more restrictive naval embargo intended to halt deliveries to Japan of war matériel and, most notably, U.S. petroleum. This chapter outlines 

the historical background of the imposition of sanctions and of the Japanese reaction, 

which proved to be not a withdrawal from China but a massive escalation on 7 December 1941, with an attack on Pearl Harbor and invasion of British and Dutch interests 

throughout the Pacific.

Navies can assist refugees to relocate during crises and wartime. Jan K. Herman recalls 

a formerly secret U.S. Navy mission that occurred during April 1975, in the final days 

of the war in Indochina. Although most of the South Vietnamese army had already 

surrendered to the approaching North Vietnamese, senior South Vietnamese naval 

officers refused to surrender their ships. With time running short, Richard Armitage, an agent for the Secretary of Defense, offered U.S. Navy assistance to rescue what 
remained of their navy. As a result, thirty-two ships and approximately thirty thousand 

refugees were safely escorted by USS Kirk across the South China Sea to Subic Bay in the 

Philippines.

Decommissioned or stricken naval vessels can still make important and honorable 

contributions to the common good. Tom Williams shows that navy ships can continue 

to serve a military by being turned into naval museums or by being sunk—during wartime as blockships, in peacetime in gunnery exercises. On 25 November 2003, President 

George W. Bush authorized, as a provision of the Defense Department budget, U.S. 

Navy ships to be donated for use as artificial reefs. Although ships have been made artificial reefs for years, the first to be sunk in the new program was the aircraft carrier USS 

Oriskany (CV 34) on 17 May 2006, south of Pensacola, Florida. Sinking naval vessels to 

form artificial reefs can offer important economic benefits for coastal communities, by 

increasing maritime tourism and fishing, even while playing a positive ecological role by 

boosting local marine life.

The U.S. Navy’s use of sonar has been blamed for numerous whale strandings and other 

damage to sea life. Darlene Ketten argues that the relatively small threat of sonar to the 

populations of whales compared with those posed by other anthropogenic dangers—

fisheries, ship strikes, indigenous hunts, etc.—puts these concerns into perspective. 

While acknowledging the coincidence of strandings with some U.S. Navy exercises, 

she believes there must be an attempt to find the boundaries of the problem, as well as 

a retrospective analysis of the events under investigation. This requires outside support 

for research on multiple fronts to address the mechanisms that can trigger strandings 

and methodologies to avoid them. Naval participation in federal panels to address public concerns is also crucial, since the largest impediments to seeing these events clearly 

are widespread public misperception of the magnitude of the events per se and of their 

implications, and skepticism about why results sometimes appear to come slowly. To 

correct media errors would require better dissemination of these results plus constant 

explanation of the broader impacts of these results on other areas of marine science.

Navies can respond in nonmilitary ways to natural, and especially man-made, disasters. 

Rear Adm. Mary Landry, U.S. Coast Guard (Ret.), relates the background of the 20 April 

2010 fire on the offshore oil rig Deepwater Horizon in the Gulf of Mexico, resulting in 

the rig’s sinking and an oil spill. Not only did eleven of the 126 crew members perish, 

but from 20 April through 19 September 2010 about five million barrels of oil leaked 

out of the five-thousand-foot-deep well, creating the largest offshore spill in American 

history. In response, Coast Guard cutters and personnel became the first line of disaster 

response. Rear Admiral Landry, commander of the Eighth Coast Guard District, headquartered in New Orleans, Louisiana, was the top Coast Guard official coordinating, using the incident command system, what grew to be the largest fully integrated response 
ever mounted in the United States, including approximately forty-seven thousand 

people from federal, state, local, tribal, and private-sector entities.

Not just established navies but also emerging and reemerging ones can conduct nonmilitary operations. For the first time in its modern history, the People’s Republic of 

China has deployed naval forces operationally beyond its immediate maritime periphery to protect merchant vessels from pirates in the Gulf of Aden. Andrew S. Erickson 

and Austin M. Strange show that beginning in December 2008, China has contributed 

more than ten thousand naval personnel in almost twenty successive task forces and 

has escorted nearly six thousand commercial vessels, approximately 70 percent of them 

foreign flagged, in seven hundred escort missions.2

 The People’s Liberation Army Navy 

has carefully crafted its antipiracy operations to portray China’s blue-water operations 

abroad in a positive way. These Gulf of Aden deployments might increase the Chinese 

navy’s prospects for cooperation with other navies as well as impact China’s future naval 

development.

The conclusions examine the targets, audiences, objectives, effects, and outcomes of 

such operations. Long before the MOOTW and PSO were invented, navies were deeply 

involved in the conduct of nonmilitary operations. Given that peace is the norm and 

war the exception, such nonmilitary missions occur much more regularly and produce 

significantly greater effects than most people would think.

Notes

The thoughts and opinions expressed in this essay 

are those of the authors and are not necessarily those of the U.S. government, the U.S. Navy 

Department, or the Naval War College.

1. Christopher M. Bell and Bruce A. Elleman, 

Naval Mutinies of the Twentieth Century: An 

International Perspective (London: Frank Cass, 

2003); Bruce A. Elleman and S. C. M. Paine, 

eds., Naval Blockades and Seapower: Strategies 

and Counter-strategies, 1805–2005 (New York: 

Routledge, 2006); Bruce A. Elleman and S. 

C. M. Paine, eds., Naval Coalition Warfare: 

From the Napoleonic War to Operation Iraqi 

Freedom (New York: Routledge, 2008); Bruce 

A. Elleman, Andrew Forbes, and David 

Rosenberg, eds., Piracy and Maritime Crime: 

Historical and Modern Case Studies, Newport 

Paper 35 (Newport, R.I.: Naval War College 

Press, 2010); Bruce A. Elleman and S. C. M. 

Paine, eds., Naval Power and Expeditionary 

Warfare: Peripheral Campaigns and New Theatres of Naval Warfare (New York: Routledge, 

2012); Bruce A. Elleman and S. C. M. Paine, 

eds., Commerce Raiding: Historical Case Studies, 1755–2009, Newport Paper 40 (Newport, 

R.I.: Naval War College Press, 2013).

2.“中国海军护航编队执行第700批护航任务” 

[Chinese Naval Escort Task Force Carries Out 

700th Escort Mission], 中国新闻网 [China 

News Web], 5 April 2014, www.chinanews

.com/mil/2014/04-05/6034225.shtml.

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Sailors and Slaves

USS Constellation and the Transatlantic Slave Trade

JOHN PENTANGELO

The United States outlawed the transatlantic slave trade in 1808 but provided for little 

in the way of enforcement to stop the slave ships at sea. In 1819 Congress authorized 

the president to use U.S. Navy ships to seize American-flagged slavers and the next year 

equated slave running with piracy, with death as the maximum penalty. During 1820 

the corvette Cyane was sent to western Africa, where it “captured a number of ships 

suspected of intent to carry slaves.”1 Such efforts were haphazard, however, and Great 

Britain eventually convinced the U.S. government to establish its own permanent African Squadron. The Webster-Ashburton Treaty, signed in 1842, declared that the two nations would maintain separate naval squadrons on the West Coast of Africa to enforce 

their respective laws against the slave trade. A major reason in the United States behind 

the creation of the patrol was to avoid allowing British warships the right to search 

American-flagged vessels, a legal issue that had been at the heart of the War of 1812.

Although the American antislavery patrol lasted for almost two decades, up through the 

beginning of the Civil War in 1861, the sharp divisions on the legality of slavery between 

North and South meant that “it was never intended to be effective.” Between 1842 and 

1861 only thirty-six vessels were captured by the African Squadron, an embarrassingly low figure when compared with the hundreds of slave ships captured by the Royal 

Navy’s antislavery patrols; in 1843 alone, the British seized forty-four slavers and “nearly 

double that in 1845.”2 Only for a short period during the late 1850s was the antislavery 

patrol truly active, and this came about mainly because slave-ship owners appeared to 

thumb their noses at Washington when they “openly landed slaves in Georgia in 1858.”3

From 1859 to 1861 the sloop of war USS Constellation, launched in 1854, served as flagship of the U.S. Navy’s African Squadron. The squadron in those years was composed of 

eight sail and steam-powered vessels and had orders to protect American commerce and 

suppress the transatlantic slave trade off Africa’s western coastline. During Constellation’s two-year cruise the squadron captured fourteen slave ships and liberated almost 

CHAPTER ONE
four thousand Africans from lives of involuntary servitude. The crew endured the 

hardships of the station, worked with local Africans to suppress the trade, and experienced on the fateful night of 25 September 1860 what is arguably the most important 

moment in Constellation’s century of service to the U.S. Navy, the capture of the slave 

ship Cora.

Early History of the African Squadron

While the first American antislavery patrols off the coast of Africa date to 1820, for over 

twenty years they were conducted only intermittently. Few slave ships were captured, 

since there were insufficient warships deployed to cover over three thousand miles of 

African coastline. As one critic of the Navy’s antislavery patrols openly acknowledged, 

“So great is the extent of coast from which slaves can be shipped, and so constantly 

do the traders change the places of embarkation, that the few vessels employed by the 

American government are easily deceived and avoided.”4 After Congress ratified the 

Webster-Ashburton Treaty, signed on 10 August 1842, this situation began to change for 

the better. Commo. Matthew C. Perry was the first full-time commander of the permanent African Squadron, and more ships were assigned.

In late June 1844, USS Truxtun, under Cdr. Henry Bruce, left the United States to join 

the African Squadron, off Tenerife in the Canary Islands. During its sixteen-month 

deployment, it captured only one small, hundred-ton slave ship, Spitfire, off the coast 

of Guinea. Truxtun freed 346 slaves as a result of this capture. Bruce reported that the 

captured ship was so cramped that “there was not room enough for a man to sit, unless 

inclining his head forward; their food was half a pint of rice per day, with one pint of 

water. No one can imagine the sufferings of slaves on their passage across, unless the 

conveyances in which they are taken are examined.”5 Rather than being sold at auction, 

Spitfire was refitted for use in antislavery operations.

During September 1845, USS Yorktown, commanded by Capt. Charles H. Bell, captured 

two slave ships, one of them Pons, a 196-ton ship transporting between 850 and nine 

hundred slaves. When the ship was sold the following year it brought over five thousand 

dollars in shares for the crew, plus another nineteen thousand dollars for the 756 slaves 

landed safely in Liberia. Interestingly, during 1847 this same ship was seized again by 

American authorities, this time for transporting 110 Irishmen, which was thirty more 

than the registered limit of eighty (but only about one-eighth the number of African 

slaves it transported in 1845).6

In 1847, USS Perry, under the command of John A. Davis and attached to the Brazil 

Squadron, seized the American ship Ann D. Richardson, on its way to Africa bearing 

fake papers, and two days later a second ship, Independence. Both ships were shown to 
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be participating in the illegal slave trade and so were sent back to the United States as 

prizes. On 6 February 1849, Perry seized Susan, also off Brazil. Perry captured Martha

on 6 June 1850 and Chatsworth on 11 September 1850, both off the coast of Africa. 

Martha was waiting to load 1,800 African slaves when Perry captured it. On 10 March 

1854 Perry captured Glamorgan, for a total of six captures—three off Brazil and three 

off Africa, more than any other U.S. Navy ship on antislavery patrol.

Both the British and American squadrons faced a significant problem in their inability 

to search all suspected vessels. The American fleet could board and search only vessels 

flying the American flag or no flag at all. The British had many more ships on station 

but could not search a vessel flying an American flag. Thus slavers greatly minimized 

the risk of capture by flying the Stars and Stripes. They knew there was a substantial 

chance of being spotted by a British vessel and almost none of being stopped by an 

American. Much of the American slave trade was in fact carried out not by U.S. citizens 

but by proxies. An American-flagged slave ship might sail to Africa with an American 

crew, but then a foreigner would purchase the ship and use a non-American crew, “composed of Portuguese, Spaniards, or other non-U.S. citizens,” all measures designed to 

avoid being stopped by the U.S. Navy and to protect either crew from being accused of 

piracy, which could be punished by hanging.7

 Unexpected as it might seem today, many 

slave ships hired Africans into their crews. Between 1794 and 1805, as “many as seventyseven Africans served on board Liverpool slavers.”8

The American squadron did not have much success in directly combating the slave 

trade. The group was small, often about four vessels. Four vessels were far too few to 

cover the mouth of the Congo River, let alone the three thousand miles of coast. The 

types of vessels deployed also adversely affected the squadron’s capabilities. The department often sent large oceangoing frigates and sloops of war instead of the schooners and 

gunboats more suitable for inshore patrols and pursuit of fast merchant clippers. There 

were steam-powered vessels in the Navy, but they had yet to be deployed to Africa. 

These vessels would have been much more effective in pursuing fleeing slave ships. 

Finally, the Secretary of the Navy’s order making the protection of American commerce 

the primary mission relegated the suppression of the slave trade to a secondary duty. 

From 1843 to 1859 the squadron captured only twenty-two vessels. During a similar 

time frame the British navy captured approximately six hundred. This was the climate 

in April 1859, when the U.S. Navy sent USS Constellation to the west coast of Africa 

with orders to become flagship of the African Squadron.

Constellation Outfits a Crew

Constellation, under the command of Capt. John S. Nicholas, weighed anchor in Boston 

Harbor and set sail for Africa on 19 July 1859. The all-sail, twenty-two-gun sloop of war 
served as the headquarters of the African Squadron’s new flag officer, Commo. William 

Inman. Constellation arrived at the Portuguese island of Madeira in August to relieve 

USS Cumberland. In October it sailed south to Monrovia, Liberia, to augment its crew 

with African Kroomen, members of the Kroo tribe who came on board as paid crew 

members. According to crew member William Ambrose Leonard, vessels of the African 

Squadron were allowed to ship two Kroomen for every gun on board.9

 Since Constellation carried twenty guns, it was allowed to hire forty additional hands.10 These Kroomen 

served for the entire cruise and so were actively involved in freeing other, less fortunate 

Africans from enslavement.

While images of the slave trade are appropriately associated predominantly with the 

African slaves, who endured unspeakable horrors during the Middle Passage on their 

way to North and South America, very little has been written about the role that some 

West African seafarers played in combating the trade. For decades, commanders of the 

African Squadron employed Kroomen as auxiliary seamen and as lightermen and longshoremen, transporting men and supplies from ship to shore. Kroomen were recruited 

from shore often on a “first come, first served” basis. Renowned for their physical 

strength, they often worked nude or with just cloths wrapped around their waists.

The arrival of the Kroo on board Constellation in October 1859 made quite an impression on the American sailors. Leonard later recounted that “the ship is swarmed with 

them presenting their recommendations, . . . to our captain. They are a fine looking set 

of men. They now began to come a little faster than they were wanted and contrary to 

the orders of the 1st lieutenant they hung on to the ship’s side, and resisted all attempts 

to drive them off.”11 Kroomen relied on written testimonials from previous employers to prove their worth to naval officers. They carried these recommendation papers, 

called “books,” in wooden or tin boxes tied around their necks. Sailors who worked with 

them typically renamed their new shipmates after items of importance in the seamen’s 

world. Constellation’s Kroomen included men renamed Fresh Water, Bottle of Beer, 

Tom Rattlin, Jim Bobstay, and Jack Half Dollar. These often recycled names, perhaps 

considered insulting by modern standards, were powerful status symbols in the Kroo 

villages at Freetown, Sierra Leone, and Monrovia.

As temperatures rose above 110 degrees Fahrenheit, the suffocating heat made ordinary 

shipboard routines almost unbearable. Leonard explained of the Kroo that “the object 

in having them is to man the boats so as to keep the white men from being exposed to 

the sun which is dreadful hot all along the Coast. They are a very hardy race of people 

and can stand a great deal of fatigue. They require no bedding; they sleep on deck.”12

Another description claimed the Kroo were “an easy tempered set of men, very respectful in their manners, willing to work and withal very muscular and powerful.” In 
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addition to possessing physical prowess, the Kroo were excellent swimmers. On one 

occasion when a turtle happened to swim by, three of the Kroo “divested themselves of 

their clothing in a twinkling” and dove in after it; the turtle immediately dived deep, 

but “the chase did not end here, and a submarine pursuit took place which was astonishing as well as amusing to witness; one would hardly suppose that men could acquire 

such perfection in swimming as they practice.”13

Resistance to Illness

In addition to their other fine qualities, squadron commanders recognized that 

Kroomen were more resistant than white crew members to tropical diseases. Since the 

beginning of the patrol it had always been disease, not belligerent slave runners, that 

had been the greatest threat to personnel. While the British view was that periodic visits 

onshore, for “seasoning,” would reveal who was best suited to survive African illnesses, 

the U.S. Navy adopted a rule “against anyone spending a night ashore in Africa.” This 

rule wisely sought to avoid the 20 percent mortality rate experienced by the first set of 

American slaves returned to Liberia.14

A good example of the dangers inherent in service in the African Squadron was shown 

during October 1844, when USS Preble joined Commodore Perry’s African Squadron. Operating out of the Cape Verde Islands, the ships would cruise for five months 

at a time. Owing mainly to the chance of malaria, these missions were described as 

“dark and horrible cruising.”15 The actual carrier of the disease, mosquitoes, was as yet 

unknown; Perry’s sanitary regulations included smoking the ships with “smudges,” 

drying them out with coal stoves, and keeping them well ventilated. As for personal 

hygiene, the “men had to wear a flannel undershirt night and day, bathe every week, 

and not be on the African coast later than eight o’clock.” To ready a ship for service, it 

“was cleansed, ventilated, and purified with fire.” Without realizing it, Perry’s sanitary 

“precautions kept to a minimum his squadron’s contact with mosquitoes, the carriers of both malaria and yellow fever.”16 Nevertheless, Preble, before even beginning its 

antislavery cruise, was struck by malaria. By early December the majority of its crew, 

ninety-three of 144, had the disease; eventually sixteen died.

Fifteen years later, medical science had still not made the link between mosquitoes and 

disease. Understandably, Constellation’s sailors dreaded the strains of malaria and yellow fever prevalent along the coast. Disease killed hundreds in the British and American squadrons during the nineteenth century, earning Africa the sobriquet “the White 

Man’s Grave.” Officers and seamen believed the fever was contracted from breathing 

“bad air” close to the coastline. These diseases directly interfered with the suppression 

of the slave trade, inasmuch as the U.S. Navy ships were frequently ordered not to linger 
close to shore, which was exactly where they might have been able to observe and catch 

slavers loading their cargo.

During Constellation’s cruise, dozens of men in the squadron were infected with fever, 

and several died from it. In 1861, the sloop captured the brig Triton and discovered that 

its crew was sick with the fever. Captain Nicholas’s clerk, Stephen B. Wilson, a member 

of the prize crew detached to sail Triton to Norfolk, died of the fever and was buried on 

Ascension Island. One month later wardroom steward James George died of the same 

illness. A sailor recalled George’s ordeal the night before he expired: “All hands were 

kept awake by a young fellow that is sick with the coast fever; he is out of his head. His 

lungs must be in good condition, for he hollered like a bull.”17 Many slaves also died of 

the illness. For example, on 14 January 1861, USS Saratoga, commanded by Capt. Alfred 

Taylor, captured Nightingale with 961 slaves on board. The slaves were freed and eventually taken to Liberia, but not before 160 had died of malaria.18

Constellation’s officers employed the Kroomen in many different ways, including scouting the shore for disease outbreaks. They also worked side by side with seamen in sail 

handling and lookout duty. The Kroo were also adept at navigating the difficult coastal 

surf zone where protected harbors were absent. As warships of the African Squadron 

required constant (if brief) contact with the shore for resupply and other operations 

conducted on land, these African mariners provided crucial support.

After embarking the Kroomen, Commodore Inman sailed south for a short cruise 

around the Congo River and spent the next four months around St. Paul de Loando, 

overseeing the completion of a new storehouse, replacing one at the distant port of Porto 

Praya. On 21 December 1859, while cruising off Cabinda Bay, Constellation captured its 

first prize, the brig Delicia, after a ten-hour chase. Delicia, Inman reported to Secretary of the Navy Isaac Toucey, “was completely fitted in all respects for the immediate 

embarkation of slaves.”19 The boarding party discovered a slave deck and large copper 

cauldrons intended to feed a cargo of Africans. Questioning the mate, Captain Nicholas 

discovered that Delicia’s master had been on shore purchasing a cargo of Africans when 

Constellation discovered the brig. A prize crew sailed Delicia to Charleston, South Carolina, for adjudication, but there having been no Americans on board and no papers, 

logbook, or colors, the American courts eventually declared the brig was beyond federal 

jurisdiction.

Satisfied with its success to date, Constellation sailed to Madeira for repairs and liberty 

in February 1860. Intensely displeased with this decision, however, Secretary of the 

Navy Toucey ordered Inman to return to the cruising ground immediately. Unlike 

many former secretaries, Toucey took the patrols seriously. He restricted the cruising ground to twenty degrees north latitude and directed that no vessel could leave it 
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without permission from the department. Several months after Constellation’s return to 

the coast, the African Squadron had the most successful day in its eighteen-year history: 

on 8 August 1860, USS Mohican captured the slave ship Erie, with 897 slaves, and 

USS San Jacinto seized Storm King, with over six hundred Africans crammed belowdecks. The African Squadron was suddenly showing signs of life. Unbeknownst to its 

crew, the recently returned flagship, Constellation, was about to join the fray.

Constellation Captures Cora

On 27 June 1860 the bark Cora departed New York bound for the West African coast 

on what would prove to be an ill-fated slaving voyage. After a decade of legal merchant 

activity, the 431-ton Baltimore vessel was sold by E. D. Morgan & Co. to John Latham 

for fourteen thousand dollars. In May 1860 Latham took the bark to Pier 52 on the East 

River to refit its rigging and load cargo. The cargo, containing large quantities of lumber, freshwater, and provisions, raised suspicion among local authorities that the owner 

intended to use Cora as a slave ship. A U.S. district attorney detained Cora for examination but later cleared the bark for its voyage.

All evidence that would have confirmed Cora was intended for a slaving voyage was hidden deep within the ship. Cora’s hold contained fifty cases of muskets (likely intended 

to purchase slaves), more than twenty cases of drugs (to treat disease outbreaks), and 

forty-seven tierces—barrels holding about forty gallons or six hundred pounds—of rice 

(to feed the captives). Other suspicious cargo might include large copper pots for cooking food, hundreds of wooden spoons, swords, firearms, shackles, and chains.20

When Cora sailed for Africa, it carried over ten thousand feet of lumber—enough to 

build a slave deck. Slave ships were originally built for legal trade and needed substantial alterations to carry human cargoes. Thus a slave deck, a middle deck installed 

between the hold and upper deck, became the “smoking gun” for a vessel that had not 

yet loaded slaves.21

On 27 August Cora arrived at Punta da Lenha, a major slave-trading center thirty miles 

up the Congo River. Three weeks later, having made all the necessary arrangements, 

Latham sailed Cora to Manque Grande, where in the late hours of 24 September he 

supervised the hasty loading of African slaves from the shore to the waiting ship. Once 

the slaves were loaded, Cora sailed for Cuba to unload its cargo.

On 25 September 1860, Constellation parted company with San Jacinto and began a 

southerly cruise toward the Congo River. At seven bells in the second “dog watch” 

(7:30 pm), a lookout on the starboard cathead (where the anchor was made fast) spotted 

Cora about two miles away on the weather bow. The flagship changed course and began 

its pursuit. Midshipman Wilburn Hall remembered, “The Constellation was simply 
superb in tacking, and round she came, raising her sharp bow from the sea like a racer 

ready for the signal.”22 In an attempt to escape, Cora hauled up sharp on the wind, set all 

its canvas, and began evasive maneuvers.

Sometime after 9:00 pm, as the moon lit up the night sky, Constellation’s starboard 

thirty-two-pounder long gun fired a shot across Cora’s bow to signal it to heave to and 

prepare to be boarded. Cora ignored the shot and raced along the coast. Constellation

closed the gap to within a half-mile and fired several more warning shots, but to no 

avail. In a desperate attempt to gain speed, the slaver’s crew frantically began lightening 

the ship. They threw an empty boat, hatches, anchors, spars, and casks into the ocean. 

Despite all of their efforts, the flagship continued to draw closer. Cora cut across Constellation’s bow in a final attempt to make it out to sea. Constellation’s next shot cut away 

a part of Cora’s rigging and forced the bark to give up.

A boarding party led by the first lieutenant, Donald M. Fairfax, boarded Cora and immediately discovered a slave deck with 705 Africans crammed together—men, boys, 

women, young girls, and babies. According to Leonard:

This being the first slaver I ever saw with slaves in, my curiosity led me upon the slave deck. The 

scene which here presented itself to my eyes baffles description. It was a dreadful sight. They were 

all packed together like so many sheep—men, woman [sic], and children entirely naked, and suffering from hunger and thirst. They had nothing to eat or drink for over 30 hours. As soon as the poor 

negroes were aware that we were friends to them, they commenced a shouting and yelling like so 

many wild Indians. They were so overjoyed at being taken by us that I thought they would tear us 

to pieces.23

Midshipman Wilburn Hall later recalled the revolting stench of so many men, women, 

and children crammed together with little or no sanitation. The young officer wrote, 

“The slaves were nearly all on the slave-deck, shouting and screaming in terror and 

anxiety. I leaned over the main hatchway holding a lantern, and the writhing mass of 

humanity, with their cries and struggles, can only be compared in one’s mind to the 

horrors of hell as pictured in former days.”24 As the ship’s hatches were opened, the 

captives “came tumbling out of the hold, yelling and cringing. They ran forward and 

crouched on the bow. . . . They were nearly starved.”25

Upon hearing that they had captured a slaver with hundreds of terrified Africans 

packed below, Constellation’s crew let out a thunderous cheer. Each member of the 

crew was entitled to a bonus for every recaptured African slave landed in Liberia, as 

well as a portion of the proceeds gained if the slave ship were sold at auction. By law, 

half the proceeds of a ship sale went to the Naval Retirement Fund, but the other half 

was divided among the crew. Interestingly, federal courts had earlier upheld the rights 

of Kroo sailors to their shares of the proceeds—almost sixty-five dollars apiece for the 

capture of Pons.

26
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Returning the Slaves to Africa

Taking the slaver Cora was just the first step, since now the Navy was responsible for the 

well-being of the captured slaves. On 27 September sailors from Constellation finished 

repairing Cora’s rigging for the journey back to the United States. Inman ordered a prize 

crew of eleven sailors and three Marines, led by Master Thomas H. Eastman, to sail the 

bark to Norfolk, Virginia, for adjudication. The crew first sailed to Liberia and delivered 

the Africans into the custody of Rev. John Seys, the U.S. Agent for Recaptured Africans. 

Despite measures to improve living conditions and orders “to enable them to have as 

much pure air as possible,” eleven Africans died before reaching their destination.27

The Republic of Liberia was the designated haven for Africans on board slave ships 

seized by the U.S. Navy. The American Colonization Society originally founded Monrovia in 1822, and in 1847 Liberia became an independent state; later it absorbed other, 

adjoining returned-slave colonies at Bassa Cove, Sinoe, and Cape Palmas. The American Colonization Society “supported it year after year with money, shipments of goods, 

and occasional infusions of new settlers.” There was no single “home” to which rescued 

slaves could be returned, and many American officials feared that returning them to the 

Congo River basin would only result in their recapture and resale as slaves. So the U.S. 

government supported their relocation to Liberia. By 1844, about 250 of these “recaptives” had been landed there.28

Local committees assisted the traumatized Africans, called “Congoes,” after their arrival. Many of the Africans were apprenticed to Americo-Liberian families. Over two 

hundred of the Africans liberated from Cora settled in Careysburg, where they performed sawmill work. For example, ten males from Cora were apprenticed to a sawmill 

near the Junk River. One of the younger ones, Reverend Seys reported, had “already 

learned sufficient of the business as to be able to take the place at the engine of a man 

who had been receiving $4 a month wages. The place is one requiring much vigilance 

in the application and stopping of steam at certain junctures, and so steady, so punctual 

and reliable is the Congo lad, that the Liberian’s services are no longer required.”29

Between August and October 1860, Liberia was overwhelmed with some 3,600 freed 

slaves.30 Such success in so short a time taxed Liberia’s ability to care for new arrivals. 

Some of the Congoes apprenticed that year ran away, and a small number committed 

suicide. But with no family or friends and no way to return home, most conformed to 

the dominant culture and adopted new lives.

Master Eastman, meanwhile, departed Monrovia and sailed Cora to Norfolk to deliver 

its first mate (Morgan Fredericks), second mate (John Wilson), and third mate (Hans 

Olsen) into the custody of the U.S. marshal. Owing to adverse weather, however, he 

instead sailed Cora to New York, anchoring off the Brooklyn Navy Yard on 8 December 
1860. The U.S. district court in New York found the evidence damning and confiscated 

the bark, auctioning it for $8,900. (On 7 March 1861 it was seized once more for suspected slave running by the revenue cutter Harriet Lane.)

Some of Cora’s officers did not wait for a verdict on their guilt. Less than twenty-four 

hours after Cora’s arrival in New York, Morgan Fredericks broke out of his stateroom, 

climbed through a porthole, plunged into the East River, and made his escape. Captain 

John Latham, who had been brought to New York in the U.S. store ship Relief, was 

denied bail. A mysterious friend negotiated Latham’s furlough from prison to buy him 

a suit at Brooks Brothers on Broadway. While an escorting deputy marshal was himself 

trying on a suit, Latham and his friend escaped in a carriage waiting outside. Mates 

John Wilson and Hans Olsen denied having known that they were on a slaving voyage until they reached Africa. They pleaded guilty to violating the act of 1800—a lesser 

crime of voluntary service on board a slaver. The court sentenced them to ten months 

in prison and a fine of five hundred dollars each. Four other seamen were brought into 

court, but their cases were dismissed.

While these court proceedings were taking place, USS Constellation stayed on African 

station, where it captured one more slave ship, the brig Triton, on 21 May 1861. On 

11 August it set sail for the United States for reassignment. During the Civil War the 

ship protected commerce and conducted diplomatic functions as part of the Mediterranean Squadron. Meanwhile, the Abraham Lincoln administration, occupied by a war 

on American soil, finally agreed to allow the Royal Navy to search American vessels 

suspected to be slavers. This Anglo-American treaty was signed on 7 June 1862. The 

African Squadron was no more.

Conclusions

During the period that the USS Constellation was its flagship, the U.S. Navy’s African 

Squadron captured fourteen slave ships and freed almost four thousand Africans from 

lives of servitude in the Americas. In just over two years, Commodore Inman’s cruisers 

achieved nearly half the captures made during the squadron’s entire existence (1842–61). 

The Navy achieved these results by increasing the number of vessels on station, introducing smaller, steam-powered vessels, relocating the supply depot from the distant 

port of Porto Praya to St. Paul de Loando, and restricting the boundaries of the cruising 

ground. More aggressive cruising and better cooperation with the Royal Navy’s West 

Africa Squadron were also important factors. Unfortunately, however, squadron commanders were ordered to prioritize protection of American commerce over suppression 

of the slave trade, which hampered their success with the latter. Also, as one elderly slave 

smuggler affirmed in 1856, there was so much profit in smuggling slaves from Africa 

that even “if you should hang all the Yankee merchants engaged in it, hundreds would 
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fill their places.” According to this expert in the trade, there was only one possible solution: “Take the word of a dying man, there is no way the slave-trade can be stopped but 

by breaking up slave-holding.”31

The U.S. Navy’s African Squadron was “temporarily” canceled during the Civil War, 

when the Royal Navy was given permission to board and search American ships. To 

make an example in support of the Union’s antislavery policies, President Abraham 

Lincoln ordered one American slaver captain, Nathaniel Gordon, to be hanged on 21 

February 1862.32 Because many other equally guilty slave traders were “quietly let off 

with light sentences,” this conviction was described as “obviously a fluke.”33 Once the 

Confederacy was defeated, slavery in America was finally abolished. With increased 

efforts of the Royal Navy, plus Cuba’s abolition of slavery in 1867, the transatlantic slave 

trade was dealt a decisive blow. Although the end of this trade was mainly the result of 

“breaking up slave-holding,” it should not be forgotten that during the preceding two 

decades U.S. Navy ships like Constellation had played significant roles in the American 

effort to combat the transatlantic slave trade on the open seas.

After the war, the U.S. Navy quickly decided to reactivate the European, East India, and 

Brazil Squadrons, but the “African Squadron was abandoned.” The Assistant Secretary 

of the Navy, Gustavus Fox, wrote the secretary, Gideon Welles, on 26 August 1865 that 

“it would be infinitely preferable to give up the African Squadron and have the same 

force in the West Indies under a special Commander. Such a transfer of ships would increase our influence in the seas adjacent to our coasts and which are really our waters.” 

In December 1865, the Navy Department agreed with this suggestion, creating instead a 

West Indian Squadron, on the basis of the argument that “slave ships could be apprehended as effectively off the Cuban coast as off Africa.”34 In 1869, with all North American markets closed to slave ships arriving from Africa, the British government decided 

to abolish the Royal Navy’s West Africa Squadron, “because there were no slave ships to 

catch.”35 Although French and Portuguese slave traders continued to participate to some 

degree in the transatlantic trade, “by the 1870s it had dwindled to insignificance nearly 

everywhere in the Atlantic.”36

Notes

The thoughts and opinions expressed in this essay 

are those of the author and are not necessarily 

those of the U.S. government, the U.S. Navy Department, or the Naval War College.

1. C. Herbert Gilliland, Voyage to the Thousand Cares: Master’s Mate Lawrence with the 

African Squadron, 1844–1846 (Annapolis, 

Md.: Naval Institute Press, 2004), p. 3.

2. Donald L. Canney, Africa Squadron: The U.S. 

Navy and the Slave Trade, 1842–1861 (Washington, D.C.: Potomac Books, 2006), p. 68.
3.Andrew Lambert, “Slavery, Free Trade and 

Naval Strategy, 1840–1860,” in Slavery, Diplomacy and Empire: Britain and the Suppression of the Slave Trade, 1807–1975, ed. Keith 

Hamilton and Patrick Salmon (Portland, Ore.: 

Sussex Academic, 2009), p. 66.

4. Society of Friends, Philadelphia Yearly 

Meeting, An Exposition of the African Slave 

Trade, from the Year 1840, to 1850, Inclusive, 

Prepared from Official Documents, and Published by Direction of the Representatives of the 

Religious Society of Friends, in Pennsylvania, 

New Jersey, and Delaware (Philadelphia: J. 

Rakestraw, 1851; repr. Detroit, Mich.: Negro 

History, 1969), p. 157.

5. George Francis Dow, Slave Ships and Slaving

(Salem, Mass.: Marine Research Society, 

1927), p. 273, citing Andrew H. Foote, Africa 

and the American Flag (New York: D. Appleton, 1854).

6. Gilliland, Voyage to the Thousand Cares, pp. 

298–99.

7.Ibid., p. 5.

8. John Pinfold, “Introduction: Captain Hugh 

Crow and the Slave Trade,” in The Memoirs of 

Captain Hugh Crow: The Life and Times of a 

Slave Trade Captain (Oxford, U.K.: Bodleian 

Library, 2007), p. viii.

9. C. Herbert Gilliland, USS Constellation on 

the Dismal Coast: Willie Leonard’s Journal, 

1859–1861 (Columbia: Univ. of South Carolina Press, 2013), p. 45.

10. USS Constellation only carried twenty guns 

during this cruise, having removed its two 

ten-inch pivot guns to provide greater stability. Its main battery consisted of sixteen 

eight-inch shell guns and four thirty-twopounder long guns. It sailed for Africa with 

285 officers, seamen, and Marines.

11. Gilliland, USS Constellation on the Dismal 

Coast, p. 48.

12. Ibid., p. 49.

13. Gilliland, Voyage to the Thousand Cares, pp. 

39, 64.

14. Ibid., p. 110.

15. Ari Hoogenboom, Gustavus Vasa Fox of the 

Union Navy: A Biography (Baltimore, Md.: 

Johns Hopkins Univ. Press, 2008), pp. 14–15, 

318 note 2.

16. Ibid.

17. Gilliland, USS Constellation on the Dismal 

Coast, p. 316.

18. Dow, Slave Ships and Slaving, p. 275.

19. Inman to Isaac Toucey, 21 December 1859, 

Squadron Letters, Record Group [RG] 45, 

M89, roll 110, National Archives and Records 

Administration, College Park, Md. [hereafter 

NARA].

20.“The Slave-Trade: The Bark Cora, of NewYork, Captured on the African Coast,” New 

York Times, 8 December 1860, p. 5.

21. Ibid.

22. Wilburn Hall, “Capture of the Slave Ship 

Cora,” Century 48, no. 1 (1894), p. 116.

23. Gilliland, USS Constellation on the Dismal 

Coast, p. 148.

24. Hall, “Capture of the Slave Ship Cora,” p. 120.

25. The account of Landsman William French 

published in 1924 is quoted in Glenn F. Williams, U.S.S. Constellation: A Short History of 

the Last All-Sail Warship Built by the U.S. Navy

(Virginia Beach, Va.: Donning, 2000), p. 21.

26. Gilliland, Voyage to the Thousand Cares, pp. 

298–99.

27. The first mate, Morgan Fredericks, stated that 

Cora took on 705 Africans. Loyall to Inman, 

26 September 1860, Letter—Lt. Benjamin P. 

Loyall and 1st Lt. John R. F. Tatnall, USM, 

Letters, RG 45, M89, roll 111, NARA. In a 

letter to Toucey of 8 December 1860, Eastman 

reported that eleven Africans died on the way 

to Monrovia; John Seys reported that 694 were 

delivered to him on 14 October. Constellation’s 

officers estimated that among the 694 freed 

slaves that completed the journey to Monrovia, 175 were men, 320 were boys, and 199 

were women, young girls, or babies. See Karen 

Fisher Younger, “Liberia and the Last Slave 

Ships,” Civil War History 54, no. 4 (December 

2008); and Rev. John Seys, Monrovia, to Rev. 

W. McLain, 17 October 1860, in American 

Colonization Society, African Repository 

(Washington, D.C.: C. Alexander, 1861), vol. 

37, pp. 1–2.

28. Canney, Africa Squadron, p. 71.

29. American Colonization Society, African 

Repository, vol. 37, p. 62.

30. Younger, “Liberia and the Last Slave Ships,” 

p. 435.

31. Richard Drake, Revelations of a Slave Smuggler: Being the Autobiography of Capt. Rich’d 

Drake, an African Trader for Fifty Years—from 

1807 to 1857; During Which Period He Was 

Concerned in the Transportation of Half a 
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Million Blacks from African Coasts to America

(New York: Robert M. DeWitt, 1860; repr. 

Northbrook, Ill.: Metro Books, 1972), p. 98.

32. Lambert, “Slavery, Free Trade and Naval 

Strategy,” p. 78.

33. Canney, Africa Squadron, p. 216.

34. Hoogenboom, Gustavus Vasa Fox of the Union 

Navy, p. 278.

35. Lambert, “Slavery, Free Trade and Naval 

Strategy,” p. 78.

36. Joseph C. Miller, “The Abolition of the Slave 

Trade and Slavery: Historical Foundations,” in 

From Chains to Bonds: The Slave Trade Revisited, ed. Doudou Diène (New York: Berghahn 

Books, 2001), p. 174.

Overwhelming Force and the Venezuelan 

Crisis of 1902–1903

HENRY J. HENDRIX

Few incidents of recent history have remained as clouded as the Venezuelan Crisis of 

1902–3. For more than a century historians have disputed the accuracy of Theodore 

Roosevelt’s recollections of the events of the winter of 1902. The confusion surrounding 

the Venezuelan Crisis stems from assertions made in Roosevelt’s later correspondence. 

His claim that he actively coerced European blockaders to accept arbitration did not 

emerge publicly until October 1915, when one of his letters appeared as an appendix to a 

biography of former secretary of state John Hay.1

The biography’s author, William R. Thayer, included the letter to highlight a previously 

undisclosed diplomatic crisis in the early days of Roosevelt’s administration. Written in early 1915, the letter vividly recalls the events of late 1902 from the president’s 

perspective: “I assembled our battle fleet, under Admiral Dewey, near Porto Rico, for 

‘maneuvres,’ with instructions that the fleet should be kept in hand and in fighting trim, 

and should be ready to sail at an hour’s notice . . . I saw the [German] Ambassador, and 

explained that in view of the presence of the German squadron on the Venezuelan coast 

I could not permit longer delay in answering my request for arbitration, and that I could 

not acquiesce in any seizure of Venezuelan territory.”2

The records of the operational units and commanders of the naval forces involved in 

the “winter exercise” of 1902–3 present a clear picture of the events in the Caribbean. 

For eleven days, between 8 December and 18 December 1902, the future of U.S., British, 

German, and Venezuelan relations hung in the balance as Theodore Roosevelt discreetly 

pursued diplomatic negotiations between Venezuela and the two great European powers. When Germany, intent on nullifying the Monroe Doctrine and gaining a colonial 

possession in South America, repeatedly ignored the American president’s call for arbitration, Roosevelt committed the combined U.S. Atlantic Fleet to the task of establishing 

the supremacy of American interests in the Western Hemisphere.

CHAPTER TWO
Defining Factors

In May 1901 a German warship appeared off Margarita, Venezuela, and began mapping 

approaches to the harbor. Although Venezuela had maintained its independence for 

more than seventy-five years, it continued to suffer the common ailments of many Latin 

American republics: a growing debt to international powers and a corrupt and weak 

government incapable of paying it off. Venezuela’s constitutional structure maintained 

many of the authoritarian attributes of its colonial past, and the continuing presence 

and influence of institutions such as the Catholic Church, the military, and an organized landowning class acted to create and support a highly hierarchical social system 

that was prone to graft and corruption.3

Five Venezuelan presidents came and went during the 1890s, each alternately playing 

the role of reformer and strongman, all gaining wealth from commissions received 

for negotiating loans to their nation on terms very favorable to the European leaders. 

When Venezuela became so indebted that it could no longer afford to pay the interest 

on the notes, the European powers moved to collect. In 1895 this resulted in a loss of 

“disputed” territory to British-held Guiana, but Venezuela warded off outright colonial 

assimilation.4

 Concern that this surrender of territory might encourage the ambitions of 

other European powers eager to expand or establish colonial possessions in the area is 

evident in the strongly worded response and activities of the United States throughout 

this crisis.5

In 1902 the mantle of leadership rested on the shoulders of Gen. Cipriano Castro, who 

appears from the vantage point of history to be a caricature of the stereotypical Latin 

American dictator. A career army officer who had spent much of the 1890s exiled in 

neighboring Colombia, he launched a revolution on 23 May 1899 with the stated intent 

to create the strong central government he and his supporters felt was necessary to 

advance the cause of progress in the nation.6

 Castro’s military strongman background 

heavily colored his foreign policy, which was a conglomeration of heavy-handed, aggressive initiatives that lacked sophistication or nuance. The American representative to 

Venezuela described Castro as “ignorant, obstinate and willful [sic]. He evidently thinks 

that he is a Power in the World . . . He has never traveled: he knows nothing of the 

outside world; he can not realize the force and power of virtue and justice; he believes 

he is the Child of Fortune, and that he alone is able to govern his country and control 

its destiny.”7

 Castro spent much of 1901 fomenting unrest in Colombia in hopes of 

overthrowing its government and creating a greater Venezuelan Republic out of Bolivia, 

Colombia, and Venezuela.8

By late 1901 Venezuela’s European creditors had become strident in their demands that 

President Castro pay more attention to his mounting foreign debts. Venezuela had not 
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paid even the interest on its loans in several years, and Germany, Britain, and Italy were 

increasingly concerned. Castro diverted their requests for economic redress into the 

Venezuelan court system, whose bench was loaded with Castro supporters who rendered verdicts in Venezuela’s favor. Additionally, Castro’s navy seized foreign ships and 

their cargos at sea, and foreign-held homes in Venezuela were raided and looted.9

 When 

faced with the threat of European armed intervention to collect on debt and address 

the additional crimes against foreigners, Castro made it clear that he believed that the 

Monroe Doctrine would effectively shield his country.10

The Monroe Doctrine, first enunciated in 1823 by President James Monroe and his secretary of state, John Quincy Adams, forbade the expansion of European colonial efforts 

in the Western Hemisphere.11 The combined effects of the Civil War and the abysmal 

state of the Navy left the United States without the tools to enforce this doctrine for 

most of the nineteenth century, however, and the responsibility for containing European 

expansion into the Western Hemisphere actually fell on the shoulders of Great Britain. 

Britain’s colonial and commercial interests in Canada and the Caribbean made it a 

silent partner in the U.S. strategy, even when the two nations’ policies were in conflict in 

other arenas.12 The United States was willing to accept the dependent relationship until 

the final decade of the century, when the burdens of a worldwide empire on Britain, the 

burgeoning American Navy, and three successive crises (Brazil, 1891; Nicaragua, 1894; 

Venezuela, 1895) forced the two nations to reconsider the nature of their relationship.13

With regard to Venezuela, however, Secretary of State John Hay, a noted anglophile, 

made it clear that the Monroe Doctrine was never intended to shield a wrongdoing 

state from justice. A consortium of European powers led by Germany and Great Britain 

prepared to test the limits of the United States’ passivity.

While President William McKinley nominally supported the Europeans by urging 

Castro to make a good-faith effort to repay the loans, his vice president took a harder 

line.14 Vice President Theodore Roosevelt reassured America’s southern neighbors that 

while the doctrine posed no threat to them, it promised certain conflict for any “Old 

World Power” that sought to permanently acquire territory in the New World.15 He took 

the additional step of spelling out his personal interpretation of the Monroe Doctrine 

directly to the German consul general, who was encouraged to convey it to Ambassador 

Theodor von Holleben and Kaiser Wilhelm.16 This conversation must have weighed 

heavily on the mind of the German ambassador two months later when he called on 

Roosevelt to express his nation’s sympathies to the new president of the United States 

following William McKinley’s assassination.

In the opening days of the first Roosevelt presidency in September 1901, the European 

powers, with their numerous colonies scattered throughout the Caribbean and their 

sizable business investments in South America, exercised substantial influence over 
the Western Hemisphere (Table 1). Roosevelt was well aware that the leading nations of 

Europe did not welcome his expansive interpretation of the 1823 Monroe Doctrine. If 

the policy was to be effective, he needed to back it up with credible combat power and 

convince the imperial powers of Europe that he would use that power.

Naval Coercive Diplomacy

Shortly after entering the White House, Theodore Roosevelt accepted a report prepared 

for his predecessor by Rear Adm. Robley D. Evans that called into question “the real 

value of our naval force for fighting purposes.” Evans, speaking for the General Board 

of the Navy—an advisory panel of a dozen or so senior officers created in 1901 to advise 

the secretary of the Navy on war planning, the disposition of the fleet, the establishment of bases, and so on—went on to detail the effective strength of fighting vessels 

available to other major naval powers in the event of war.17 Observing the disparity in 

naval strength between the United States, the imperial powers of Europe, and the rising 

power of Japan in the Pacific, Evans noted that “the most phlegmatic observer cannot 

fail to be impressed with such a striking comparison, nor can he avoid appreciating the 

questionable position in which our country would be found, should any one of the many 

international problems of the present time suddenly force us into hostilities.” Evans 

concluded by saying that the General Board urged “greater celerity in the completion 

of such vessels as are already authorized . . . while an equal or greater necessity for a 

further increase in our limited number of fighting ships should . . . be impressed upon 

Congress in the most emphatic manner.”18 Roosevelt reacted with characteristic gusto. 

“I am straining every nerve,” he commented to a friend in the opening months of his 

presidency, “to keep on with the upbuilding of the Navy.”19 Roosevelt clearly envisioned 

needing that strength in his roles as his nation’s chief diplomat and the commander in 

chief of its armed forces.

Roosevelt represented a quandary for European leaders. The populist nature of the 

American democracy led to a shifting foreign policy and inconsistent statements shaped 

largely for domestic consumption.20 The more cosmopolitan Roosevelt crafted his 

pronouncements with domestic and foreign audiences equally in mind, however, and 

he was not given to exaggeration when it came to foreign policy.21 Had the diplomats in 

GREAT BRITAIN FRANCE GERMANY USA JAPAN

Battleships 28 9 15 10 6

Cruisers 120 37 26 20 31

Source: Navy Yearbook (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1909), 655–657.

TABLE 1

Naval Order of Battle, 1901
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the German and British embassies understood Roosevelt’s character and reviewed his 

prior statements, there would have been no surprise when this staunch defender of the 

Monroe Doctrine interpreted a German communiqué issued in December 1901 not only 

as a challenge to the United States but as a personal affront as well. The message stated 

that while Germany and its partner Great Britain did not seek territorial gains, circumstances might require them to pursue “temporary occupation” of Venezuelan harbors 

and their accompanying customhouses.

Roosevelt took no comfort from these assurances.22 After all, the kaiser’s brother had 

recently seized territory “temporarily” in China and then negotiated (at gunpoint) 

ninety-nine-year leases on the holdings.23 Rear Adm. Henry C. Taylor, chief of the Bureau of Navigation and the senior uniformed naval adviser to the president, wrote Roosevelt a memorandum in which he stated that in the likely event that Venezuela ignored 

the European blockade, the powers would respond by bombarding port facilities and 

invading. Germany’s by now familiar strategy in these situations would be to demand 

an indemnity to cover the expense of the conflict. Secretary of State Hay had voiced his 

opinion of this formula a few years earlier while serving as ambassador to Great Britain: 

“There is to the German mind, something monstrous in the thought that a war should 

take place anywhere and they not profit by it.”24 In a classic European policy formulation, Taylor’s memo concluded that President Castro “could offer nothing but territory,” 

ensuring Germany’s acquisition of a foothold on the South American continent.25 With 

Venezuela overlooking the key approaches to the long-sought-after canal through the 

isthmus joining North and South America, the young American president correctly 

perceived the scenario of the likely establishment of a German naval base, or even an 

active German colony, as a clear and present threat to longstanding U.S. interests. This 

scenario alone would have compelled Roosevelt to act, but the historical record suggests 

that he also saw an opportunity to use the circumstances surrounding Venezuela’s difficulties to elevate his nation and himself to the level of the other Great Powers and their 

leaders. To maximize this opportunity, he drew on the talents of men he understood 

and respected.

In June 1901 the General Board of the Navy, under the chairmanship of Admiral of the 

Navy George Dewey, had sent a report to President McKinley detailing the scope of influence the U.S. Navy could expect to exert in the Caribbean in the event of war with an 

unnamed Western European power. This unnamed power was assumed to be Germany, 

and in fact, the Naval War College had conducted a series of war games with negative 

results against the “Black” (German) Navy in 1901.26 Now Dewey, the victor in the Battle 

of Manila Bay and, in Roosevelt’s eyes, the nation’s greatest living hero, reviewed his 

board’s report with the new president. It stated that the “Navy can control the Caribbean and its shores in war, if we retain, in peace, vantage points on the shores of Cuba 
and create a strongly fortified naval base in Porto Rican waters. This control will reach 

Orinoco [near the present-day eastern border of Venezuela] and the Guianas.”27

Subsequently, on 1 January 1902, a detachment of five Marine officers, one surgeon, and 

one hundred enlisted Marines began the permanent fortification of Culebra Island, a 

thickly wooded, six-mile-long islet sixteen miles east of Puerto Rico.28 Culebra possessed 

no natural freshwater sources aside from that which came from the sky, but it did possess a magnificent harbor, known simply as “Great Harbor,” that provided valuable protection for ships during the annual hurricane season.29 One month earlier, in December 

1901, portions of the island had been permanently ceded to the Department of the Navy. 

The conversion of designated areas to a fully equipped naval base now began in earnest, 

“in case of sudden war.”30 Named “Camp Roosevelt” in honor of the president, the camp 

featured barracks for officers and enlisted men, a storehouse for supplies, and a field 

hospital consisting of an operating room and dispensary. The latter was deemed too 

small by reviewers from the Bureau of Medicine and Surgery, who recommended that it 

be enlarged to the standard size, providing additional sleeping quarters for attendants 

and a six-bed hospital ward.31 Tiny Culebra and its harbor became the cornerstone of 

American naval activities in the Caribbean.

The Navy was also carefully monitoring the mounting domestic and international 

instability that surrounded the Castro regime. Small U.S. Navy vessels that pulled in 

and out of Venezuelan ports for resupply provided surprisingly detailed intelligence 

reports on events unfolding there. For much of the nineteenth century, naval officers 

such as Commo. William Bainbridge with the Barbary pirates, Commo. Matthew Perry 

in Japan, and Rear Adm. John Walker in Panama had functioned with proficiency and 

quiet expertise as the sole diplomatic representatives of their nation in many foreign 

ports.32 They also served as frontline intelligence officers, acting as the eyes and ears 

of the United States with regard to matters critical to national interests. On 28 February 1901 the commander of the USS Scorpion reported that the president of Venezuela 

was encouraging public discontent with the United States over minor civil infractions 

involving American sailors. Lt. Cdr. Nathan Sargent reported that “President Castro 

is unpopular and his foothold is insecure; he feels therefore that if the natural animosity to Americans can be encouraged, he can acquire popularity by his attitude and that 

his position will be greatly strengthened. In addition . . . he imagines he can gain the 

reputation of wielding a firm foreign policy without danger of being called to account 

for his actions by our Government.” The Scorpion’s commanding officer suggested 

that the German government was using its local immigrant population to help stir up 

anti-American resentment: “I am also informed upon very reliable authority that the 

Germans are not wholly guiltless in this antagonism to everything American. They have 

here . . . a large colony in Venezuela, are naturally jealous of us and our trade, and have 
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done their best to work up and accentuate this crusade against us.”33 Reports continued 

to arrive at the White House via the Navy Department detailing the increasing revolutionary unrest and the rising probability of European “intervention” to restore order.34

Roosevelt knew the nature and the extent of the challenge he faced in the Caribbean, 

and he set about to prepare the instrument of his forthcoming diplomacy.

Winter Exercises

At the end of the nineteenth century, the U.S. Navy made a point of focusing its influence in the Caribbean. Following the Spanish-American War in 1898 the Navy commenced a series of “winter exercises,” assembling various units of the fleet to carry out 

inspections and simulated engagements. It fell to Dewey’s General Board to draft plans, 

assign units, and monitor the results. So it was that in May 1901 the General Board issued preliminary orders for the winter 1902–3 exercise. The conclusion of the exercise 

order described a simulated battle between two opposing fleets on the high seas.35

This proposal was refined in November 1901 by Secretary of the Navy John D. Long. According to Long’s instructions, the winter exercise would begin with a series of inspections followed by combined live-firing drills (with limited expenditure of ammunition) 

to test the accuracy of the battleships’ and cruisers’ big guns and would culminate in the 

aforementioned simulated battle on the high seas between two large naval forces.36 Every 

action ordered appears, from a professional’s perspective, to be in line with standard 

operating procedures. As tensions between the European powers and Venezuela began 

to rise, however, a not too subtle “hidden hand” gradually altered the winter “exercise” 

to full preparation for war.

In early 1902 Ambassador von Holleben warned Kaiser Wilhelm II that Theodore 

Roosevelt would respond strongly to any hint of a permanent German military presence in South America. Wilhelm dismissed his ambassador’s concern, saying, “We will 

do whatever is necessary . . . even if it displeases the Yankees.”37 The kaiser viewed the 

expansion of U.S. influence with alarm, fearing that it came at the expense of Germany’s imperialist plans. In 1898, following George Dewey’s defeat of the Spanish fleet 

in Manila Bay, a squadron of German ships sailed into the harbor amid rumors that it 

was intent on acquiring all or part of the former Spanish possession not claimed by the 

previously “nonimperial” United States.38 The United States’ subsequent departure from 

its historical imperial reluctance and acquisition of the entire archipelago, threatening 

to back up its stand with force if necessary, embarrassed the German commander, and 

by extension the kaiser.39 Wilhelm was not one to suffer embarrassment without retaliation. At one point he even considered invading Long Island and using it as a bargaining 

chip to force the U.S. government to turn over certain overseas possessions.40 Ultimately, 
Wilhelm backed away from that precipice and shifted his focus to other nations in the 

Western Hemisphere.

By the time Theodore Roosevelt assumed the presidency, Wilhelm had concluded that 

the Monroe Doctrine was a real threat to the expansion of German influence and territory in South America. In a government position paper he questioned the doctrine’s 

legality. “The Monroe Doctrine has not become an international law, to which the 

European Nations are tied,” he insisted, and he pointedly began referring to the “United 

States of North America” in his speeches and correspondence.41 Contemporary observers discerned in Wilhelm’s statements a strategy to “unite Europe, including England, in 

hostility to the Monroe doctrine.”42 Wilhelm II knew that he had to destroy the legitimacy of the United States’ claims of preponderant interest in the Western Hemisphere 

to achieve the goals of German colonial expansion. To do that, he would have to take on 

Theodore Roosevelt.

Upon assuming the presidency, Roosevelt, for continuity, had asked McKinley’s cabinet 

to remain in place. Within six months, however, the new president, who as assistant 

secretary had chafed under John Long’s lethargy, accepted the old man’s resignation, 

graciously describing him as a man who was “single-minded in his devotion to the 

public interest.”43 Roosevelt took the traditional route of looking to the state of Massachusetts for a replacement and quickly appointed four-term congressman William H. 

Moody, “whose vigor, sturdiness, and temperament . . . resembled his own,” as the new 

secretary of the Navy.44 Moody’s four years of service on the House Insular Affairs Committee had educated him on the magnitude of the challenges of carrying out a successful 

imperial foreign policy.45 With Moody’s help, Roosevelt quickly modified the character 

of the forthcoming naval exercise.

In June, Roosevelt took the highly irregular step of asking Admiral Dewey himself to 

assume command of the combined Atlantic Fleet for the winter exercise. Dewey, the 

Navy’s only “four-star” admiral, seldom went to sea, and never for extended periods. He 

preferred to remain in Washington, where he could monitor the Navy from his office 

from nine until noon and then enjoy a nice afternoon nap at home before setting out for 

an afternoon carriage ride followed by dinner and early retirement to bed.46 Revealing 

that the broader international audience was the intended target of his decision, Roosevelt wrote to Dewey: “Your standing . . . abroad, is such that the effect of your presence 

will be very beneficial.”47 Roosevelt demonstrated the importance he attached to Dewey’s mission when, despite being bedridden with a leg injury that would ultimately result 

in a painful bone-scraping procedure, he invited Dewey to his sickroom to share his 

private thoughts on the matter. The president made it clear that his reason for assigning 

Dewey was twofold: He wanted Dewey commanding the fleet to “put pride in the people 

and [to] arrest the attention of . . . the Kaiser.” The full extent of Roosevelt’s instructions 
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during this meeting are not known, but a diary entry by Dewey’s wife later that evening 

intimates their sensitive nature: “The Prest. [sic] told G. in strict confidence—what had 

better not be written now.”48

In August, Roosevelt attempted to telegraph the seriousness of his intentions to the international community. Writing to his good friend, British parliamentarian (and noted 

European socialite) Arthur Lee, Roosevelt stated that Dewey was training the fleet for 

war.49 Lee, noted for his numerous contacts in European capitals, could be counted on 

to make sure that this diplomatic tidbit reached the right ears. Deeply sensitive to the 

significance of symbolism in diplomacy, T.R. completed his summer diplomatic foray 

by offering Dewey the use of the presidential yacht, the USS Mayflower, as his flagship.50

Any attack on this ship, an outward symbol of the American presidency, could be seen 

only as a personal attack on Theodore Roosevelt himself.

Secretary of the Navy Moody had already taken steps to support Dewey in his mission to the Caribbean. Prior to the president’s offer of the Mayflower, the swift packet 

vessel USS Dolphin had been placed at Dewey’s command, along with an expert staff 

that included Rear Adm. Henry C. Taylor as chief of staff and the newly promoted Cdr. 

Nathan Sargent as Dewey’s personal aide.51 Again, from an operational perspective, 

Taylor’s assignment as chief of staff is worthy of note.

Henry Clay Taylor was regarded as one of the most gifted men of his generation. He had 

served at the Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island, acquiring a reputation as 

an intellectual, an administrator, and an innovator. When the position of chief of the 

Bureau of Navigation was vacated, Roosevelt reached far down and promoted Taylor 

over the heads of many of his superiors into the senior Navy position in Washington.52 At that time there was no Chief of Naval Operations. Instead, the U.S. Navy was 

run by eight admirals who headed up “bureaus” (navigation, shipbuilding, ordnance, 

etc.). While they were all equal in rank, it was accepted that the head of the Bureau of 

Navigation was the “first among equals.” The assignment of Taylor to be Dewey’s chief 

of staff was thus highly unusual and could have occurred only by the direction of the 

commander in chief. The choice of Commander Sargent, recently the commander of the 

USS Scorpion and the source of so much intelligence concerning the political unrest in 

Venezuela, further underlines the importance assigned to this mission.

Moody took the additional step of ordering U.S. Navy assets in July to survey the Venezuelan coast for possible German landing zones and to submit suggestions for their 

defense. Later, in an internal memorandum, he informed his bureau chiefs that the 

president was “deeply interested” in the forthcoming maneuvers. Moody directed all involved to provide “hearty and vigorous cooperation” to ensure “that this mobilization of 

the fleet be successfully accomplished.” He concluded by reminding the recipients “that 
this movement is a test of our ability to meet war demands” and assured his bureau 

chiefs that he would “sanction all reasonable expense within the law and regulations, 

in order that the vessels engaged . . . may be prepared.”53 This level of personal attention 

at the secretarial level leaps out at the historical and professional observer. In October 

the secretary issued the final instructions for the winter exercise, now just two months 

away. In a telling and dramatic departure from the simulated battle between two fleets 

on the high seas contained in previous versions of the exercise, Moody ordered a battle 

scenario focused on the interception of an approaching naval force intent on securing 

an undefended foreign harbor and mining its main ship channel.54

U.S. Marines Build a Base

Naval power is not completely sea based, and Roosevelt’s preparations did not end with 

Dewey and his fleet. Throughout the late summer and early fall, as the final changes were 

being made to the “winter exercise,” the workings of the other arm of the naval service, 

the U.S. Marine Corps, also showed evidence of Roosevelt’s hidden hand. In September 

1903, on the order of the Commandant of the Corps, a battalion of Marines was constituted for possible deployment to Panama.55 The battalion comprised 16 officers and 421 

enlisted men under the command of Col. Percival C. Pope, an exceedingly experienced 

commander of troops whose service stretched back to the Civil War.56 The men were 

embarked on board the USS Prairie, which remained tied up at the naval base in Norfolk, 

Virginia, awaiting further orders. On 23 October an additional order increased the size of 

the force by one company under the command of Capt. Smedley D. Butler, bringing the 

force to 19 officers and 522 enlisted men.57 The size and structure of this force represented 

a sizable percentage of the expeditionary combative power of the Marine Corps.

On 5 November this force was ordered to participate in the winter exercise, and the 

Prairie departed Norfolk for Culebra Island.58 The Marines reached the island on 

20 November, disembarked, and began constructing three defensive artillery positions, 

mutually supporting their fields of fire. They built roads strong enough to allow the transportation of heavy guns and ammunition between the emplacements and strung telephone lines between the various encampments. Rear Adm. Francis J. Higginson and Rear 

Adm. Joseph B. Coghlan, the respective commanders of the North Atlantic and Caribbean squadrons, inspected the positions and pronounced them satisfactory.59 The Marines’ 

actions constituted a major effort to establish a defensible base for fleet operations.

Kaiser Wilhelm II remained oblivious to the mounting American resistance to his plan 

for expansion in South America. Throughout the summer and early fall he worked to 

convince the British to act with Germany to coerce Venezuela into paying off its debts.60

Two months later, in a characteristic boast, Wilhelm played up the capabilities of his 

navy to visiting American Army general (and known Roosevelt confidant) Leonard 
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Wood.61 By early November the forces of Germany and Great Britain were in position 

to take action against Venezuela.62 Rear Admiral Taylor advised Roosevelt that war between the United States and the European powers was the likely outcome if the situation 

developing off Venezuela turned violent.63

On the evening of 24 November 1902 Roosevelt hosted a private dinner for a small group 

at the White House to honor Baron Speck von Sternburg, a German diplomat and old 

friend. Both men had served in Washington during the early 1890s, Roosevelt on the Civil 

Service Commission and von Sternburg in the German embassy. Roosevelt hoped to use 

the intimacy of personal diplomacy to convey his intentions directly to the kaiser’s senior 

staff. Also at the dinner table that evening was Admiral of the Navy George Dewey.64

Admiral Dewey always maintained the poise and appearance of a cultured man, but inside him raged a fierce spirit with but one focus: Germany. While he publicly restrained 

his comments, Washington’s social elite were well aware that Dewey held the Germans in 

particular distaste as a result of the German navy’s actions preceding and following the 

Battle of Manila Bay.65 Mildred Dewey, again in the privacy of her diary, stated her unvarnished opinion of the U.S.-German relationship, “The truth is, we hate each other.”66

Roosevelt’s purpose in inviting Admiral Dewy to the White House for dinner could not 

have escaped a professional diplomat of von Sternburg’s caliber. But events in European 

capitals conspired to ensure that the carefully constructed guest list and dinner conversation would not have the time or opportunity to achieve Roosevelt’s aim. Events were 

already in motion.

Germany and Great Britain had begun to consider joint action against Venezuela in the 

early days of 1902.67 Great Britain wanted to seize Venezuela’s gunboats as “a convenient 

form of coercion” and as a means of avoiding the perception of infringing on Roosevelt’s 

Monroe Doctrine.68 The kaiser, however, remained convinced that Roosevelt was bluffing and instructed his ambassador to Britain to communicate his intention to blockade 

the South American republic. Count Paul von Metternich’s arguments carried the day, 

and on 25 November 1902 Germany and Great Britain formally announced their intention to implement a “pacific” blockade of Venezuela.69

Britain’s participation in the Venezuelan Crisis appears inconsistent with its evolving national interests in the Western Hemisphere. After a century of acrimony and 

distrust between their two respective nations, the governments of Theodore Roosevelt 

and Arthur Balfour seemed to be successfully knitting together the destinies of the two 

great English-speaking nations. Given the importance it attached to its current relationship with America, Balfour’s government took the precaution of forewarning Secretary 

of State Hay of Britain’s decision to blockade Venezuela. Hay, who was either out of 

touch with Roosevelt’s thinking or deliberately playing his role in a grand Rooseveltian 
diplomatic drama, responded that while he regretted “that European Powers should 

use force against Central and South American countries,” his country “could not object 

to their taking steps to obtain redress for injuries suffered by their subjects, provided 

no acquisition of territory was contemplated.”70 Perhaps because of the tepid nature of 

Hay’s assurance, Britain’s new ambassador to the United States, Michael Herbert, felt 

compelled to express his own personal reservations. “I wish we were going to punish 

Venezuela without the aid of Germany,” he wrote to his foreign minister, Lord Henry 

Lansdowne, “for I am not sure that joint action will be very palatable here.”71

On 1 December Roosevelt traveled the few blocks south from the White House to the 

Washington Navy Yard to see Dewey off. The exact words exchanged between the two 

men are not known, but the substance of the conversation is clear: while Dewey did sail 

with the intention of overseeing the annual winter exercise, there was the very real potential for him to play an even greater role in the developing crisis off the coast of Venezuela. As her husband sailed south out of communication, Mildred Dewey recorded in 

her diary, “I dread there may be war over Veequela [sic] . . . how can Georg [sic] get thru 

three wars unscathed.”72

Execution

On 7 December 1902 Germany and Great Britain instituted their “peaceful blockade” of 

Venezuela.73 It did not begin well. A Venezuelan mob in Porto Cabello seized the Britishflagged merchantman Topaze at anchor there, and German ships shelled two nearby 

Venezuelan military installations in response. Elsewhere, students marched in the streets 

displaying banners that called on the United States to uphold la doctrina Monroe on their 

behalf.74 President Castro escalated tensions and gave his opponents a legal recipe for a 

declaration of war when he ordered the imprisonment of all male British and German citizens and the seizure of their property.75 On 9 December British and German naval forces 

proceeded to capture the ships of the Venezuelan navy then in port.76 The Germans, in 

their enthusiasm, sank one of their prizes and seriously damaged another.77 Castro, by 

now convinced of the seriousness of the European threat, appealed to the American 

minister in Venezuela, Herbert Bowen, to intercede on Venezuela’s behalf and extend an 

offer of arbitration.78 Britain, increasingly aware of the concern the situation had aroused 

in the United States, assented, but Germany attempted to sidestep arbitration.79

The concept of arbitration as an element of international law emerged from The Hague 

Peace Conference convened by Czar Nicholas II in the spring and summer of 1899. 

While the conference did not achieve its ultimate, idealistic aim of achieving world 

peace, it did result in the establishment of a Permanent Court of Arbitration where nations could seek redress for their mutual grievances without having to resort to armed 

conflict. Germany, not keen to see the martial advantage arising in its shipyards and 
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the forges of the Krupp arms factories nullified by weak nations who sought equal 

treatment through legal venues, opposed the arbitration initiatives.80 Now, as word of 

the Venezuelan offer arrived in Germany, the kaiser’s earlier concerns seemed justified. Arbitration at this point in the blockade would not allow for the series of events 

necessary for Germany to gain the toehold of Venezuelan territory it needed to begin its 

slow expansion into South America and assert strategic prominence overlooking the approaches to the long-planned canal across the isthmus. The kaiser rejected arbitration.

According to Theodore Roosevelt’s later accounts, as the Mayflower dropped anchor off 

Culebra Island on 8 December, he was in the White House welcoming a group of German businessmen escorted by Ambassador Theodor von Holleben. During this meeting, the president later recalled, he drew von Holleben aside and spoke sharply to him, 

issuing an ultimatum demanding that Germany either accept arbitration within ten 

days or face armed conflict with the United States.81 The shocked ambassador responded 

that he could not forward such a demand, phrased as it was, to the kaiser. Apparently, 

von Holleben left the room convinced that Roosevelt was bluffing. He would not have 

been so certain had he been aware of the actions of Admiral Dewey during the period 

9–18 December 1902.

Naval professionals will quickly discern within the stark events that occurred over the 

next week and a half the differences between a well-executed “winter exercise” and the 

actions of a veteran combatant commander preparing his forces for war. Background 

analysis also reveals the blunt hand of America’s relatively new chief diplomatist and 

commander in chief. Unlike previous exercises, which focused on individual naval 

squadrons, the 1902–3 maneuvers gathered every available battleship, cruiser, and torpedo boat in the Atlantic.82 

By combining the North Atlantic, South Atlantic, European, and Caribbean squadrons, 

Dewey was able to marshal fifty-three ships to counter the twenty-nine ships available 

to Britain and Germany in the Caribbean.83 Although this number may seem excessive, it was necessary, in Roosevelt’s mind, to demonstrate an ability on the part of the 

United States to concentrate an overwhelming force in its claimed “zone of influence.” 

Both Great Britain and Germany possessed larger navies than the United States, but 

they would have had to strip units from other critical areas of their empires (leaving 

trade routes vulnerable to disruption) in order to exceed the combined American fleet. 

Assembling such a force would take weeks—weeks in which Roosevelt would be free to 

exercise his diplomacy.

While Dewey cruised down from Washington, D.C., aboard the Mayflower his task 

force was already exercising in the Caribbean. The individual components of the Atlantic Fleet had begun to assemble off Culebra in mid-November (Table 2). On 1 November 
the Caribbean Squadron under the command of Rear Adm. Joseph Coghlan had made 

the short transit to Culebra from its base at San Juan, Puerto Rico. Coghlan’s division 

comprised the type of cruisers and auxiliary cruisers that had borne the brunt of the action during the Spanish-American War four years earlier. The North Atlantic Squadron, 

largely formed of battleships and under the command of Rear Adm. Francis Higginson, 

arrived on 21 November 1902 from Hampton Roads, Virginia. The remaining two 

squadrons—the South Atlantic Squadron under the command of Rear Adm. George W. 

Sumner and the European Squadron under the command of Rear Adm. A. S. Crowninshield—which each comprised a single battleship escorted by three or four armored or 

protected cruisers, rendezvoused in the Gulf of Paria to form the simulated approaching 

opposing force in the winter exercise’s main battle problem.

NORTH ATLANTIC

SQUADRON CARIBBEAN SQUADRON

SOUTH ATLANTIC

SQUADRON EUROPEAN SQUADRON

Rear Adm. Francis J. 

Higginson

Rear Adm. Joseph B. 

Coghlan

Rear Adm. George W. 

Sumner

Rear Adm. Arent S. 

Crowninshield

USS Kearsarge (BB), 

flagship

USS Olympia (CL), 

flagship

USS Iowa (BB), 

flagship

USS Illinois (BB), 

flagship

USS Alabama (BB) USS Montgomery (CL) USS Atlanta (CL) USS Chicago (CL)

USS Massachusetts

(BB)

USS Detroit (CL) USS San Francisco

(CL)

USS Albany (CL)

USS Indiana (BB) USS Panther (CX) USS Nashville (GB)

USS Cincinnati (CL) USS Marietta (GB)

USS Machias (GB)

USS Scorpion (GBL)

USS Gloucester (GBL)

USS Aileen (GBL)

TORPEDO FLOTILLA

Lt. Cdr. Lloyd 

Chandler

USS Decatur (TB), 

command ship

USS Bagley (TB) 

USS Barney (TB) 

USS Biddle (TB)

USS Shubrick (TB)

USS Thornton (TB) 

USS Stockton (TB) 

Abbreviations: BB, battleship; CL, unarmored cruiser; CX, auxiliary cruiser; GB, gunboat; GBL, unarmored gunboat; TB, torpedo 

boat.

Source: Annual Report of the Navy Department, 1903 (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1903), 466–473.

TABLE 2

U.S. Atlantic Fleet Components prior to 1902 Winter Exercise
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The objective of the exercise was for the opposing White force under the command of 

Rear Admiral Sumner to “secure a base” in any one of the five harbors in the vicinity 

of Puerto Rico and Culebra by 6:00 pm on 10 December 1902. The Blue (American) 

force under the command of Rear Admiral Higginson had to intercept this fleet, either 

at sea or soon after its arrival in a port, with a superior force. The result of this exercise 

provides insight into the great challenges of warfare on the vast reaches of the oceans. 

Sumner’s force transited first far to the east and then to the north of the islands before 

making a final swift passage down through the Mona Passage. Sumner successfully 

completed his task—occupying and defensively mining a harbor without resistance—on 

9 December.84

Admiral Dewey had dropped anchor at Culebra’s Great Harbor the previous day. His 

first step on arriving in the Caribbean was to secure fuel and ammunition for his ships 

as well as current intelligence on his surroundings. During his sail down from Washington Dewey had requested information on the positions of all logistics support ships in 

the Atlantic, and on arrival he ordered all ships to submit a list of the supplies required 

for them to meet “all contingencies.” In the meantime, Secretary Moody had wired his 

naval attachés in London, Paris, and Berlin requesting the desertion rates of the respective European navies in a rough attempt to ascertain their readiness for war.85

Dewey continued to issue orders at odds with the planned inspection, gunnery exercise, 

and simulated battle. He instructed a majority of the fleet to maintain position outside 

Great Harbor, and all U.S. ships to “maintain sufficient steam pressure to get underway” 

at a moment’s notice.86 Maintaining this high readiness posture was exhausting for the 

men involved and used up large quantities of coal. Further, it was very difficult to perform a full material inspection of a ship with the crew manning all stations and the fires 

in the steam engineering plant ignited and hot. Most engine inspections were completed 

when the fires of the propulsion system were out and the steam plant was cold, allowing 

the internal workings of the boiler and the gearing systems to be opened and available 

for visual inspection. Dewey, it seems, was not emphasizing a rigorous material review.

Perhaps the most glaring example of Dewey’s novel approach to the exercise was his order on 10 December to his medical staff to establish a sixty-bed hospital ward in Puerto 

Rico.87 The Marines, as previously mentioned, had built a “standard” six-bed hospital 

ward the year before, and the ships in Dewey’s fleet maintained their own sickbays and 

carried doctors or pharmacist’s mates to tend to the day-to-day ills and complaints of 

the crew. Squadrons typically carried a surgeon who would shuttle back and forth between the ships to handle the most serious cases. But Dewey took the initiative of moving his surgeons and their equipment off the major capital ships and borrowing medical 

staff from the growing naval base ashore to establish a land-based hospital capable of 

handling an inordinate number of sick or wounded. Whether that action is viewed from 
the vantage point of a naval professional or an archival historian, it is clear that Dewey 

was making every effort to ensure that all preparatory steps for combat operations had 

been taken.

A message from Chief of Staff Taylor to the commanding officer of the naval base adds 

another clue to Dewey’s intent. It is customary, when a group of navy ships pulls into 

port, for a shore detail to be formed to assist the local command in the logistical support 

of the ships. This practice maintains order among the sailors allowed ashore (the dreaded “shore patrol”) and also provides for the upkeep of the piers and the waterfront. The 

local commanding officer sent a request to Dewey’s flagship for just this sort of detail 

when the Mayflower arrived, but on 11 December Rear Admiral Taylor replied, “I regret 

to inform you it will be impracticable to give you any force of men or boats from the 

fleet at present. The intention of Admiral Dewey is to keep the fleet outside [the harbor] 

in a state of preparations to move at short notice.”88 This and Dewey’s other instructions 

were not typical of a fleet commander preparing his ships for a set schedule of inspections, gun firings, and simulated battle. In fact, on his second day in the harbor, Dewey, 

a noted stickler for schedules and organization, scuttled a carefully prepared schedule 

and announced his intention to begin material inspections of the major combatants 

immediately.89 He quickly moved through the material inspection phase, pushing on 

into instruction for all ships in the new system of marksmanship developed by Lt. Cdr. 

William S. Sims.90

Back in Washington—according to Edmund Morris’ timeline, on the afternoon of Sunday, 14 December—Roosevelt held his second meeting with Ambassador von Holleben. 

After discussing the weather and exchanging other pleasantries, Roosevelt asked if von 

Holleben had a reply for him regarding his previous ultimatum. The ambassador replied 

that since he had assumed that Roosevelt was not serious, he had not sent the message 

to the kaiser. Roosevelt later remembered telling von Holleben that “instead of allowing the three days that remained for an answer I would order Dewey to sail [south to 

Venezuela] in forty-eight hours.”91 T.R. also began a series of hurried consultations with 

members of the House of Representatives and the Senate that were reported in the New 

York Times and Washington Evening Star for all to see.92 Dewey, for his part, alluded to 

the focus of his attention when he wrote obliquely to his son the same day, “Things look 

rather equally Venezuela way, but we are not in it at the present.”93

The German ambassador understood with stark clarity his predicament. Following 

his 14 December meeting with Roosevelt, he hurried north to New York City to meet 

with Karl Bunz, the longtime German consul general there and a friend of Theodore 

Roosevelt. Years later, a friend of Bunz recounted that von Holleben came to ask if 

Roosevelt’s threat should be taken seriously. Bunz replied that to the best of his knowledge, Roosevelt did not bluff.94
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That same day, Secretary Moody wired Dewey, via a secure underwater Navy cable, to 

maintain a swift vessel at the ready in San Juan in order to ensure continuous communications with the fleet. He sent a similar message to the naval station at San Juan to stand 

by to forward instructions immediately to Dewey at sea.95 Dewey and the combined fleet 

had by this time progressed into a sequence of coordinated maneuvers, beginning with 

divisions of four ships, then combining into squadrons, and ultimately coming together 

as a fleet (Table 3). The new torpedo-boat flotilla practiced stealthy night attacks against 

simulated opponent battleships.

Dewey confided to his journal that “some of the evolutions were rather raggedly performed, owing to new ships having joined . . . [I] think angles and turning circles not 

yet having been determined.”96 The after action report noted that the “cruiser divisions 

TABLE 3

Combined U.S. Atlantic Fleet, 10 December 1902

Commander

Admiral of the Navy George Dewey

USS Mayflower, flagship

First Squadron

Rear Adm. Francis J. Higginson

Second Squadron

Rear Adm. George W. Sumner

Base Command

Rear Adm. Joseph B. Coghlan

USS Vixen (PY), flagship

First Division

USS Kearsarge (BB), flagship

USS Iowa (BB)

USS Massachusetts (BB)

USS Alabama (BB)

USS Scorpion (GBL), tender

Third Division

USS Chicago (CL), flagship

USS Albany (CL)

USS Cincinnati (CL)

USS Newark (CL)

USS Eagle, tender

Substitute Vessels

USS Nashville (GB)

USS Machias (GB)

USS Marietta (GB)

USS Bancroft (GB)

USS Wasp, tender

Second Division

Rear Adm. A. S. Crowninshield

USS Illinois (BB), flagship

USS Texas (BB)

USS Indiana (BB)

USS Olympia (CL)

USS Hist, tender

Fourth Division

Capt. Asa Walker

USS San Francisco (CL), command ship 

USS Atlanta (CL)

USS Montgomery (CL)

USS Detroit (CL)

Torpedo Flotilla

Lt. Cdr. Lloyd Chandler

USS Decatur (TB), command ship

USS Bagley (TB)

USS Barney (TB)

USS Biddle (TB)

USS Thornton (TB)

USS Wilkes (TB)

USS Stockton (TB) 

USS Nina, tender

Transports

USS Prairie (CX)

USS Panther (CX)

Tugs

USS Fortune

USS Leyden

USS Osceola

USS Potomac

USS Uncas

Water Supply

USS Arethusa

Supply and Repair

USS Culgoa

Colliers

USS Hannibal, USS Leonidas,

USS Sterling, USS Lebanon, 

USS Brutus, USS Marcellus, 

USS Ajax

Abbreviations: BB, battleship; CL, unarmored cruiser; GB, armored gunboat; GBL, unarmored gunboat; CX, auxiliary cruiser; 

TB, torpedo boat.

Source: Journal of the Commander in Chief, Dewey Collection, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C., box 44, 15.
were handled in connection with line of battle[ships] without confusion and without the 

necessity of frequent signals or signaling at great distances.”

Capt. Albert Gleaves, the commanding officer of Dewey’s flagship, the Mayflower, 

disagreed with that assessment. Gleaves recorded in his memoirs an attempt to steam in 

formation from Culebra to Saint Thomas that left an indelible image of a fleet “without 

form and void—so to speak.” Gleaves felt that the ad hoc procurement practices of the 

Navy Department had resulted in such a multitude of ship designs and capabilities that 

the U.S. Navy was practically unable to operate in formations beyond small groups of 

similarly designed ships. Following the winter exercise, an attempt was made to align 

the fleet in accordance with the ships’ capabilities.97

In another departure from the norms of the day, Admiral Dewey directed that the reinforced Marine battalion under the command of Colonel Pope at Culebra dispatch landing parties to the eastern and western shores of Vieques, to the bay of Ensenada Honda, 

and to the northern shore of Puerto Rico. Those Marines left on Culebra not tasked with 

logistical duties were sent into that island’s jungles.98 These reconnoitering parties, each 

comprising an officer and twenty-five enlisted men and supplied with a week’s worth of 

provisions, practiced armed reconnaissance, searching out possible enemy landing sites 

and establishing defensive positions to repel the aggressor force. While the after action 

report makes no mention of Venezuela, Dewey’s involvement and the magnitude and 

realism of the Marines’ activities indicate that this, too, was no mere exercise. Dewey’s 

final report obliquely summarized the Marines’ jungle training: “These various exercises proved of conspicuous value to the officers and men engaged in them and gave us 

much valuable experience for later use.”99

In reply to Moody’s 14 December letter, Dewey acknowledged the order to maintain a 

courier boat to relay messages and, in a barely disguised request for additional information, pointedly asked, “Program of exercises called for dispersal of fleet Friday night for 

Christmas holidays. Shall this be carried out?”100 Earlier that day Dewey had received an 

intelligence report from the commanding officer of the USS Marietta, operating off La 

Guayra, Venezuela, detailing the actions taken by the British and German war vessels 

Charybdis and Vineta against Venezuelan military installations and port facilities.101

Based on this information, and clearly expecting a war order, Rear Admiral Taylor 

sent a message to the communications center in San Juan: “Recent intelligence from 

Washington indicates the possibility of urgent dispatches arriving anytime . . . it is probable that such cables may be written in cipher and every precaution should be taken to 

expedite their delivery . . . it is advisable to avoid comment upon questions and topics in 

any way.”102
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Shortly after transmitting this cable, Dewey recalled all of his force’s ambulatory sick 

from Puerto Rican hospitals in an effort to fully man his ships, and ordered all of his 

ships currently in or near the port to be fully loaded with stores.103 No other indicator of 

the expectation of combat can be so clear as the decision to pull a sick man from his bed 

in order to man his battle station.

December seventeenth dawned ominously as William Moody cryptically instructed 

Dewey not to disperse the fleet. Such instructions along with Dewey’s activities indicate 

that both Dewey and Moody expected the worst. Supplies of coal and ammunition had 

been loaded, and the force had been exercised vigorously at sea. Word from Washington 

indicated no change in the Europeans’ position, and it was apparent that the situation 

was deteriorating. The U.S. Senate passed a resolution endorsing Roosevelt’s public 

warnings to the European nations with regard to maintaining the territorial integrity of 

Venezuela.104 As night fell, Dewey assembled all of his senior commanders onboard the 

Mayflower “for consultations relative to the Venezuelan question.”105

In the United States, public reaction to events in Venezuela was decidedly anti-European, 

an attitude that was promptly noted in European capitals. Prime Minister Balfour 

learned from his ambassador in the United States, Sir Michael Herbert, “The impression 

prevails in Washington that Germany is using us, and our friends here regret, from the 

point of view of American good feeling towards us, that we are acting with her.”106 Three 

days earlier Herbert had cabled an encrypted message stating that the U.S. government 

was passing along Venezuela’s renewed desire to seek a “settlement of the present difficulty by arbitration.”107 On 16 December Parliament convened to debate the situation 

in Venezuela and the strains it was placing on Britain’s relationship with America.108 Balfour appeared in Parliament the following day to announce, “We have no intention, and 

have never had any intention, of landing troops in Venezuela or of occupying territory, 

even though that occupation might only be of a temporary nature.”109

The next day the American ambassador, Henry White, presented a message from Roosevelt to Balfour’s government strongly urging Britain and Germany to accept arbitration. Although Balfour was irritated by the impertinence of the suggestion, he felt it 

necessary to maintain the goodwill of the United States and quickly accepted it. Other 

officials of the government stepped forward to acknowledge and recognize the Monroe 

Doctrine. The prime minister also took it upon himself to contact some leading American citizens to ask them to relay to Roosevelt his desire for continued good relations 

with the United States. The burgeoning special relationship between the two Englishspeaking nations remained a high priority.110

In Berlin, the reaction to the United States’ “suggestion” of arbitration was slightly 

different. Much to Lord Lansdowne’s consternation, Germany’s ambassador to Great 
Britain, Count Paul von Metternich, continued to insist that the kaiser would not 

stoop to arbitration.111 The kaiser, it seems, was continuing to call what he thought was 

Roosevelt’s bluff. Back in the United States, Ambassador von Holleben’s military attachés traveled north to advise him on the strategic implications of the positioning of 

the American fleet.112 Finally overcoming his “mortal terror” of the kaiser, von Holleben transmitted two telegrams to Berlin. Their contents are unknown, but their effect 

was immediate.113 On the evening of 17 December Berlin signaled its acceptance of the 

American arbitration proposal. The kaiser had, as one observer wrote, “tested the Monroe Doctrine and discovered that it held.”114

Soon after the crisis ended, Theodor von Holleben was recalled in disgrace by the German emperor. The Washington establishment buzzed at both the suddenness and the 

silence of his departure. An explanation that the ambassador’s health was impaired was 

so at odds with his appearance and actions that speculation only increased. Some suggested that he had failed in his mission for the kaiser because he cultivated too friendly 

a relationship with Roosevelt rather than seek out ties with the financial community in 

New York so important to Germany’s industrial expansion. Decades would pass before 

the real nature of his diplomatic demise was understood.

Following the Venezuelan Crisis, the Monroe Doctrine, which the European powers had 

always looked on with skepticism, gained widespread tacit recognition and respect.115

Wilhelm had blinked, ending Germany’s chance to create colonies in the Western 

Hemisphere. On 18 December, free of worries, Secretary Moody wired his commander 

at sea, “Carry out your proposed holiday itinerary. Merry Christmas.”116

On 4 January 1903, as the Mayflower made its way back up the eastern coast of the United States, Admiral Dewey summarized the success of his mission in a letter to George 

Dewey Jr. The exercise, he wrote, “has been very interesting and I think beneficial to the 

Navy & Country. I have no doubt the Venezuela question would have given considerable trouble had it not been for this splendid fleet on the spot.”117 Years later, Roosevelt 

would sum up the role of George Dewey and his fleet succinctly during a speech given 

in Oyster Bay. “Dewey,” the former president remembered, “was the greatest possible 

provocateur of peace.”118

Conclusions

Edmund Morris eloquently described the vacant diplomatic record surrounding the 

Venezuelan Crisis as a “white shape of some vanished enormity, a reverse silhouette cut 

out of the gray text of history.”119 The naval record of the events associated with the crisis, both in the broader scope of Roosevelt’s overarching naval policy and in the specific 

actions of Admiral of the Navy George Dewey in his role as the commander in chief 
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of the combined Atlantic Fleet, supports Theodore Roosevelt’s later version of events 

as expressed in his 1915 letter to William R. Thayer: “. . . less than twenty four hours 

before the time I had appointed for calling the order to Dewey, the Ambassador notified 

me that His Imperial Majesty the German Emperor had directed him to request me to 

undertake arbitration myself.”120

From the outset of his administration it was Theodore Roosevelt’s desire to “upbuild” 

the U.S. Navy, supporting the service’s uniformed leadership in their desire for increased production of capital vessels. When faced with a credible threat to U.S. interests 

in the Caribbean and South America, he authorized the construction of a large naval 

base on Culebra, an island strategically located in the path of European approaches to 

the Caribbean. He altered the nature of a routine winter exercise—both its scenario and 

its composition—flooding the Caribbean basin with the near entirety of the Atlantic 

Fleet to ensure an overwhelming concentration of power during the critical months of 

the crisis. Further, Roosevelt personally made changes in personnel in key political and 

military positions. 

Hence, both naval and historical records seem to provide more than enough evidence to 

support the proposition that the American fleet arrived in the Caribbean with the intent 

of coercing the European nations into accepting mediation. In order for this form of 

diplomacy to be successful, the naval forces involved had to be fully prepared to conduct 

combat operations. In the end, it was this high degree of preparation that helped to convince the Europeans of Roosevelt’s seriousness and bring them to the bargaining table. 

Theodore Roosevelt went to extraordinary lengths to inform European powers of his 

interpretation of the Monroe Doctrine, both formally through conversations with the 

German consul general and ambassador, and informally through back-channel personal 

conversations with his many contacts on the European continent. He telegraphed his 

intention to deploy a credible combat force by several means, not the least of which was 

naming Dewey the commander of the task force. Roosevelt set a time limit of ten days 

for the resolution of the crisis, and when his ultimatum was ignored, he heightened the 

sense of urgency by accelerating the timetable. Ultimately, it was his presence and force 

of will that convinced Ambassador von Holleben of the seriousness of the situation and 

led the ambassador to overcome the kaiser’s personal resistance to arbitration. Roosevelt’s discretion, employed throughout the process, enabled his strategy to succeed. Had 

the president gone public with his demands at any time, the kaiser, facing war or public 

humiliation, might well have chosen war. Yet the discreet nature of Roosevelt’s demands 

allowed Wilhelm the opportunity to back down in private and preserved for the immediate present the future relations between the two nations.
The previous century of tacit cooperation with Great Britain suggested that the British 

would neither actively oppose Roosevelt’s new interpretation of the doctrine nor stand 

in the way of his new activist foreign policy. Nevertheless, the events in Venezuela along 

with the events of the last decade of the nineteenth century suggest that conflict with 

the United States was not outside the realm of possibility. 

Documents recently declassified under the “one-hundred-year rule” at the British 

National Archives suggest that Roosevelt’s actions with regard to Venezuela may have 

had another, albeit unintended, result. As the winter exercise approached and tensions 

increased between the United States and the European powers, the British Colonial 

Office drafted a secret memorandum that was forwarded to the Colonial Defense Committee, the War Office, and ultimately the Admiralty for comment. The memorandum 

raised questions about the defensibility of British possessions in the western Atlantic in 

the event of a conflict with the United States. In a response entitled “Strategic Conditions in the Event of War with the United States,” the Admiralty expressed doubt that 

“it would be possible to dispatch a sufficient naval force to maintain sea supremacy” in 

the western Atlantic and Caribbean “if at the time of the outbreak of war uncertain or 

hostile relations existed between this country and a European power.” The document 

goes on to state that the United States would be in a position to “stop our supplies from 

Canada” and to secure all food imports from the United States itself, effectively cutting 

off two-thirds of Great Britain’s food supply. The inescapable conclusion was that current realities emphasized “the necessity of preserving good relations with the United 

States.”121 Within two years Lansdowne and Balfour would secure an unofficial security 

arrangement with the United States, the beginning of what has come to be known as 

“the Special Relationship.”122

Thus it was that Theodore Roosevelt established for all the world to see the two pillars on which he would construct his foreign policy: the Monroe Doctrine and the U.S. 

Navy. His actions during the Venezuelan Crisis established precedents for American 

involvement in the world throughout the twentieth century. 

Notes 

This excerpt from Theodore Roosevelt’s Naval 

Diplomacy: The U.S. Navy and the Birth of the 

American Century, by Henry J. Hendrix (© 2009 

by United States Naval Institute), is reprinted with 

permission by the Naval Institute Press.

The thoughts and opinions expressed in this essay 

are those of the author and are not necessarily 

those of the U.S. government, the U.S. Navy Department, or the Naval War College.

1. Roosevelt to Whitelaw Reid, 27 June 1906; 

Roosevelt to Henry White, 14 August 1906, 

in Theodore Roosevelt and Elting Elmore 

Morison, The Letters of Theodore Roosevelt

(Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1951) 

[henceforth TLTR], 5: 318–320, 357–359. 
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2. William R. Thayer, Life and Letters of John 

Hay (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1915), 

284–285.

3. Donald L. Herman, “Democratic and Authoritarian Traditions,” in Democracy in Latin 

America: Colombia and Venezuela (New York: 

Praeger, 1988), 5.

4. Judith Ewell, Venezuela: A Century of Change

(Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1984), 

23–28.

5. Ruhl J. Bartlett, ed., The Record of American 

Diplomacy (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 

1964), 341–354.

6. Brian S. McBeth, Gunboats, Corruption, and 

Claims: Foreign Investment in Venezuela, 

1899–1908 (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood 

Press, 2001), 15–21.

7. Herbert W. Bowen, Recollections Diplomatic 

and Undiplomatic (New York: Grafton Press, 

1926), 252.

8.Ibid., 248–251.

9. McBeth, Gunboats, Corruption, and Claims,

82–83.

10. Sheldon B. Liss, Diplomacy and Dependency: 

Venezuela, the United States, and the Americas

(Salisbury, N.C.: Documentary Publications, 

1978), 27–30.

11. James D. Richardson, ed., Compilation of the 

Messages and Papers of the Presidents (New 

York: Bureau of National Literature and the 

Arts, 1920), 14: 6522–6523.

12. Walter LaFeber, The Cambridge History of 

American Foreign Relations (Cambridge, U.K.: 

Cambridge University Press, 1993), 60–61.

13. Ibid., 121–125.

14. Edward Wagenknecht, The Seven Worlds of 

Theodore Roosevelt (New York: Longman, 

Green, 1958), 119.

15. Howard K. Beale, Theodore Roosevelt and 

the Rise of America to World Power (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1956), 

395–431.

16. Roosevelt to Cecil Spring Rice, 6 July 1901, 

TLTR, 3: 107–109. 

17. Ronald Spector, Admiral of the New Empire

(Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University 

Press, 1974), 126–127.

18. Report of the General Board, 27 March 

1902, Dewey Collection, Library of Congress [henceforth DCLOC], box 43, folder 7, 

Records of the General Board of the Navy, 

Washington, D.C.

19. Roosevelt to Ambassador Joseph H. Choate, 3 

February 1902, TLTR, 3: 225.

20. Richard H. Collin, Theodore Roosevelt, 

Culture, Diplomacy, and Expansion: A New 

View of American Imperialism (Baton Rouge: 

Louisiana State University Press, 1985), 156.

21. Frederick W. Marks, Velvet on Iron (Lincoln: 

University of Nebraska Press, 1979), 37–70.

22. Howard C. Hill, Roosevelt and the Caribbean

(Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1927), 

141–146.

23. William Hard, “How Roosevelt Kept the 

Peace,” Metropolitan Magazine (May 1916): 

5, Theodore Roosevelt Collection, Harvard 

University [henceforth TRC].

24. Holger H. Herwig, Politics of Frustration: 

The United States in German Naval Planning, 

1889–1941 (Boston: Little, Brown, 1976), 94.

25. Henry Taylor to Roosevelt, late November 

1902, Theodore Roosevelt Collection, Library 

of Congress [henceforth TRLOC], box 57, 

Military Correspondence of the President.

26. Ronald Spector, “Roosevelt, the Navy, and the 

Venezuela Controversy: 1902–1903,” American Neptune 32, no. 4 (1972): 259–260.

27. General Board Memorandum, 25 June 1901, 

DCLOC, box 43, folder 7, Records of the 

General Board of the Navy.

28. Annual Reports of the Navy Department, 1902

(Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1902), 976.

29.“Puerto Rico, Study of Theater Operations,” 

Geographical Files, Puerto Rico Folder, 

USMC Historical Center, Washington Navy 

Yard.

30. Beale, Theodore Roosevelt and the Rise of 

America, 356–357. 

31. Annual Reports to the Secretary of the Navy, 

1902, 977. 

32. Colby M. Chester, “Diplomacy on the Quarter 

Deck,” American Journal of International Law

8, no. 3 (1914): 443–476.

33. Lt. Cdr. Nathan Sargent to Secretary of the 

Navy William Moody, 28 February 1901, Records of the Department of the Navy, National 

Archives [henceforth NARA], Record Group 

45 [henceforth RG], box 671, VI, Venezuela 

Situation. 
34. Cdr. T.C. McLean, Commanding Officer, USS 

Cincinnati, to Secretary of the Navy Moody, 

26 July 1902; Cdr. John Nickles, Commanding 

Officer, USS Topeka, to Secretary of the Navy 

Moody, 23 July 1902, both in NARA, RG 45, 

box 671, VI, Venezuela Situation.

35. Memorandum of the General Board, 28 May 

1901, DCLOC, box 43, folder 7, Records of 

the General Board of the Navy.

36. Memorandum of the General Board, 2 

November 1901, DCLOC, box 43, folder 7, 

Records of the General Board of the Navy.

37. Herwig, Politics of Frustration, 69.

38. Thomas A. Bailey, “Dewey and the Germans 

at Manila Bay,” American Historical Review 45, 

no. I (1939): 63–70.

39. Terrell D. Gottschall, By Order of the Kaiser

(Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 2003), 

206–211.

40. Herwig, Politics of Frustration, 47.

41. Holger H. Herwig, Germany’s Vision of Empire 

in Venezuela (Princeton: Princeton University 

Press, 1986), 196.

42.“The German Emperor and the Monroe Doctrine,” Harper’s Weekly, 31 January 1903, TRC.

43. See “Progress in the World,” American Review 

of Reviews (April 1902), TRC.

44. Isaac F. Marcosson, “Attorney-General Moody 

and His Work,” World’s Work (November 

1906): 81–91.

45. Paul T. Heffron, “Secretary Moody and Naval 

Administration Reform: 1902–1904,” American Neptune 29 (January 1969): 33.

46. Spector, Admiral of the New Empire, 139.

47. Roosevelt to Adm. George Dewey, 14 

June 1902, DCLOC, box 13, General 

Correspondence.

48. Mildred Dewey Diary, DCLOC, box 73, General Correspondence, 71.

49. Marks, Velvet on Iron, 50.

50. Roosevelt to William H. Moody, 20 September 1902, DCLOC, box 13, General 

Correspondence.

51. Memorandum dated 24 April 1902, DCLOC, 

box 13, General Correspondence.

52. Heffron, “Secretary Moody and Naval Administration Reform,” 33.

53. William H. Moody memorandum, 24 

July 1902, DCLOC, box 13, General 

Correspondence.

54. Translations of Messages Sent in Cipher, October 1888–January 1910, vol. 4, p. 289, NARA, 

RG 45, Naval Records Collection, Office of the 

Secretary of the Navy, General Records.

55. Order dated 23 September 1902 signed by 

Acting Commandant, Col. Reid, NARA, RG 

127, U.S. Marines Overseas Brigades, Battalions, Regiments, Panama, box 4.

56. Record of Percival Clarence Pope, USMC, 

Biographical Facts, Percival C. Pope Folder, 

USMC Historical Center, Washington Navy 

Yard.

57. Annual Reports of the Navy Department, 1903,

1232.

58. Col. P. C. Pope to Commandant, 15 October 

1902, NARA, RG 127, U.S. Marines Overseas 

Brigades, Battalions, Regiments, Panama, 

box 4.

59. Annual Reports of the Navy Department, 1903,

1233.

60. Allan Nevins, Henry White: Thirty Years of 

American Diplomacy (New York: Harper and 

Brothers, 1930), 209.

61. Leonard Wood Diary, 10 September 1902, 

Leonard Wood Papers, Library of Congress, 

Washington, D.C.

62. Alfred P. Dennis, Adventures in American Diplomacy, 1896–1906 (New York: E. P. Dutton, 

1928), 287.

63. Edmund Morris, “A Few Pregnant Days,” 

Theodore Roosevelt Association Journal 15, 

no. 1 (1987): 10.

64. Ibid.

65. Bailey, “Dewey and the Germans at Manila 

Bay,” 62–63.

66. George Dewey, Autobiography of George Dewey (Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 1987), 

220–231; Mildred Dewey Diary, DCLOC, box 

73, General Correspondence, 93.

67. Iestyn Adams, Brothers across the Ocean: British Foreign Policy and the Origins of the AngloAmerican “Special Relationship” 1900–1905

(London: Tauris Academic Studies, 2005), 

39; memorandum for communication to the 

German ambassador, 22 October 1902, British 

National Archives, Foreign Office [henceforth 

BNA, FO] 115/1241, “From Foreign Office.”

68. Marquess of Lansdowne to Sir F. Lascelles, 22 

October 1902, BNA, FO 115/1241.
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69. W. L. Penfield, “Anglo-German Intervention 

in Venezuela,” North American Review 177 

(July 1903): 96.

70. Warren G. Kneer, Great Britain and the Caribbean (East Lansing: Michigan State University 

Press, 1975), 22.

71. Ibid., 26.

72. Mildred Dewey Diary, 86. Dewey had previously served in the American Civil War and 

the Spanish-American War without receiving 

a wound.

73. McBeth, Gunboats, Corruption, and Claims,

88.

74. Liss, Diplomacy and Dependency, 38.

75. McBeth, Gunboats, Corruption, and Claims,

88.

76. Richard H. Collin, Theodore Roosevelt’s Caribbean (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University 

Press, 1990), 95.

77. Herwig, Politics of Frustration, 79.

78. Ewell, Venezuela, 40.

79. Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of 

the United States, 1903 (Washington, D.C.: 

Government Printing Office, 1904), 420–422.

80. Margaret Robinson, Arbitration and the Hague 

Peace Conferences (Philadelphia: University of 

Pennsylvania, 1936), 24, 70. 

81. Beale, Theodore Roosevelt and the Rise of 

America, 419.

82.“May 23, 1916, George Dewey letter to Henry 

A. Wise,” New York Herald Tribune, 27 September 1925, 9.

83. Edmund Morris, “‘A Matter of Extreme 

Urgency’: Theodore Roosevelt, Wilhelm II, 

and the Venezuela Crisis of 1902,” Naval War 

College Review 55, no. 2 (2002): 79. 

84. Annual Reports of the Navy Department, 1903,

647.

85. Secretary Moody to Naval Attachés, 4 December 1904, NARA, RG 45, General Records, 

Translations of Messages Sent in Cipher, 

October 1888–January 1910, vol. 4.

86. Mayflower Letter Book, DCLOC, box 44, 39.

87. Ibid., 41.

88. Ibid., 55.

89. Ibid., 139.

90. Elting E. Morison, Admiral Sims and the 

Modern American Navy (Boston: Houghton 

Mifflin, 1942), 132.

91. Hill, Roosevelt and the Caribbean, 133.

92. Ronald Reter, “The Real versus Rhetorical 

Theodore Roosevelt in Foreign Policy Making,” Ph.D. diss., University of Georgia, 1973, 

42–44.

93. Adm. George Dewey to George Dewey Jr., 14 

December 1902 (63-291-LB), Dewey Papers, 

Personal Letters, Naval Archives, Naval 

Heritage & History Command [henceforth 

DPNHHC], Washington Navy Yard. 

94. Morris, “A Few Pregnant Days,” 3.

95. Moody to Dewey; Moody to Commandant, 

Naval Station, San Juan, Puerto Rico, 15 December 1902, NARA, RG 45, General Records, 

Translations of Messages Sent in Cipher, 

October 1888–January 1910, vol. 4.

96. Journal of the Commander in Chief, DCLOC, 

box 44, 39.

97. Albert Gleaves, The Admiral (Pasadena, Calif.: 

Hope Publishing, 1985). 

98. Annual Report of the Navy Department, 1903,

1249.

99. Ibid., 647–648.

100. Journal of the Commander in Chief, DCLOC, 

box 44, 43; Dewey to Moody, 16 December 

1902, NARA microfiche M625, roll 261, Area 

File of Naval Collection, 1775–1910, Area 8, 

December 1902–January 1903.

101. Commanding Officer, USS Marietta, to 

Secretary Moody, copy to Admiral Dewey, 

16 December 1902, NARA, RG 45, box 671, 

Venezuela Situation, 4.

102. Mayflower Letter Book, DCLOC, box 44, 

146–147.

103. Ibid., 148.

104. Reter, “The Real versus Rhetorical Theodore 

Roosevelt,” 45. 

105. Mayflower Letter Book, DCLOC, box 44, 44.

106. British Ambassador to British Foreign Minister, 16 December 1902, BNA, FO 115/1244.

107. Sir Michael Herbert to Lansdowne, Cipher 

Telegram, 13 December 1902, BNA, FO 

115/1244.

108. Kneer, Great Britain and the Caribbean, 35.

109. Ibid., 38.

110. Adams, Brothers across the Ocean, 50–51.

111. Collin, Theodore Roosevelt’s Caribbean,

106–107.

112. Morris, “A Few Pregnant Days,” 11.
113. Morris, “‘A Matter of Extreme Urgency,’” 

82–84.

114. Burton J. Hendrick, “Historic Crises in American Diplomacy,” World’s Work (June 1916): 

186.

115. Henry Mann, “The Monroe Doctrine,” 

Harmsworth Self-Educator (July 1907): 1556.

116. Gleaves, The Admiral, 106.

117. Admiral Dewey to George Dewey Jr., 4 January 1903 (63-291-MH), DPNHHC. 

118. Dudley W. Knox, A History of the United 

States Navy (New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 

1936), 375.

119. Morris, “A Few Pregnant Days,” 3.

120. Thayer, Life and Letters of John Hay, 284–295.

121. “Caribbean Sea and Western Atlantic: Strategic Conditions in Event of War with the 

United States,” BNA, Admiralty Group (ADM) 

1/8875, 21 January 1903.

122. William N. Tilchin, Theodore Roosevelt and 

the British Empire: A Study in Presidential 

Statecraft (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1997), 

102–105.
Starvation Blockade and Herbert Hoover’s 

Commission for Relief in Belgium, 1914–1919

BRUCE A. ELLEMAN

It may seem counterintuitive, but starvation blockades can be made more focused and 

therefore more effective by conducting humanitarian relief operations at the same time. 

In any examination of the roles of navies and soft power, humanitarian relief missions immediately come to mind, but not necessarily in connection with naval blockades. One of the most recent, and largest, humanitarian relief missions by sea was the 

post-tsunami Operation Unified Assistance in Southeast Asia during 2004–2005.1

Several years later, Operation Tomodachi assisted Japan after its devastating tsunami 

crisis. In addition to helping those in need, global navies often use soft-power missions 

to compete with each other for public acclaim. This is perhaps best shown by China’s 

recent “Peace Ark” cruises, in particular to Africa and the Middle East.

One of the first massive humanitarian aid missions by sea occurred during World War I, 

under the auspices of the nonprofit Commission for Relief in Belgium (CRB). From 

1 November 1914 through the summer of 1919 this American-created and organized 

effort distributed $927,681,485.08 worth of foodstuffs and clothing to Belgium, 

as well as to the German-occupied areas of northern France. Organized as it was by 

Herbert C. Hoover along business lines rather than as a pure charity, the CRB incurred 

administrative costs during this five-year period of only $3,908,892.74, or just 0.43 

percent of its charitable disbursement, a record that modern aid organizations would 

have difficulty matching.2

Safely transporting aid across the Atlantic was the linchpin of this humanitarian 

operation. All food, clothing, and other gifts were delivered by civilian cargo ships to 

Rotterdam, in the Netherlands, for transshipment to Belgium and northern France. The 

most controversial part of the operation was obtaining permission from England and 

Germany to let the aid ships through their respective maritime blockades. Hoover spent 

countless hours negotiating safe passage, and he often criticized Germany’s ambiguous 

policies toward the aid ships: “There is no way by which they [the German government] 

CHAPTER THREE
can strike the vitals more than this diabolical attitude towards our shipping question.”3

The CRB’s ships delivered aid not only through the British naval blockade but also 

through German minefields and swarms of U-boats conducting unrestricted submarine 

warfare. In the process, the CRB knowingly helped the British to focus their starvation 

blockade exclusively against the German people rather than against helpless neutrals.

Creation of the Commission for Relief in Belgium

When Germany attacked France through Belgian territory during August 1914, it 

violated the neutrality of a nonbelligerent country. After the war on this front became 

deadlocked in trench warfare just to the north of Paris, approximately ten million 

Belgian and French civilians found themselves trapped behind enemy lines. Prior to 

the war, Belgium had imported much of its food from its immediate neighbors to the 

south—now cut off by trenches—or from the Netherlands. Without access to these 

markets, starvation loomed. During the fall of 1914 the U.S. and Spanish governments 

sponsored a humanitarian relief operation designed to transport food to these innocent civilians caught in the midst of war. This effort was organized as the Commission 

for Relief in Belgium, and its volunteer director was a young mining engineer named 

Herbert C. Hoover.

The creation and workings of the Commission for Relief in Belgium are well documented.4

 During 1916, Lewis Richards wrote a lengthy internal report describing the CRB, 

“Some Things an American Delegate Should Know.”5 Soon after the war began, “Local 

Relief Committees were formed in every State in the Union and in almost every country 

in the World, with the result that from all parts of the globe came an unceasing flow, not 

only in foodstuffs but of money and clothing as well, in an ‘elan’ of charity, such as the 

World had never seen.”6 The CRB shipped in “wheat, sugar, maizes, lard, coffee, bacon, 

rice, margarines, beans and soup.”7 Kindhearted people around the world were eager 

to donate; “gift cargoes arriv[ed] with every evidence of having been packed in a way 

which suggests more of the heart of the donor than of practical knowledge of shipping.”8

What made this humanitarian operation different from other previous efforts was the 

distribution of aid according to “business principles.” According to Richards: “This is 

the reason that we sell some of our gifts and thus the well-to-do Belgian in buying our 

gifts and other food stuff is directly helping to care for his neighbour less fortunate 

than himself.”9

 This was in sharp contrast to “professional” charities, which perhaps 

gave food away for free but often had much higher handling and administrative costs, 

including fat salaries to their directors. By contrast, many of the employees of the CRB, 

including Hoover, were wealthy businessmen who donated their time.
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Since there was no international exchange of currency during the war, the CRB quickly 

ran into trouble figuring out how to use proceeds to purchase more food. In early 

November 1914, for example, Hoover had yet to divine a “method by which a country 

devoid of credit documents can translate some form of obligation into the purchase of 

goods.” Even if “we can find a method,” Hoover thought, it was unlikely that more than 

half of the CRB’s payments could be made.10 One idea that was eventually implemented 

was that Belgians living overseas who wanted to send money back home to their families 

could purchase food aid in the United States. A credit for this purchase was put on the 

books in U.S. dollars, and then an appropriate amount of Belgian money was remitted 

to the family members using local currency collected when selling food. By May 1917, 

the CRB had delivered the equivalent of some five million dollars to family members 

in Belgium through its Commercial Exchange Department.11 The CRB also paid for 

many in-country services on behalf of the Belgian government, once again in direct 

proportion to the food aid being purchased overseas. Such “barter” systems proved 

highly effective.

For purposes of the distribution of aid, Belgium was divided into the nine provinces of 

Antwerp, Brabant, East Flanders, Hainault, Liege, Limburg, Luxemburg, Namur, and 

West Flanders; plus the city of Brussels (located in Brabant), which was treated as an 

equal member.12 Later, northern France was also covered by the CRB, in six districts: 

Charleville, Lille, Longwy, St. Quentin, Valenciennes, and Vervins.13 Once the aid was 

delivered it was consigned to the Belgian organization, which in turn handed it over to 

regional committees. Approximately six thousand communes in Belgium were responsible for the final distribution of the food aid. As Hoover put it, “We have attempted to 

handle this problem of [feeding] millions of people by intense decentralisation.”14 At this 

point the CRB agents’ “control ceases . . . except as to the moral obligation governing the 

equitable distribution to the civil population.”15

In distributing food aid, a major concern was avoiding waste. Of the estimated 

2,750,000 indigent poor in Belgium, some 1,200,000 were considered to be fully destitute; these received all food and clothing for free. The less poor were required to pay 

20 percent of the price, while another million or so paid 50 percent.16 Wealthy Belgians 

who could afford to buy food on the free market were required to pay full price. These 

percentages appeared on ration cards issued by each commune. All proceeds from these 

sales were then used to buy and import more food. The accounting firm of Deloitte, 

Plender, Griffiths, & Company agreed to donate its services to make sure that no money 

was wasted. Hoover early on emphasized the importance of relying on outside auditors 

so as “to make the whole business a complete national monument of efficiency and commercial accuracy.”17
Hoover’s top priority was to ensure that no Belgian or French civilians suffered from 

hunger. The CRB provided wheat, rice, maize, bacon, lard, peas, and beans, and later 

yeast for making bread from the imported grain. Although it received requests for many 

other manufactured products, the CRB felt that to agree to import such items into the 

war zone might “bring us into conflict with normal trade.” As a result, the CRB stuck 

to basic commodities that were in short supply in Belgium, so as to remove “us from 

all feeling of competition with the ordinary course of trade.”18 All aid was “distributed 

equitably to the Belgian civil population only.”

19

Other U.S. charities sought to dominate the transfer of aid to Belgium. By November 

1914, however, Hoover was able to announce that the CRB had nine million dollars in 

funds “absolutely under our control” and that “we do not propose to be dictated to by 

any little hole in the corner organization in New York like DeForest’s committee which 

might secure five or six hundred dollars.”20 The head of the CRB New York office, Lindon Bates, reassured Hoover that the CRB was the “shining mark,” receiving about 80 

percent of “the nationwide philanthropy of the country.”21 As for the competing groups, 

“We are going to get a harness on these people by sheer merit.”22

The CRB’s key leverage was over the means of transportation. On average, it took two 

months to purchase food in the United States, get it to a port, load it, and deliver it to 

Rotterdam, where it crossed militarized borders into Belgium and northern France.23

During late 1914 it was estimated by Hoover that transportation costs would average 20 

percent of the food cost; in other words, for every dollar spent on transportation a total 

of five dollars’ worth of food could be purchased and delivered.24 During mid-November 

1914, Hoover told one of his competitors, “Through patriotic assistance of large English 

and continental shipping firms [we] are able [to] secure shipping on much better terms 

than you can secure in open market.”25

One of Hoover’s top goals was to maximize efficiency. He even told Bates in the CRB’s 

New York office in early 1915 that “if this job is going to [be] done efficiently,” the CRB 

must become “the complete and over-riding organisation for all relief work in Belgium.”26 As the next section will discuss, the creation of the transportation network to 

deliver food aid to Belgium was the most important link in the aid chain. Safe delivery 

of aid by sea proved to be one of the most difficult and constant challenges that Hoover 

faced during the five years of operation of the CRB.

Delivering Humanitarian Aid by Sea

All aid to Belgium and northern France was shipped by sea; the main office in London 

was responsible for purchases in Great Britain and the United States and for arranging 

transportation to Rotterdam. This put enormous responsibility on Hoover’s shoulders, 
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as the CRB chairman. During the fall of 1914, Hoover even complained to his wife that 

the “whole responsibility [for] purchase dispatch and delivery [of] some ten thousand 

tons of food stuffs per week rests on me.”27 The key to Hoover’s success was control 

over maritime transportation. When the CRB was challenged by other aid societies, 

Bates was, he reassured Hoover, “confident our ability to take care of Inland and Ocean 

freights makes us impregnable.”28 Likewise, Hoover reassured W. H. Page, the American 

ambassador in London, that “as far as I can see we [CRB] are the only channel through 

which such relief can be introduced into Belgium.”29

Hoover’s efforts were fully supported by the U.S. government. On 7 November 1914, 

Secretary of State Robert Lansing wrote to James Gerard, the U.S. ambassador to Berlin, 

“Belgian Commission requests that you secure from German Government unmolested 

passage for neutral food ships from United States to Holland [intended] for Belgium.”30

By February 1915, the German government confirmed “the freedom of ships on the high 

seas and in port.”31 Even after the German submarine blockade was set to begin on 18 

February, the German foreign minister, Gottlieb von Jagow, promised Hoover “to have 

orders issued of the most scrupulous care of [the CRB’s] steamers.”32

But the British too had to cooperate if this aid program was to work. On 8 November 

1914 Hoover asked the Foreign Office contraband department official, Lord Eustace 

Percy, for a grant of “immunity from all British naval authorities” for CRB cargo ships 

heading for Belgium.33 Against much British opposition—including from Winston 

Churchill and Lord Kitchener, who argued that any aid would ultimately help Germany—Foreign Secretary Edward Grey and David Lloyd George, then Chancellor of 

the Exchequer, supported the humanitarian operation mainly for the “great propaganda 

value for Britain in U.S.” When Hoover was pressed for funds, the British government 

even agreed to back the activities of the CRB financially.34

While in public Hoover had to persuade opponents in Britain to support the CRB, in 

secret he told his closest advisers that much of the public condemnation in England was 

for show, so as “to maintain by all means the conviction in the German mind that the 

English and the Allies generally were extremely discontented with our feeding of the 

Belgians.” Hoover was convinced that otherwise “if the German people thought for one 

moment that the English were anxious that the Belgians should be fed, they would at 

once stop food . . . as a weapon to force the hand of the Allies.”35

As Hoover recounted in a later letter to Percy, the CRB provided a useful service for 

Whitehall. In particular, it was an “implement by which Allied Governments are able to 

secure an exception to their blockade policy, and which makes the blockade a feasible 

thing in the eyes of the world in general.” If the CRB were not providing food to innocent civilians in Belgium and northern France, public pressure might soon turn and the 
Allies “would be compelled to relax the blockade.”36 In private, therefore, Percy assured 

Hoover that as the U.S. ambassador in London told him of the departure of each vessel 

carrying CRB aid he would send a “telegraph to the [Royal Navy] fleet to allow the vessel to pass without any delay.”37

In exchange for British promises “to place no obstacles in the moving of ships” leased by 

the CRB, the German government needed to agree not to requisition any food in Belgium; if food were taken from the Belgians while they were receiving aid from the CRB, 

Hoover could be accused of indirectly supporting Germany. During early February 

1915 Hoover visited Berlin to meet with Chancellor Theobald von Bethmann-Hollweg 

and representatives of the Reichsbank. Hoover called the German treatment of Belgium 

“an undoubted blot on their whole national character” and suggested that it was “only 

the lack of imagination that did not lead them to see that an entire change of attitude 

towards Belgium would produce for them the friendship of the world.” He argued that 

a “generous attitude toward Belgium” would help “secure the favourable opinion of the 

United States [at that point neutral] towards the Germans.” After lengthy discussions, 

the German government grudgingly agreed. Although Hoover deserves much credit for 

this success, one cannot help but suspect that Ambassador Gerard’s argument was the 

more convincing—that is, that the CRB’s goal was to keep the Belgians from starving 

and “that in keeping them from starvation the greatest possible military service was being done to the Germans.”38

To avoid delays caused by British ship inspections, aid cargoes were “consigned” to the 

CRB—otherwise “we must expect [the cargo ships] will be held up on voyage possibly 

for days.”39 To sidestep lengthy inspections, it was particularly important that the charity ships contain “whole cargoes of food for Belgian relief.”40 For example, a relief ship 

was held up by the British at Falmouth for two days when a “small bundle [of] tents”—

considered to be a contraband item—was discovered on board.41 Inspections were later 

moved to Halifax, Nova Scotia, but by August 1917 there was a shortage of fifty-nine 

thousand tons in the pipeline. Lord Robert Cecil agreed to eliminate the Halifax inspections.42 With the entry of the United States into the war in 1917, the two allies could 

cooperate more closely. Beginning in August 1917, inspections of the cargoes could be 

carried out during the loading process in U.S. harbors. This reform saved an estimated 

thirty thousand tons in cargo capacity by cutting the total number of transit days per 

month from seventy-six to only sixty.43

Once the cargo ships arrived in Rotterdam, their aid cargoes were transshipped to lighters with flags bearing the initials “C.R.B.” The lighters had to be approved by the German authorities, and all lightermen held German-issued passports.44 While the lighters 

were essential for delivering aid from the Netherlands to Belgium, the lightermen had 

to be watched carefully to make sure they did not try to take undue advantage of their 
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unhindered access across otherwise militarized borders. It was up to the local CRB 

agent to check that all seals remained unbroken, check the lighters for false bottoms, 

look into the bilges, and examine “other places where, unfortunately, the dishonest lighterman is likely to hide commodities in an endeavor to increase his income.”45

To keep costs low it was determined that “as far as possible, the transportation shall take 

place by water.”46 But it was often necessary to transport food aid by railway or truck, 

usually during the final stages. German authorities provided these carriage services for 

free, since the CRB was providing a much-needed humanitarian service—the feeding of 

approximately ten million people—for which otherwise Germany would be expected to 

pay. In one early misunderstanding, a local stationmaster charged for a CRB shipment, 

but he was later ordered by the German authorities “to pay [the CRB] back at once the 

money collected for freight,” because “the German Government [was] refusing to accept 

any money from [the] American Commission.”47

Due to these procedures, shipping problems were “practically negligible”; the “administrative cost is approximately one-half of one per cent—a phenomenal achievement.”48 If 

the CRB’s administration of the transportation of food aid and clothing to Belgium was 

almost flawless, however, increasingly strict German regulations affecting cargo vessels 

delivering aid to Rotterdam would soon cause great concern for Hoover.

German Regulations on Maritime Shipping

While the British government insisted on inspecting all CRB ships in Englishcontrolled ports to make sure they did not carry contraband, for its part the German 

government issued official passes allowing the aid vessels through military lines on 

their way to Rotterdam. Over time, German regulations on shipping became more and 

more complicated, especially with the adoption of unrestricted submarine warfare. This 

caused enormous problems for Hoover, located in London, and the CRB agents living 

and working in Rotterdam, throughout Belgium, and in northern France.

London was the administrative and financial hub of the humanitarian operation, 

but the port city of Rotterdam acted as the main distribution hub: “Our purchase[s] 

arrive in Rotterdam on vessels under the protection of distinctive markings, such as 

side-cloths containing the words: ‘RELIEF COMMISSION,’ flags, etc.”49 Over time, 

the protections for the aid ships became more elaborate, and each vessel had two flags, 

two pennants, and two side cloths, or large banners.50 On 3 March 1915, Dr. Henry Van 

Dyke, the American minister at The Hague, reported that the German government had 

declared that all ships bringing aid to Belgium were to bear “flag and markings clearly 

visible and lighted at night to pass through English channel unmolested.” German submarines had been warned not to sink these ships, but because there was no way to turn 
off the many mines in the English Channel, the Germans emphasized the “impossibility 

of giving safe conduct.”51

On 6 March 1915, the German minister in The Hague outlined new requirements. An 

official CRB pass was to list the name of the ship, its master, port of registry, and an 

official ship number. Second, the ship had to have “on board exclusively goods of the 

American Commission for Relief in Belgium intended for the suffering civil population in Belgium.” Third, the German pass was valid only from an American port to 

Rotterdam and back home again, at which point it had to be returned to the German 

consul general or ambassador. Fourth, the master of the ship was to “abstain during 

the outward and return voyage from any and all actions that may involve assistance to 

Germany’s enemies.” Fifth, the Imperial German Navy had the right to search the ship 

at any time. Sixth, and finally, in “case of non-compliance with the above conditions the 

ship loses all right to preferential treatment.”52

Prior to departure, each ship’s captain had to sign a declaration that, first, his cargo 

included only food and clothing intended for Belgium; second, that he would not assist 

Germany’s opponents; third, that after the voyage he would turn over these protections to the German consul; and fourth, that his vessel could be searched by German 

authorities. If contraband were discovered on board the ship, he acknowledged, it would 

forfeit all rights to preferential treatment.53 It was particularly important to the Germans 

that all CRB flags and banners be collected after arrival. As one internal CRB memo 

observed, “You can understand how the business of this commission might be upset 

should a captain hold back from delivering one of our flags and hoist it to escape from 

attack after he has finished his work for the Commission and [is] bound on another voyage. Our object is to prevent any possible misuse of the Commission flag.”54

Despite the flags and banners identifying them as carrying aid to Belgium, about a 

dozen CRB ships were sunk in the first years of the program, mainly by sea mines. 

Beginning in 1915, additional flags were draped diagonally across the upper decks of 

aid ships so that German pilots could more easily identify them.55 To ensure maximum 

visibility, all CRB flags were twelve by fifteen feet in size, with lettering of twelve by 

eighteen inches; the banners were five feet by a hundred; the pennants were five feet 

wide, tapering down to two and a half feet, with twelve-by-twenty-inch letters.56

This system, while highly practical, was not foolproof. One cargo ship, Harpalyce, was 

apparently sunk by a torpedo from a German submarine on 10 April 1915. Of the fortyfour crew members, seventeen perished, including the master.57 Thirty-three of the crew 

members were Chinese sailors based in London; their names were not even reported, “as 

the crew list went down with the vessel.” Although there was no proof that the ship had 

been torpedoed, the surviving crew members surmised that a mine would have struck 
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the “fore-part of the vessel” rather than “against the ship’s side.” Furthermore, the third 

officer claimed to have seen a submarine, as did the captain and chief officer of the 

nearby cargo ship Elisabeth.

58

This supposed torpedo sinking threatened the entire CRB transportation operation. 

The commission was partly to blame, since the German government had advised all aid 

ships to take a northerly route, by “way of the Shetland Islands”; the CRB later argued, 

“Against this we protested that it was fully and absolutely unfeasible,” mainly because 

of the British requirement that all ships stop at an English port to be searched.59 Hoover 

complained that “there is nothing in international liability, military necessity or, on its 

lowest plane, in military advantage, in sinking one of those ships, it is simply murder 

gone mad.”60 Hoover further stated that the “‘relief’ character must have been evident to 

the murderers of these innocent men engaged in a humanitarian task. . . . It is absolutely 

in its complete barbarism without parallel in the last century.”61

In addition to protesting directly to the German government, Hoover turned to the U.S. 

government for support, asking that it “demand in common humanity, consideration 

for us and the people who serve us.” When describing to Ambassador Page how the 

German attack imperiled the lives of ten million people who depended on the arrival 

of the food aid, Hoover declared, “I count myself as not being given to hysterics over 

the abnormal events of modern warfare but if this action can be reconciled with any 

military necessity, or, to put it on its lowest plane, . . . any military advantage, . . . we 

can but abandon any hope that civilisation has yet accomplished anything but enlarged 

ruthlessness in destruction of human life.”62

The German torpedo attack immediately affected the other aid ships and their crews. 

For example, soon after this incident the mainly Chinese crew of Lincluden refused 

to sail, and the owners had to hire a brand-new crew in Rotterdam.63 The captain of 

Dowgate evidently argued that “the pass which he secured gave him no protection if 

he was to be torpedoed without warning,” so “he could not see any reason not to resist 

a submarine.” Since one commitment all masters of aid ships had to make was “not to 

aid the enemies of Germany,” Dowgate’s captain “preferred to go without a pass, and be 

perfectly free in his actions.”64

In mid-April 1915, Hoover learned that Dowgate, engaged to deliver food aid to Belgium, had been refused “safe conduct” by the German authorities on its homeward 

journey, which imperiled arrangements for shipping for all future deliveries, and not 

only that—“those [ships] already fixed will[,] if they are wise[,] decline to go.” Hoover 

condemned the torpedo attacks, stating the Germans had “no excuse under laws God or 

man,” and immediately ordered John White, Lindon W. Bates’s assistant, to go to Berlin 

to “take up” this issue with authorities “if this whole organization [is] not to break 
down.”65 Another effect of this torpedo incident, equally if not more important, was its 

potential impact on marine insurance. If the commission’s cargo ships were refused 

insurance, the aid operation would probably cease to function.

The Crucial Role of Marine Insurance

Marine insurance was a very important consideration, since without it no shipping company would agree to transport the CRB shipments across enemy lines. On 

21 December 1914, Hoover explained to Walter Runciman, of the Board of Trade in 

Whitehall, that any British-owned CRB aid ship would be given “the benefit of the Government War Risk Insurance Scheme” and that the commission had “received from the 

Admiralty general consent for the steamers proceeding, and they have advised that they 

will give special consent for each ship if required.”66 On 1 February 1915, an internal 

CRB memo somewhat optimistically remarked about banners on aid ships, “It occurred 

to us that it might also be helping our underwriters since the steamer would be less 

liable to be subject to attack by a German war vessel.”67

After the sinking of Harpalyce, Hoover asked the German government to repay the 

commission a hundred thousand pounds for the lost ship, which “would be little enough 

to pay the extra cost of insurance which we are going to be [obliged] to [assume] over 

this action.”68 As Hoover explained to Brand Whitlock, the American ambassador to 

Belgium during World War I, the insurance issue was really the Achilles’ heel of the 

whole operation: “If the Germans are endeavouring to break down this Commission 

they are going about it in the proper manner.”69 Germany’s adoption in 1917 of unrestricted submarine warfare resulted in the sinking of forty thousand tons of CRB ships 

and the delay of 165,000 tons of food aid.70 By June 1917 Hoover was forced to admit, “If 

there is any jeopardy to the Belgian people, it is due entirely to transport.”71

However, Germany’s reluctance to give safe passage to outbound ships, at least, had 

some validity. On 17 March 1915 the German minister at The Hague made clear that 

his government would not give safe passage to any ship leaving Rotterdam unless “the 

vessel is proceeding directly to the United States without touching at any English ports.” 

This was to avoid the ships’ taking up “other cargoes after completing their work for the 

commission.”72 But vessels leaving Rotterdam often needed to take on coal in Britain 

to reach their next destinations, whether the United States or some other country. The 

German requirement that they return directly to their countries of origin, therefore, 

was unrealistic.

On 16 April 1915, Hoover, greatly concerned, told John White that the German “refusal 

to grant return passes is an admission by the Germans themselves that they have torpedoed that boat.”73 White agreed that this new German requirement to return directly to 
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the United States was detrimental to the whole aid program: “It is impossible that such 

an understanding of the agreement should have existed.” To this point only British-flag 

vessels had been used to transport aid to Belgium. Because of the dangers involved, “up 

to the present time the commission has not been able to charter a single neutral vessel.” 

White concluded, “This new technical interpretation of the passport would seem to have 

been put forward merely as a cloak to cover the torpedoing of the steamer [Harpalyce].”74

Hoover feared that British War Risk Insurance would be lost if German submarines 

were sinking CRB aid ships. Up until the Harpalyce incident, the British government 

had insured the CRB ships, since virtually all were British registered. But now this 

arrangement was in jeopardy. At one point Hoover estimated that it might cost the aid 

program an additional three million pounds sterling if the CRB were forced to insure 

all the ships itself.75 The commission’s monthly insurance premiums might increase 

from forty to seventy thousand pounds. Two days after the sinking, on 12 April, Hoover 

warned Whitlock that if the ship had indeed been torpedoed, the “English government 

will, certainly withdraw the Government Insurance on ships.” Hoover found the timing 

of the sinking particularly bad: “We were just getting our programs of deliveries into 

shape,” and so “it fills us with intense anxiety for the future.”76

On 1 May, Hoover explained to Ambassador Gerard in Berlin that formerly all insurance coverage had been based on “the joint undertaking of the Germans and the British 

not to interfere with our shipping.” As a result of the Harpalyce incident, the insurance association “[had] now put up the rates to a fabulous figure.” Unless something 

could be done to guarantee future deliveries, “this is likely to throw the loss of the ship 

[Harpalyce] on to the Commission or an expense of, say some £90,000 odd, aside from 

the increase in insurance rates which would make a very large sum monthly.”77

Throughout the spring German attacks on the relief ships continued. For example, on 

14 March 1915, even before the Harpalyce had been sunk, SS Sutton Hall had reported 

a torpedo fired at it, though its relief flags and banners were clearly displayed.78 Later, 

City of Dortmund and Elfland were also attacked: “German officers have now on four 

separate occasions deliberately attacked vessels bound on this philanthropic errand 

under guarantees given [by] the German Government itself.” The CRB felt compelled 

to warn the German government that “the British ships will have to be withdrawn from 

the Commission’s service if the attacks upon them continue.”79

During May, when more information on the Harpalyce incident had become available, 

Hoover told Page that “it would appear, without doubt, that the Germans admit [in their 

description of events] that the Harpalyce was sunk by a submarine.”80 In July, however, 

Hoover was not very optimistic that he could convince the German government to 

admit guilt formally: “In general things are going rather badly, both in Belgium and 
here in London, and I am afraid that much friction as to detailed administrative things, 

which are to be imposed on us from both sides, will break down the whole machinery.”81

In a private letter, Hoover acknowledged that because the relief effort was unofficial, 

“We are an orphan and have to do the best we can without any right guardians.”82

Negotiations with the German government continued throughout the summer, with 

Hoover seeking reparations to reimburse the shipping companies for lost vessels. But 

in July German officials were able to produce a photograph of Harpalyce unloading in 

Rotterdam with the CRB banner along its side rolled up, most likely to avoid being damaged. This photograph was alleged to prove that “the ship has not always been equipped 

with the side markings as agreed upon.”83 Hoover was not convinced, but he could not 

prove that the flag had been unfurled prior to the ship’s departure from Rotterdam. 

On 9 August Hoover admitted, “I do not believe we can pursue this matter any further 

advantageously.”84 All further CRB claims for reimbursement were ignored by Berlin.

Under the constant threat of refusal by the war risks associations to insure “future vessels proceeding to Rotterdam,” Hoover felt “compelled,” he told Ambassador Gerard, to 

continue his investigations of the torpedo incidents.85 Hoover was under no illusion that 

he would win; this was merely an effort to stave off any final action by the insurance 

associations, “on the ground we are still negotiating” with the Germans. If no solution could be reached, there might be a “boycott of all cargoes through Rotterdam.”86

Hoover’s problems in finding adequate cargo ships to carry aid to Belgium became even 

worse when the British naval blockade of Germany intensified.

The Impact of the “Starvation Blockade” on the CRB

As the war entered its third year, the British “starvation blockade” began to be felt in 

Germany, even more so in its occupied territories. The CRB’s shipments of food aid fell 

below expectations. In an undated report of late 1915 or early 1916, Hoover stated that 

the food reaching Belgium and northern France was “entirely below that generally advanced by dietary specialists” as barely “sufficient” to sustain life. The biggest problem 

was not money but access: “The dominant factor—even were more monetary supplies 

available—is the volume of shipping which can be obtained from over the seas.” Due to 

the lower than expected shipping volume, “it has hitherto been impossible to deliver the 

whole programme [of aid], due to unexpected shortages in shipment, shipping, loss of 

ships, and various uncontrollable causes.”87

Meanwhile, forced requisitioning of food was being carried out by German authorities in Belgium. Rice and corn were evidently being shipped back to Germany. Reports 

received by the British government claimed that some sixteen thousand tons of relief aid 

had been sent from Belgium on to Germany. This report made Hoover “so angry that I 
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almost choke.”88 If substantiated, this misallocation of food aid might have threatened 

the entire humanitarian operation. Hoover, in London, told W. B. Poland in Brussels 

that if these rumors proved to be true, “with the state of mind in this country [Britain] 

at the present moment, if these facts were made public you can take it that the Relief 

Commission would be suppressed by popular clamour.” Hoover called it the “greatest 

crisis” the commission had yet faced, “almost the last blow.”89

Upon investigation, however, it turned out that of 17,499 tons of food taken by the Germans from Belgium, only 911 tons—including rice, waste corn flour, and beans—might 

have come, entirely or in part, from food aid delivered by the relief effort.90 Even if all 

911 tons had come from CRB aid, this was a small proportion—only about 5 percent—of 

the total.

To complicate matters further, it became harder to find cargo ships willing to transport 

the food aid to Rotterdam. On 31 December 1915 Hoover reported that “the shipping 

situation is becoming almost desperate.”91 One possible solution was to use a number 

of interned German steamers that had been detained by the Allies and were in neutral 

ports. These ships would sail under Dutch flags with Dutch crews.92 While the French 

Foreign Department supported this plan, the French Department of Commerce opposed it, “claiming that the German submarines would capture one of their own ships 

and convert it into a privateer.”93 Hoover was forced to report to the CRB executive committee that the French government “absolutely refused to assent to the German shipping 

contract.”94 The French were particularly critical of the prospect that the German shipping company would make money off the scheme, even though it was only about two 

hundred and fifty pounds per ship per month, which was far below normal cargo rates.95

At one point Hoover, made desperate by refusals to grant the CRB additional cargo 

ships, warned the French that he would be put “in a [too] difficult position to go to 

the charitable world and ask them to subscribe money to make up a deficiency which 

is deliberately created for a military purpose.”96 In early 1916 Hoover announced that 

no more food could be delivered to northern France, a threat that “produced a perfect 

storm in Paris.” Hoover traveled to Paris in an attempt to “direct the hurricane.”97 He 

warned President Raymond Poincaré that “we were in jeopardy of total failure owing to 

the lack of shipping.”98 On his return from Paris Hoover was pleased to be able to report 

that the French government had agreed to the use of the German vessels.99 However, by 

now Hoover’s arrangement with the German company had expired, and he was unable 

to renew it.

Desperate for ships, Hoover convinced the Belgian government to pass a requisition 

law under which, when it went into effect on 8 February 1916, the CRB was able to 

obtain leases on nineteen Belgian cargo vessels.100 By mid-April, this number increased 
to twenty-one, plus four other Belgian-owned ships flying the British flag. However, 

as Hoover warned R. L. Craigie of the British Foreign Office, this was still inadequate. 

Over a four-month period only thirty-three CRB shiploads had arrived in Rotterdam, 

rather than the forty-five to fifty that were necessary to keep the aid pipeline flowing at 

the required levels.101

Hoover found all these setbacks and government obstructions very frustrating. What 

had initially been thought of as a temporary aid program would eventually continue for 

four and a half years. Several times Hoover had offered to terminate the CRB or to turn 

it over completely to the Belgians, but each time the British government had insisted 

that he remain in charge. Being “neutral,” it pointed out, Hoover and his American assistants had “no official position limiting their liability.”102

What upset Hoover more than anything else were repeated press accusations, as 

mentioned above, that the CRB’s aid helped the Germans. For example, the English 

newspaper Western Morning News ran a series of articles accusing the CRB of a long list 

of infractions. These included feeding Belgians working for the Germans, on the one 

hand, and providing Germany with crucial strategic goods, on the other. One British 

journalist, J. Byers Maxwell, specialized in anti-CRB articles. In one Maxwell claimed 

that the “Germans are able to utilize the labour of the Belgians, who are being fed from 

the charitable contributions of England and other countries, and thereby the enemy 

directly benefits from such payment.” Not only did this use of humanitarian aid show 

the Germans’ “cleverness in breaking the British blockade,” but by feeding the Belgians 

“we are helping the Huns to keep the population quiescent.”103 Another, similar article 

from the same British newspaper claimed that lard and fats being given to the Belgians 

as food were being turned into nitroglycerine.104 On 13 March 1916, Hoover acknowledged to Whitlock that “these continued pin-pricks over the question of our fidelity to 

the guarantees are becoming simply heart-breaking.”105

Over two decades later, on 25 August 1940, Hoover would tell an interviewer that 

the “British sent agents to watch the operations of the C.R.B., and they could find no 

instances of food being used by the Germans.”106 Meanwhile, however, Hoover and the 

CRB spent much time trying to disprove all accusations, no matter how groundless, 

because, ridiculous as some of these stories sounded, the British government was forced 

to react by fine-tuning the Royal Navy’s naval blockade against Germany. Aid lists 

were constantly inspected and revised to ensure that nothing could inadvertently help 

Germany. For example, when the Germans requisitioned all “raw and manufactured 

wool” in Belgium, the CRB was ordered to halt all shipments of donated clothing.107

Beginning in January 1916 all animal fodder was cut, it having been reported that eighty 

thousand German cows were being pastured in Belgium.108 To avoid accusations that 

CRB-provided fats were being misused, Hoover was told to deliver only “hard soap” 
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that could not be melted down to make explosives.109 In reaction to news reports detailing additional German demands on Belgium, Percy was forced to tell Hoover, “In face 

of German [requisition] policy, we are feeling obliged to force the reservation of local 

stocks in Belgium for the exclusive use of the population by cutting off the prospect of 

any increase[d] importations.”110

By 12 February 1917, matters had reached the point that the German government 

insisted that all Americans working on behalf of the CRB leave Belgium. The shipping 

problem became worse than ever after the United States entered the war. During July 

1917, the Directeur des Services du Ravitaillement wrote to complain, “For political 

reasons, French or English steamers cannot go to Rotterdam; the American Government ask us not to charter American ships for any purpose and all neutral shipowners 

refuse at present to sail to Rotterdam on account of the risk to be sunk.”111 Desperate for 

ships, Hoover turned to the Scandinavian countries; a number of Norwegian and later 

Swedish and Finnish ships were leased.112 By October 1918 over two hundred thousand 

tons of Swedish “dead weight” shipping was under contract.113 Later still, Argentinian 

ships were leased. The CRB even tried to purchase its own ships from various German 

shipping companies, including from the Hamburg-American Line and North German 

Lloyd, to help alleviate its “almost desperate tonnage situation.”114

The one positive development from the U.S. entry into the European war was that 

President Woodrow Wilson appointed Hoover to a newly created position of food 

administrator. In January 1918 Hoover wrote to a colleague in Belgium to explain his 

new job: “You will be astonished to realize that I am now putting the American people 

on a practical rationing of many of the commodities most urgently needed in Europe, 

with a view to saving from our consumption a sufficiency to carry the Belgian Relief 

and to provide their essential foods.” The main CRB office was located right “next door 

to mine” and so was “a matter of constant solicitude.” In particular, Hoover could now 

make certain guarantees: “As my department practically controls the dispatch of foodstuffs from the United States, you may be assured that the Belgian Relief will have full 

priority in shipments.”115

Eventually, after more than four years of war, the last days of the CRB seemed to approach. By spring 1918, many of Hoover’s plans to purchase cargo ships had failed, and 

he had been forced to appeal to Lloyd George for greater access to British shipping.116

The CRB now faced enormous difficulties getting even minimal food aid delivered to 

Rotterdam. It is not altogether clear whether, had the war not ended when it did on 11 

November 1918, the CRB’s shipping program could have been sustained at the levels 

needed to get through the winter of 1918–19.
Final Delivery Statistics

On 21 October 1918, as the Great War was finally winding down and Allied victory 

loomed on the horizon, Herbert C. Hoover presented to President Woodrow Wilson a 

summary of the CRB’s activities to date. Public charity had reached $32 million, in addition to which the British government had donated $120 million, the American government $200 million, and the French government $220 million, for a grand total of $572 

million.117 By the time the CRB wrapped up its operations in early 1919, this number had 

increased to $806,209,313.45, of which $52 million, or over 6 percent of “the total funds 

secured by the Commission,” had been the result of charitable contributions.118

During the four and a half years of the CRB’s existence, almost 120 million bushels of 

breadstuffs were delivered, almost 550 million pounds of pork products, 73 million 

pounds of other meat, 715 million pounds of rice, 283 million pounds of beans and 

peas, and 113 million pounds of dairy products, to name just a few commodities. In addition, over twenty million garments were distributed to the needy.

But despite this monumental effort, Hoover acknowledged, the local populations had 

been put on a “drastic regime” in which “there has been under-nourishment,” though 

fortunately “no starvation.”119 This compared favorably to Serbia, which Hoover estimated suffered 25 percent civilian losses during the war due to starvation, and especially to Poland, which he estimated at a whopping 50 percent.120 Two months later Hoover 

asserted flatly that when the experience of these two countries were compared with the 

“no loss” by “starvation” among the ten million inhabitants of Belgium and northern 

France, “the difference was simply the Relief Commission.”121

Such a massive relief effort had first and foremost required access to international 

commercial shipping. Hoover reported to Wilson that the CRB had at any given time 

depended on seventy transatlantic steamers to transport food aid to Rotterdam and 

another five hundred canal boats and tugs to deliver food and clothing to Belgium and 

northern France. When the goods arrived, they had been housed in some two hundred 

central warehouses before being sent on to individual communes for final distribution.122 Between November 1914 and April 1919 the CRB had chartered 903 separate 

ship passages to transport close to four and a half million tons of aid—an average of 

seventeen ships delivering 83,000 tons per month.123 The final numbers were even 

larger, with 993 oceangoing and 1,320 cross-channel ships delivering a total of 5,174,431 

metric  tons.124

Because of the commission’s almost total reliance on international shipping, the CRB 

was once described by a critic as a “piratical state organized for benevolence.” That 

is, “like a pirate state, the CRB flew its own flag, negotiated its own treaties, secured 

special passports, fixed prices, issued currency, and exercised a great deal of fiscal 
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independence.” However, whatever the negatives, “its bold acts of benevolence were 

accomplished with an efficiency and integrity that later became a model for modern 

foreign aid.”125

Hoover was understandably proud of the efficiency of this administration, particularly 

that his “overhead” costs were “less than three-eighths of one per cent.”126 He had sought 

men with business experience rather than “the usual charity cranks,” telling a colleague 

that “one must have common-sensed, solid, business people, used to dealing with large 

affairs and doing so on an adequate, business and financial basis.”127 Hoover was particularly offended by self-serving philanthropists. Concerning the “New York bunch,” 

he said, “There is no place in the world where there is such unlimited snobbery as New 

York and because we happen to be common or garden[-variety] people they do not 

seem to think we deserve even the treatment that is ordinarily meted out to servants.”128

Hoover especially spurned what he called “professional charity workers.”129

Virtually everyone associated with the CRB gave Hoover most of the credit for its 

creation and flawless administration. Lord Curzon once referred to the CRB as an 

“absolute miracle of scientific organization,” and even an erstwhile critic called the 

humanitarian operation the “biggest task ever grappled by an individual. A Joseph came 

to Belgium. He undertook to feed a whole country.”130

Conclusions

Humanitarian aid layered on top of a naval blockade had the effect of making Britain’s 

strategy more focused. If the CRB had not existed, Britain’s starvation blockade of the 

continent would have hit friend and foe alike. Hoover understood quite well that his 

humanitarian efforts made the blockade more effective: “At the close of the war,” he 

later reminisced, “the Belgians were in fine physical condition, while the German people 

were starving.”131 The simultaneous adoption and mutual alignment of a humanitarian 

relief operation and a strict naval blockade can greatly intensify the strategic impact of 

the latter against an enemy.

The delivery of humanitarian assistance was not a simple task. Although both London 

and Berlin guaranteed the aid ships’ safety, of the fifty-three ships damaged during their 

voyages, fifteen were torpedoed, and twelve struck mines and sank. These numbers 

broke down to just slightly over 1.5 percent torpedoed and 1.3 percent mined, an overall 

loss of just under 3 percent of the number of ship passages.132 Hoover freely admitted 

that the CRB humanitarian effort was not a complete success and that “much food has 

been lost by submarines and some native food taken by the Germans.” But, in short, 

“We have done all that finance, shipping and administration could accomplish.”133
Francis Cogswell Wickes, who served with the CRB for almost three years, in giving 

Hoover full credit for the CRB’s success, emphasized his entrepreneurial spirit: “It was 

this spirit which alone made the work possible. And this spirit was the spirit of boundless personal loyalty felt by each and every member towards the one dominating and 

heroic figure, towards the great chief, Herbert C. Hoover. He had conceived the Commission, he had created it, he had carried it on through its countless crises. It was he who 

inspired it. The Commission for Relief in Belgium, was Hoover, and Hoover alone.”134

Notes

The thoughts and opinions expressed in this essay 

are those of the author and are not necessarily 

those of the U.S. government, the U.S. Navy Department, or the Naval War College.

1. For more on this operation, see Bruce A. 

Elleman, Waves of Hope: The U.S. Navy’s Response to the Tsunami in Northern Indonesia,

Newport Paper 28 (Newport, R.I.: Naval War 

College Press, 2007).

2. Hoover to Richey, date unclear but probably 28 January 1920, Commission for Relief 

in Belgium [hereafter CRB], box 7, file 42, 

Hoover Institution Archives, Stanford University, Stanford, California [hereafter HIA].

3. Hoover to Brand Whitlock, 16 April 1915, 

CRB, box 3, file 4, HIA.

4. The archives of the Hoover Institution, Stanford University, have 591 manuscript boxes, 

forty-nine oversize boxes, and seventeen card 

files detailing all aspects of this operation.

5. Lewis Richards, “Some Things an American 

Delegate Should Know” (1916), CRB, box 1, 

file 1, HIA.

6.Ibid., p. 3.

7.Ibid., p. 17.

8.Ibid., p. 18.

9.Ibid., p. 4.

10. Hoover to the various CRB Honorable Chairmen, 3 November 1914, CRB, box 4, file 3, 

HIA.

11. Hoover’s Statement, 14 May 1917, CRB, box 

27, file 3, HIA.

12. Richards, “Some Things an American Delegate Should Know,” pp. 5–6.

13. Ibid., pp. 20–21.

14. Hoover to the subcommittee of War Trade 

Advisory Committee on Supplies for Belgian 

Relief, 23 December 1915, CRB, box 4, file 1, 

HIA.

15. Richards, “Some Things an American Delegate Should Know,” p. 14.

16. Hoover to the subcommittee, 23 December 

1915.

17. Hoover to Bates, 19 January 1915, CRB, box 4, 

file 2, HIA.

18. Hoover to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, The 

Hague, 26 June 1915, CRB, box 4, file 8, HIA.

19. Richards, “Some Things an American Delegate Should Know,” p. 5 [emphasis original].

20. Hoover to Bates, 13 November 1914, CRB, 

box 5, file 3, HIA.

21. Bates to Hoover, 24 December 1914, CRB, box 

4, file 2, HIA.

22. Bates to Hoover, 7 January 1915, CRB, box 5, 

file 3, HIA.

23. Memo, 4 February 1915, CRB, box 21, file 2, 

HIA.

24. Hoover to the ambassadors, 3 November 

1914, CRB, box 3, file 5, HIA.

25. Hoover to Robert DeForest, 13 November 

1914, CRB, box 5, file 3, HIA.

26. Hoover to Bates, 19 January 1915.

27. Hoover to Mrs. Hoover, 22 October 1914, 

CRB, box 1, file 2, HIA.

28. Bates to Hoover, 18 December 1914, CRB, box 

4, file 2, HIA.

29. Hoover to Page, 22 October 1914, CRB, box 7, 

file 4, HIA.

30. Lansing to Gerard, 7 November 1914, CRB, 

box 19, file 3, HIA.
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31. Memo, 4 February 1915.

32. Jagow to Hoover, 7 February 1915, CRB, box 

21, file 1, HIA.

33. Hoover to Percy, 8 November 1914, CRB, box 

4, file 8, HIA.

34. Payson J. Treat Papers, box 45, “Hoover, Herbert C., Interviews,” HIA.

35. Hoover to Bates, 8 February 1915, CRB, box 

21, file 3, HIA. This ruse was so effective that 

some British firms refused to work with the 

CRB, and Hoover later wrote Percy for a letter 

that he could show these companies proving 

that the British government was backing him; 

Hoover to Percy, 7 August 1915, CRB, box 22, 

file 5, HIA. In addition, the British Admiralty 

from time to time “hectored and harassed” 

Hoover, accusing him of aiding the enemy; see 

George H. Nash, The Life of Herbert Hoover: 

The Humanitarian, 1914–1917 (New York: W. 

W. Norton, 1988), p. 176.

36. Hoover to Percy, 16 February 1916, CRB, box 

24, file 2, HIA.

37. Percy to Hoover, 18 November 1914, CRB, 

box 4, file 8, HIA.

38. Hoover’s Notes and Transcripts: Trip to Berlin, 

7–9 February 1915, CRB, box 7, file 42, HIA.

39. Hoover to New York office, 19 December 

1914, CRB, box 4, file 8, HIA.

40. W. J. Bryan to Lindon W. Bates, 1 January 

1915, CRB, box 4, file 8, HIA.

41. Hoover to New York, 28 January 1915, CRB, 

box 4, file 8, HIA.

42. Page to Hoover, 12 August 1917, CRB, box 7, 

file 6, HIA.

43. Hoover to Auchincloss, 14 August 1917, CRB, 

box 6, file 9, HIA.

44. Richards, “Some Things an American Delegate Should Know,” p. 11.

45. Ibid., pp. 13–14.

46. Brussels memo, 14 April 1915, CRB, box 4, file 

9, HIA.

47. Lucey to Hoover, 16 November 1914, CRB, 

box 4, file 3, HIA.

48. Richards, “Some Things an American Delegate Should Know,” p. 17. To keep administrative costs down, complaints about potential 

losses along the transportation routes due to 

petty theft were only made if the total was 

over half of 1 percent in shipments over a 

thousand kilograms, or a quarter of 1 percent 

losses in cargoes between five hundred and a 

thousand kilos; ibid., pp. 18–19.

49. Ibid., p. 10.

50. Memo, 6 April 1915, CRB, box 3, file 4, HIA.

51. Van Dyke to Hoover, 3 March 1915, CRB, box 

3, file 4, HIA.

52. German minister, The Hague, 6 March 1915, 

CRB, box 3, file 4, HIA.

53. Declaration, 24 December 1915, CRB, box 3, 

file 4, HIA.

54. London to Rotterdam, 15 February 1915, 

CRB, box 4, file 8, HIA.

55. Behncke, Chief of Staff, Admiralty, note, 25 

March 1915, CRB, box 3, file 4, HIA.

56. Memo, 16 April 1915, CRB, box 3, file 4, HIA.

57. Memo, 11 April 1915, CRB, box 3, file 4, HIA.

58. W. J. George, Second Officer, and John S. 

Turnbill, Second Engineer, testimony, n.d. but 

probably during April 1915, CRB, box 3, file 4, 

HIA.

59. Hoover to Jkr [Jonkheer] de Marees van 

Swinderen, 16 April 1915, CRB, box 3, file 4, 

HIA.

60. Hoover to Page, 18 April 1915, CRB, box 22, 

file 1, HIA.

61. Hoover to Page, 16 April 1915, CRB, box 3, 

file 4, HIA.

62. Ibid.

63. Telegram from Rotterdam, 12 April 1915, 

CRB, box 3, file 4, HIA.

64. C. A. Young, Rotterdam Manager, to Hoover, 

12 April 1915, CRB, box 3, file 4, HIA.

65. Hoover to White, 16 April 1915, CRB, box 22, 

file 1, HIA.

66. Hoover to Runciman, 21 December 1914, 

CRB, box 20, file 2, HIA.

67. Internal memo, 1 February 1915, CRB, box 4, 

file 8, HIA.

68. Hoover to James Gerard, U.S. ambassador to 

Berlin, 28 August 1915, CRB, box 3, file 4, 

HIA.

69. Hoover to Whitlock, 16 April 1915.

70. Hoover to Woodrow Wilson, 23 October 

1917, CRB, box 27, file 8, HIA.

71. Hoover to Baron E. de Cartier, Minister Plenipotentiary, Belgium Legation, 3 June 1917, 

CRB, box 27, file 4, HIA.
72. White to Hoover, 17 April 1915, CRB, box 3, 

file 4, HIA.

73. Hoover to White, 16 April 1915.

74. White to Hoover, 17 April 1915.

75. Hoover to John White, 16 April 1915, CRB, 

box 3, file 4, HIA. Even though the term 

“month” appears in the document, Hoover 

might have been thinking “year,” since this 

estimate is about ten times too high for a 

monthly insurance cost.

76. Hoover to Whitlock, 12 April 1915, CRB, box 

3, file 4, HIA.

77. Hoover to Gerard, 1 May 1915, CRB, box 3, 

file 4, HIA.

78. Memo, 15 March 1915, CRB, box 3, file 4, 

HIA.

79. Langley to Page, 24 May 1915, CRB, box 3, file 

4, HIA.

80. Hoover to Page, 7 May 1915, CRB, box 3, file 

4, HIA.

81. Hoover to Van Dyke, 5 July 1915, CRB, box 4, 

file 8, HIA.

82. Hoover to Page, 17 May 1915, CRB, box 3, file 

4, HIA.

83. Jagow to Hoover, 22 July 1915, CRB, box 7, file 

34, HIA.

84. Hoover to Young, 9 August 1915, CRB, box 

22, file 5, HIA.

85. C. Hipsgood, Board of Trade, Whitehall, 11 

June 1915, CRB, box 3, file 4, HIA.

86. Hoover to Gerard, 28 August 1915.

87. Hoover, memo, n.d. but probably late 1915 or 

early 1916, CRB, box 7, file 42, HIA.

88. Hoover, memo, 24 January 1916, CRB, box 2, 

file 1, HIA.

89. Hoover to W. B. Poland, 24 January 1916, 

CRB, box 2, file 1, HIA.

90. List of German forced exports from Belgium, 

8 February 1916, CRB, box 2, file 1, HIA.

91. Hoover to CRB Executive Committee, 31 

December 1915, CRB, box 23, file 5, HIA.

92. Hoover to Page, 1 September 1916, CRB, box 

23, file 1, HIA.

93. Hoover’s meetings in Paris, 10 February 1916, 

CRB, box 7, file 42, HIA.

94. Hoover to CRB Executive Committee, 12 

October 1915, CRB, box 23, file 2, HIA.

95. Hoover to Chevrillon, 8 September 1915, 

CRB, box 23, file 1, HIA.

96. Hoover to Chevrillon, 12 October 1915, CRB, 

box 23, file 2, HIA.

97. Memorandum on Shipping, 8 February 1916, 

CRB, box 24, file 2, HIA.

98. Hoover’s meeting with President Poincaré, 14 

February 1916, CRB, box 7, file 42, HIA.

99. Hoover to Hymans, 17 March 1916, CRB, box 

24, file 3, HIA.

100. Memorandum on Shipping, 8 February 1916.

101. Hoover to Craigie, 11 April 1916, CRB, box 

24, file 4, HIA.

102. Grey to Page, 13 March 1916, CRB, box 24, 

file 3, HIA.

103. J. Byers Maxwell, “Relief in Belgium: Are We 

Helping the Enemy?,” Western Morning News,

n.d., CRB, box 4, file 1, HIA.

104. Western Morning News, 28 October [1916?], 

CRB, box 4, file 1, HIA.

105. Hoover to Whitlock, 13 March 1916, CRB, 

box 2, file 1, HIA.

106. Payson J. Treat Papers.

107. Hoover to Rotterdam, 15 March 1916, CRB, 

box 24, file 3, HIA.

108. Percy to Hoover, 25 January 1916, CRB, box 4, 

file 1, HIA. Shortages of animal fodder caused 

much distress in Belgium and northern 

France. One exotic-animal park in northern 

France wrote repeatedly asking for a special 

ration of fodder. It was refused, and a later 

report noted that the park had been forced to 

feed its sole orangutan to its panthers, as “an 

emergency measure”; Hoover to Craigie, 25 

April 1916, CRB, box 24, file 4, HIA.

109. Percy to Hoover, 23 February 1916, CRB, box 

4, file 1, HIA.

110. Percy to Hoover, 5 January 1916, CRB, box 23, 

file 6, HIA.

111. Level to Edgard Rickard, 6 July 1917, CRB, 

box 7, file 11, HIA.

112. Memo, 11 September 1917, CRB, box 7, file 

42, HIA.

113. Hoover to Francqui, 3 October 1918, CRB, 

box 6, file 41, HIA.

114. Memo, 2 October 1917, CRB, box 7, file 8, 

HIA. One problem that Hoover encountered, 

however, was that he did not want the ownership of any cargo ships to be in the CRB’s 

name, since the vessels “should be in such 
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shape as to easily liquidate at the end of its 

work”; Hoover, memo to the U.S. Shipping 

Board, 8 November 1917, CRB, box 7, file 24, 

HIA.

115. Hoover to Francqui, 23 January 1918, CRB, 

box 28, file 1, HIA.

116. Hoover to Lloyd George, 16 May 1918, CRB, 

box 7, file 42, HIA.

117. Through the spring of 1917 a total of 

$266,000,000—about 90 percent of the CRB’s 

total funding—came from the British and 

French governments. George H. Nash, The 

Life of Herbert Hoover: Master of Emergencies, 

1917–1918 (New York: W. W. Norton, 1996), 

p. 445, citing Tracy B. Kittridge, unpublished 

history of the Commission for Relief in 

Belgium, chap. 19, Tracy B. Kittridge Papers, 

HIA.

118. George I. Gay, Statistical Review of Relief Operations (Stanford, Calif.: Stanford Univ. Press, 

1925), pp. 41, 67.

119. Hoover to Wilson, 21 October 1918, CRB, box 

7, file 3, HIA.

120. Ibid. Hoover later dropped his estimate for 

Poland to 25 percent as well; see Hoover to 

Rickard, 18 December 1918, CRB, box 29, file 

3, HIA. While Hoover’s estimates of starvation 

deaths in Serbia and Poland were high, in fact 

as many as a fifth of all Serbs and perhaps a 

sixth of Poles starved to death during World 

War I.

121. Hoover to Rickard, 18 December 1918.

122. Hoover to Wilson, 21 October 1918.

123. Transportation Summary, n.d., CRB, box 442, 

file 14, HIA.

124. Gay, Statistical Review of Relief Operations, p. 

41.

125. Elena S. Danielson, “The Commission for 

Relief in Belgium,” in The United States in the 

First World War: An Encyclopedia, ed. Anne 

Cipriano Benzon (New York: Garland, 1995), 

pp. 154–59; repr. CRB collection finding aid, 

HIA.

126. Hoover to Wilson, 21 October 1918.

127. Hoover to Beatty, 12 January 1916, CRB, box 

23, file 6, HIA.

128. Hoover to Bates, 13 November 1914.

129. Hoover insisted that an outside audit be conducted for all charities that wanted to work 

with the CRB. The real reason was to scare 

off charities that were not conducting their 

operations ethically, since if they “refused to 

allow their books be audited by the Commission’s accountants [this] would be sufficient 

to damn any professional charity worker for 

the balance of his history.” Hoover to Bates, 

19 January 1915.

130. Maxwell, “Relief in Belgium.”

131. Payson J. Treat Papers.

132. Report on Ship Damages, n.d., CRB, box 442, 

file 13, HIA; Gay, Statistical Review of Relief 

Operations, lists only fifty-two ships that “met 

with accidents of various characters” (p. 42).

133. Hoover to Wilson, 21 October 1918.

134. Francis Cogswell Wickes, June 1917, CRB, 

box 7, file 45, HIA.

The Allied Embargo of Japan, 1939–1941

From Rollback to Deterrence to Boomerang

S. C. M. PAINE

In the 1930s, the United States faced numerous grave national security challenges as the 

world appeared to be going to ruin, with global economic depression and brewing wars 

in Europe and Asia. To cope with Japan’s expanding war in China, Washington needed 

to devise a low-cost and politically feasible strategy acceptable to both isolationists and 

financially pressed American voters. Over a decade, U.S. strategy toward Japan evolved 

from nonrecognition of its invasion of Manchuria through political neutrality and trade 

embargo to a combination of trade cessation and forward basing of the U.S. Fleet. All of 

these strategies attempted to exert sufficient diplomatic and economic pressure to force 

Japan to halt its aggression.

The Japanese government, however, did not respond to the evolving American strategy 

as anticipated, even though it lacked access to the wide range of natural resources necessary to fight the war it chose. U.S. deterrence ultimately backfired, because the sunk 

costs of Japan’s own failed strategy were already so high that to back down would have 

emasculated the Imperial Japanese Army. Instead, the Japanese government chose a 

military strategy that had a remote hope of success—albeit a high chance of going down 

in flames—over an even higher likelihood of regime change at home if it reversed itself 

after incurring such huge human and financial costs in China.

This chapter examines the various stages of the U.S. deterrence strategy over a tenyear period. Each stage adopted incrementally more restrictive trade limitations that it 

was hoped would be sufficient to pressure Japan to back down and yet insufficient to 

prompt Japan to escalate instead; the U.S. Navy, in particular, hoped to delay—or better yet, avoid—war with Japan so that the U.S. military could concentrate on defeating 

the fascists in Europe. Rather than preserving a tenuous peace with Japan, however, 

the American strategy boomeranged, precipitating Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor. As 

Americans discovered, some nations make mistakes of such magnitude that they are 

immune to deterrence and insist on taking the paths to ruin for themselves and others.

CHAPTER FOUR
The Problem: Strategy on a Shoestring versus Regional Domination

As the international order collapsed in the 1930s, the Imperial Japanese Army made 

policy by fait accompli. It occupied Manchuria and later Central China to protect 

Japan’s significant investments there, restore order in a neighboring failing state, create 

an autarkic zone of sufficient size to compensate for Western protectionism, and prevent 

the spread of communist influence from the Soviet Union.1

 These goals were all bigticket items for Japanese policy makers. Asia, however, was not at this point a big-ticket 

item for the United States, whose economy remained a mess, whose primary allies faced 

invasion by Germany, and whose trade with China remained minor. Japan was embarked on a program of expansion of its empire—first into Manchuria (1931–33), then 

into North China (1934–36), and finally throughout Central and South China (1937–45). 

With the massive escalation of the Second Sino-Japanese War in 1937, the U.S. government sought a low-cost strategy that would avoid American economic or military 

overextension and yet deter further Japanese expansion and eventually pressure Tokyo 

to roll back its conquests and restore the Nationalist government of Chiang Kai-shek to 

full sovereignty over China.

U.S. pressure increased incrementally, starting with nonrecognition. On 7 January 

1932, the United States responded to Japan’s occupation of Manchuria by refusing to 

acknowledge these conquests—the so-called Stimson Doctrine, named for American 

Secretary of State Henry L. Stimson—but Japanese conquests continued unabated and 

soon encompassed North China.2

 On 6 December 1931, the State Department Division 

of Far Eastern Affairs had initially examined the possibility of a boycott of Japan as retaliation.3

 Article 16, paragraph 1, of the League of Nations Covenant required “the severance of all trade or financial relations” by all league members should any resort to war 

in violation of the covenant, a crime Japan had clearly committed. It also required “the 

prevention of all financial, commercial or personal intercourse between the nationals 

of the covenant-breaking State and the nationals of any other State, whether a Member 

of the League or not.”4 The hitch was the United States was not a member; no member 

other than China was interested in implementing article 16. Neither was the United 

States. Yet without full U.S. participation, any trade sanctions would be meaningless, 

given American domination of Japan’s foreign trade.

At the time, the State Department and the War Department disagreed on the advisability of imposing economic sanctions. When Secretary of State Stimson supported the 

idea, President Herbert Hoover “replied that that meant war and must be considered as 

such.” But when the Chief of Naval Operations, Adm. William V. Pratt, predicted that 

such a war would last from five to seven years, Hoover declared he “would have nothing 

to do with sanctions.”5
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With World War I still looming large in American thinking, Congress passed a succession of neutrality acts, starting on 31 August 1935. These acts forbade trade with either 

side in a war, lest the United States again become embroiled in costly hostilities leading 

to disappointing results. President Hoover’s successor, Franklin D. Roosevelt, chose 

not to apply the law to China and Japan, on the technicality that neither had officially 

declared war against the other. Congress simply renewed the act, on 29 February 1936, 

making it permanent on 1 May 1937.6

Once Japan’s radical military escalation that began on 7 July 1937 brought hostilities 

into China’s coastal areas central to American investment and commercial interests, the 

Chief of Naval Operations, now Adm. William D. Leahy, recommended that the U.S. 

and British fleets maintain a distant blockade, off California and Singapore, respectively, to cut Japan’s imports of oil, scrap iron, cotton, and copper and thereby undermine 

its military operations. The State Department disagreed.7

 Instead, on 14 September, 

President Roosevelt announced that U.S. merchantmen could no longer transport war 

matériel to either China or Japan.8

 On 5 October, his famous quarantine speech signaled 

the American judgment that Germany and Japan were pariah states, lying outside the 

international order.

Tension quickly escalated on 12 December 1937, when Japanese forces attacked and sank 

the gunboat USS Panay on the Yangzi River near Nanjing. During the ensuing two-week 

diplomatic crisis, President Roosevelt ordered the drafting of secret plans to blockade 

Japan from the Aleutian Islands to Hong Kong and tried to secure British cooperation. 

He intended to implement the blockade upon the next provocation. Britain held that doing so would lead to war; the United States disagreed and began building a fleet capable 

of conducting such a blockade.9

 In March 1938, the Joint Army-Navy Board completed 

the last prewar version of Plan Orange, which envisioned rising American-Japanese 

tension leading to a surprise Japanese attack and then the U.S. economic and military 

defeat of Japan.10 In other words, from the 1930s American military planners anticipated 

responding to a Japanese attack with a combined military and economic strategy.

To conduct the military part of this strategy, the United States would need a strong 

navy. Back in 1934 the United States had taken the first steps to create naval forces 

capable of insulating the country from the brewing troubles in North Africa, Europe, 

and Asia: the Vinson-Trammell Act authorized, but did not fund, a buildup of the U.S. 

Navy to the limits set at the London Naval Conference of 1930. In 1938 a second Vinson 

naval act finally funded the construction plans authorized under the original act for the 

first expansion of the fleet since World War I. In the four intervening years, however, 

the ceilings established in London in 1930 lapsed.11 With the outbreak of World War II 

in Europe on 3 September 1939, the United States loosened the Neutrality Act’s trade 

restrictions in favor of Britain and France and soon afterward included China.
In the same years the United States had ramped up aid to the Nationalist government 

to keep it in the fight against Japan—and presumably to keep Japan tied down and less 

able to cause problems elsewhere. On 15 December 1938, the U.S. Export-Import Bank 

had issued twenty-five million dollars in credits to a Chinese-owned, U.S.-based trading 

corporation.12 From 8 February 1939 until 21 March 1942 it provided the Nationalist 

government a succession of six loans totaling $620 million.13 Undoubtedly these loans 

helped keep China fighting, but they failed to roll back Japanese conquests, let alone 

deter new ones.

On 28 June 1940, within a week after the fall of France on 22 June, Congress passed a 

third Vinson naval act, funding naval expansion 11 percent beyond the lapsed London 

limits. A fourth Vinson bill, passed as the Two-Ocean Navy Act on 19 July, authorized 

a 70 percent naval expansion to build a navy of two fleets, one for the Atlantic and the 

other for the Pacific—a navy with four times the tonnage and four times the airpower of 

Japan’s.14 These prospects, however, did not deter Japanese leaders but instead led them 

to perceive a fast-closing window of opportunity during which they must act.

Between 1932 and 1938 the U.S. government tried to increase pressure on Japan to roll 

back its invasion of China. Yet nonrecognition, neutrality, and aid to the beleaguered 

victims all failed to dampen Japan’s aggression. On the contrary, the problem of Japanese expansion quickly became worse, not better, and there were no signs of change in 

the adverse trend lines. Therefore, in mid-1938 the United States began implementing 

a new strategy of, on the one hand, escalating trade restrictions on the matériel necessary for Japan to continue hostilities and, on the other, forward basing the U.S. Fleet at 

Hawaii starting in 1940.

Escalating Embargoes

The new American strategy was to use a combination of a “fleet-in-being” and widening embargoes to deter and eventually roll back Japanese expansion while preventing 

Japan from stockpiling the resources necessary to fight the United States or, even 

more likely, the Dutch or British for their colonial possessions in Asia. Embargo seemed 

a highly promising strategy, given Japan’s overwhelming dependence on imports 

of raw material. The Chinese clearly thought so: the Chinese Council for Economic 

Research fed the United States statistics on the Japanese reliance on American imports 

to wage war in China.15 The Chinese government believed “that the United States, 

through Japan’s dependence on American exports, could have stopped the invasion 

of China in its tracks at any moment” since the 1937 escalation with embargoes of, 

especially, petroleum products, copper, steel and iron semi-manufactures, and machine tools.16
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In 1931 the United States had been Japan’s most important trading partner, with a volume of trade that was a multiple of Japan’s second- and third-most-important markets, 

China and British India. Prior to hostilities, the United States had bought 40 percent of 

Japanese exports and had provided 34.4 percent of Japan’s imports, including 49.1 percent of its iron imports, 53.6 percent of its machine tool imports, and 75.2 percent of its 

oil.17 According to a 13 October 1940 American newspaper report,

of 32 commodities held indispensable to the prosecution of war, Japan possesses only two with 

exportable surpluses. These are graphite and sulphur. It is domestically self-sufficient in three—

coal, pyrites and foodstuffs. Its supplies of 16 are inadequate to meet domestic demands. They are 

iron ore, aluminum, chromium, copper, manganese, zinc, asbestos, fluorspar, mica, phosphates, 

iron and steel scrap, finished and semi-finished iron and steel, machine tools, aircraft, automotive 

equipment and hides. It is completely or almost completely dependent on foreign sources for 

11—antimony, lead, mercury, nickel, tin, tungsten, magnesiate, nitrates, petroleum, potash 

and rubber.18

Japan, then, was fatally dependent on two key resources, oil and iron. Without them, 

its military forces could neither move nor shoot. Moreover, its war in China had made 

it more, not less, reliant on imports. Whereas it had imported 67 percent of its oil in 

1935, this figure grew to 74 percent in 1937 and to 90 percent in 1939.19 It also imported 

more than 90 percent of its iron and 75 percent of its lead, zinc, dyes, and chemicals.20

This dependence had enormous military implications. A refusal to sell is easy to 

implement, and the denied resources ultimately proved impossible for Japan to replace. 

The U.S. government tightened its trade embargo against Japan over a period of three 

years. On 11 June 1938, in response to the many Chinese civilian deaths from the 

Japanese bombing of Guangzhou (Canton), Secretary of State Cordell Hull imposed a 

“moral embargo” on U.S. exports of aircraft and equipment to “countries the armed 

forces of which were engaged in the bombing of civilian populations by air.”21 On 1 

July 1938, the United States required export licenses for aircraft and for the resources 

needed to fly, arm, and produce them.22 According to the Munitions Control Board, 

American arms exports to Japan had previously soared, from $1.9 million in 1937 

to $9.2 million in 1938, when 97 percent was spent on aircraft and aircraft parts and 

motors.23

Soon the United States gave Japan a heads-up for troubles to come: on 26 July 1939, 

Secretary of State Hull officially notified the Japanese ambassador to the United States, 

Horinouchi Kensuke, that the United States was invoking article 17 of the 21 February 1911 Treaty of Commerce and Navigation between the United States and Japan to 

terminate it, effective six months hence.24 The Japanese derided the decision as “hasty 

and abrupt.”25 The United States justified its actions on the grounds that Japan had 

hamstrung American businesses in occupied China with “quantitative limitations, 

monopolistic instrumentalities, exchange control, and related measures affecting the 
importation and exportation of goods and remittance of funds,” as well as by placing 

restrictions “upon the navigation of China’s waterways and upon travel and residence 

and trade in various parts of China.” Therefore, “It follows that so long as agencies and 

instrumentalities of the Japanese Government continue in fact to render inoperative the 

practice of equality of treatment for American commercial interests throughout large 

areas of China, there exists a serious obstacle to the conclusion by the United States of 

a new commercial treaty or agreement with Japan.”26 Renunciation of the treaty did 

not improve business conditions in China, but it did set up the United States to begin 

embargoing products in earnest once the treaty expired in late January 1940.

Japan, for its part, gave the United States notice of its intentions as well: in early April 

1940 it claimed special economic interests in the Dutch East Indies. In response, Secretary of State Hull declared an American resolve to maintain the regional status quo.27 In 

1939 Japan had imported just 2.3 million barrels of oil from the Dutch East Indies out of 

that region’s total exports that year of 24.4 million barrels.28 Clearly, Japan now wanted 

the lion’s share.

On 2 April 1940, the U.S. Fleet—minus the new but still small Atlantic Squadron—

sortied from its base at San Diego for annual exercises off Hawaii. The original schedule 

drafted in 1939 had anticipated its departure from Hawaii on 9 May. On 7 May the stay 

was extended for two weeks, and on 15 May it was made indefinite. The force was to act 

as a fleet-in-being to deter Japan from a possible southward resource grab in the Philippines or the Dutch East Indies.29 The timing of these naval reinforcements was intended 

to support the increasingly tight U.S. embargoes on Japan.

By June 1940, the U.S. government had instructed American customs authorities 

not to permit certain equipment exports to Japan or the Soviet Union. The Japanese 

were unhappy about that, since they knew of no laws requiring such restrictions.30

On 4 June, Secretary of State Hull explained to the U.S. ambassador to Japan, Joseph C. 

Grew, that anticipating the imminent passage of a bill restricting the export of war 

matériel and dual-use commodities and manufactures, President Roosevelt had authorized the Navy Department to requisition “certain tools and supplies” and customs 

officials to stop their export.31 Japanese diplomats urged the United States not to restrict 

trade to Japan.32

The pending legislation to which Hull referred marked a change in the justification for 

U.S. trade restrictions from the prevention of aerial bombing of civilians to the imperative to stockpile resources to meet defense requirements. On 2 July Congress passed the 

Act to Expedite the Strengthening of National Defense (known as the Export Control 

Act), authorizing the president to prohibit the export of war matériel and strategic 

resources in order to stockpile them at home. President Roosevelt invoked the act that 
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very day, prohibiting a long list of items and threatening that “all violations of such 

provisions will be rigorously prosecuted.”33 On 26 July 1940, on the first anniversary of 

the American abrogation of its commercial treaty with Japan, Roosevelt invoked the 

new act to cut the export to Japan of aviation gasoline and various categories of iron and 

steel scrap.34

Between the introduction of the Export Control Act on 2 July 1940 and 28 May 1941, the 

United States repeatedly broadened the list of items embargoed (see the table). Because 

Japanese military activities were so prejudicial to American business interests in China, 

there was little private-sector pushback against these restrictions on their sales and 

credits to Japan.35 In hindsight, the Japanese government would have done itself a great 

service had it placated neutral American businessmen, with the hope that they would 

stand up for continued trade rather than embargo. But, like its military strategy, which 

made virtually all the major Western powers its enemies, Japan’s economic strategy 

alienated most foreign businessmen as well.

With German armies sweeping through Europe and the alarming prospects for the fall 

of Britain, on 14 September 1940 the United States introduced the first peacetime conscription in its history. This was clearly a step toward war. On 27 September, in response 

to Germany’s early victories against France, Japan joined the Axis powers. This decision 

unwittingly transformed Japan, in American eyes at least, from a regional bully in a 

secondary part of the world into a pariah state in cahoots with America’s most deadly 

enemies in Europe. Almost immediately, U.S. trade restrictions against Japan tightened 

even further.

DATE RESTRICTIONS EMBARGOED ITEMS SOURCE

1 Jul 38 No export licenses to 

countries aerially bombing 

civilians.

aircraft, aircraft parts, munitions FRUS, Japan: 1931–1941, vol. 2, 

pp. 201–202.

26 Jul 39 U.S. renunciation of 1911 

Treaty of Commerce and 

Navigation. Effective in six 

months.

FRUS, Japan: 1931–1941, vol. 2, 

p. 189.

15 Dec 39 Same. aluminum, molybdenum FRUS, Japan: 1931–1941, vol. 2, 

pp. 202–203.

20 Dec 39 Same. technology transfers for high-quality 

aviation gasoline production

FRUS, Japan: 1931–1941, vol. 2, 

pp. 203–204.

26 Jan 40 Treaty renunciation in effect. “Treaty of Commerce and 

Navigation between the United 

States and Japan,” art. 17, p. 105.

U.S. Trade Restrictions
DATE RESTRICTIONS EMBARGOED ITEMS SOURCE

2 Jul 40 Export Control Act. United 

States to stockpile strategic 

resources. Defense-related 

items subject to case-by-case 

export licensing.

aluminum, antimony, asbestos, 

chromium, cotton linters, flax, 

graphite, hides, industrial diamond, 

magnesium, manganese, manila fiber, 

mercury, mica, molybdenum optical 

glass, platinum-group metals, quartz 

crystals, quinine, rubber, silk, tin, toluol, 

tungsten, vanadium, wool; ammonia 

and ammonium compounds, chlorine, 

dimethylaniline, diphenylamine, nitrates, 

nitric acid, nitrocellulose, soda lime, 

sodium acetate, strontium chemicals, 

sulfuric acid; aircraft parts, armor plate, 

nonshatterable glass, optical elements 

for armaments; metalworking machinery 

for melting or casting, pressing into 

forms, cutting or grinding, or welding

FRUS, Japan: 1931–1941, vol. 2, 

pp. 211–12.

26 Jul 40 Same. aviation lubricating oil, aviation motor 

fuel, iron and scrap steel, tetraethyl lead

FRUS, Japan: 1931–1941, vol. 2, 

pp. 217–18.

12 Sep 40 Same. technology transfers relevant for the 

production of aircraft and aviation 

motor fuel; equipment or technology 

transfers relevant for the production of 

tetraethyl lead

FRUS, Japan: 1931–1941, vol. 2, 

pp. 220–21.

26 Sep 40 Unrestricted exports only 

to Britain and Western 

Hemisphere. Previous licenses 

to others revoked.

iron and steel scrap FRUS, Japan: 1931–1941, vol. 2, 

pp. 222–23.

27 Nov 40 Defense-related items subject 

to case-by-case export 

licensing.

machine tools FRUS, 1940, Far East, vol. 4, p. 

617.

10 Dec 40 Exports outside Britain and 

Western Hemisphere restricted 

to prewar levels.

iron and steel scrap FRUS, Japan: 1931–1941, vol. 2, 

p. 232; FRUS, 1940, Far East,

vol. 4, p. 620.

20 Dec 40 Defense-related items subject 

to case-by-case export 

licensing.

abrasives, aviation lubricating oil 

equipment and technology, balancing 

machines, bromine, cobalt, ethylene, 

ethylene dibromide, gauges, hydraulic 

pumps, measuring machines, 

methylamine, plastic molding machines, 

strontium metals and ores, testing 

machines, tools incorporating industrial 

diamonds 

FRUS, Japan: 1931–1941, vol. 2, 

p. 36; FRUS, 1940, Far East, vol. 4, 

p. 620.

10 Jan 41 Same. brass, bronze, copper, nickel, potash, 

zinc

FRUS, Japan: 1931–1941, vol. 2, 

p. 238.

29 Jan 41 Additional reporting 

requirements for licensed 

exports to destinations other 

than the British Empire.

paperwork must include affidavits 

indicating the total exports of the 

licensed item to the relevant country 

since 1 January 1937

FRUS, Japan: 1931–1941, vol. 2, 

p. 241.

2 Feb 41 Defense-related items subject 

to case-by-case export 

licensing.

calf and kip skins, radium, uranium, well 

and refining machinery; expanded list of 

specific items included in the embargo 

of iron and steel exports

FRUS, Japan: 1931–1941, vol. 2, 

pp. 242–28.

U.S. Trade Restrictions, continued
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DATE RESTRICTIONS EMBARGOED ITEMS SOURCE

25 Feb 41 Same. aircraft pilot trainers, atropine, 

belladonna, belting leather, 

beryllium, graphite electrodes, sole 

leather 

FRUS, Japan: 1931–1941, vol. 2, 

pp. 248–51.

4 Mar 41 Same. borax, cadmium, carbon black, coconut 

oil, copra, cresylic acid and cresols, 

fatty acids, glycerin, jute, lead, palm 

kernel oil and palm kernels, petroleum 

coke, phosphates, pine oil, shellac, 

titanium

FRUS, Japan: 1931–1941, vol. 2, 

pp. 253–54.

 4 Mar 41 Same. anything related by manufacture, 

design, description, technology, or 

possible adaptation to any of the items 

subject to export licensing

FRUS, Japan: 1931–1941, vol. 2, 

p. 254.

27 Mar 41 Same. acetic aldehyde, acrylonitrile, alkyd 

resins, aniline, animal fats, arsenic 

trichloride, bristles, butadiene, butylene, 

carbon electrodes, chloroacetyl chloride, 

chloropicrin, chloroprene, cork, cuprous 

oxide, detonators and blasting caps, 

dibutyl phthalate, dicyanodiamide, 

diethyl phthalate, dipropyl phthalate, 

ethylene chlorhydrine, explosives, 

fatty acids, formaldehyde, guanidine 

nitrate, hexamethylenetetramine, 

iodine, kapok, monochloroacetic 

acid, naphthalene, nitroguanidine, 

nux vomica, nylon, omega 

chloroacetophenone, pentaerythrite, 

petrolatum, phenol, phthalic anhydride, 

Rochelle salts, sodium chlorate, 

strychnine, styrene, sulfur chlorides, 

tartaric acid, thiodiglycol, various 

nitro-derivatives, various polymers 

and copolymers, vegetable oil seeds, 

vegetable oils, vinylidene chloride, 

wood pulp

FRUS, Japan: 1931–1941, vol. 2, 

pp. 258–59.

14 Apr 41 Same. all machinery, caffeine, calcium cyanide, 

casein, manufactures, sodium cyanide, 

theobromine, vegetable fibers 

FRUS, Japan: 1931–1941, vol. 2, 

pp. 260–61.

28 May 41 Above trade restrictions to be 

applied in the Philippines, the 

Panama Canal Zone, and the 

District of Columbia.

all of the above FRUS, Japan: 1931–1941, vol. 2, 

pp. 261–62.

14 Jun 41 German and Italian assets in 

the United States frozen.

all trade with Germany and Italy under 

U.S. government control

FRUS, Japan: 1931–1941, vol. 2, 

pp. 266–67.

25 Jul 41 Japanese assets in the United 

States frozen.

all trade with Japan under U.S. 

government control

FRUS, Japan: 1931–1941, vol. 2, 

pp. 266–67.

1 Aug 41 Revocation of all valid export 

licenses except to the Western 

Hemisphere, the British Empire, 

Egypt, the Dutch East Indies, 

unoccupied China, and the 

Belgian Congo.

all petroleum products FRUS, 1941, Far East, vol. 4, 

p. 850.

U.S. Trade Restrictions, continued
The Japanese Response to the U.S. Embargo

Once Japan had taken the territories accessible via the Chinese railway system (mainly 

accomplished by 1939), its military and strategic paradigm had reached the limits of its 

manpower constraints. So Japanese strategy turned from trying to dislodge the Nationalist government from its mountainous redoubt in Sichuan Province to preventing it 

from spending its foreign loans on the matériel necessary to stay in the fight. Having 

called on Britain to sever the Burma Road supply route in July 1940, on 22 September 

the Japanese pressured the French governor of Indochina to allow their troops to land 

in Haiphong, which they did the following day.36 Japan intended thereby to cut the last 

important supply line to China—the route across the Indochinese border. Three days 

later, on 26 September, the United States began retroactively revoking steel-scrap export 

licenses issued after 26 July 1940 and permitting future unrestricted iron and steel scrap 

exports only to Britain and the Western Hemisphere.37 This meant no more U.S. iron or 

steel for Japan.

The Department of State took very seriously the Imperial Japanese Navy’s plans for a 

resource grab throughout the South Pacific, the so-called Southward Advance policy.38

The Japanese government was well aware that the likely American response would be a 

trade embargo.39 On 17 February 1940 Ambassador Grew had reported that the previous day Foreign Minister Nomura Kichisaburō had discussed with Diet members the 

growing support in Congress for a trade embargo but that rather than taking it seriously 

Nomura had optimistically predicted that U.S. implementation of an embargo “would 

require a considerable length of time.”40

On 8 October 1940, when Ambassador Horinouchi lodged an official protest against 

the iron-and-steel-scrap “virtual embargo,” characterizing it as an “unfriendly act,” 

Secretary of State Hull replied that given the “constant and repeated Japanese depredations against American rights and interests in the Far East, the Japanese Government 

was in no position to characterize a national defense measure as an unfriendly act.”41

Hull asserted that “those who are dominating the external policies of Japan are, as we 

here have believed for some years, bent on the conquest by force of all worthwhile territory in the Pacific Ocean area without limit as to extent in the South and in southern 

continental areas of that part of the world.”42 He concluded, “I reiterated the view that it 

was unheard of for one country engaged in aggression and seizure of another country, 

contrary to all law and treaty provisions, to turn to a third peacefully disposed nation 

and seriously insist that it would be guilty of an unfriendly act if it should not cheerfully 

provide some of the necessary implements of war to aid the aggressor nation in carrying 

out its policy of invasion.”43 The exchange impressed neither side.
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On 15 October 1940, President Roosevelt authorized the requisitioning of war matériel.44

On 27 November, following his reelection on 5 November, the United States restricted 

machine tool exports; soon afterward, it loaned China a hundred million dollars and 

began augmenting its forces in the Philippines—an archipelago that lay astride Japan’s 

sea lines of communication between the home islands and the oil fields of the Dutch 

East Indies.45 On 30 December, Roosevelt made his arsenal-for-democracy speech, 

promising that America would arm democracies beset by aggressors. His next key piece 

of legislation interpreted “democracy” broadly to include China and the Soviet Union: 

on 11 March 1941, he jettisoned the old strategy of neutrality by signing the Lend-Lease 

Act, which allowed massive aid to nations beset by invaders. He extended military aid 

initially to Great Britain and soon to Russia and China.46 Like the abandoned neutrality 

strategy, Lend-Lease produced no discernible mitigating effect on Japanese expansion. 

This left a freeze of Japanese assets as the last remaining economic tool.

Back in May 1939, the British ambassador to Japan, Robert Craigie, had raised the 

possibility with the U.S. ambassador, Joseph C. Grew, of a retaliatory trade embargo 

should Japan act against the International Settlement in Shanghai. Grew had not been 

enthusiastic.47 Meanwhile, the British had pressured the United States to halt the flow 

of natural resources being transshipped from the Japanese empire to Germany via the 

Trans-Siberian Railway.48 On 26 July 1940, when President Roosevelt announced his 

intent to subject petroleum products, tetraethyl lead, and steel and iron scrap to licensing procedures, the British feared that this move would propel the Japanese to take 

control of Dutch East Indies oil fields.49 By October 1940 the United States, Canada, and 

Britain were planning future trade restrictions on Japan.50 The British were pushing for 

a coordinated trade policy among Britain, the United States, and the Netherlands severe 

enough to prevent Japan from stockpiling strategic materials yet not so severe as to 

provoke a declaration of war.51

On 23 November 1940, the Council on Foreign Relations issued a confidential study on 

Japan’s vulnerability to American sanctions concluding that combined action by the 

United States, Britain, and the Netherlands would withhold “essential imports,” deprive 

Japan of the foreign exchange to buy elsewhere, and strain its merchant marine capacity, which was already insufficient for stockpiling. Also, most critically for U.S. naval 

strategy, “Japan would have to operate outside of Japanese waters, far from her home 

bases.” In the event of war, these long sea lines of communication would make the Japanese fleet vulnerable to attack, especially from the U.S. Navy’s robust submarine force. 

Nevertheless, as the report presciently predicted, sanctions alone “would not necessarily 

stop her war machine.”52
The Freeze of Japanese Assets

On 14 June 1941, the United States froze German and Italian assets. A week later, on 22 

June, Germany invaded Russia, and Japan redoubled its efforts to sever outside support 

to China. Between 24 and 27 July 1941 Japan occupied southern Indochina. The United 

States immediately retaliated, freezing on 25 July Japanese assets in the United States 

worth five hundred million yen, thereby putting “all financial and import and export 

trade” involving Japanese interests under U.S. government control. On 14 July the 

United States had decoded a Japanese military communication indicating that “after the 

occupation of French Indo-China, next on our schedule is . . . the Netherlands Indies.”53

On 25 July 1941, the Chief of Naval Operations, Adm. Harold R. Stark, and the Chief 

of Staff of the U.S. Army, Brig. Gen. George C. Marshall, sent a joint dispatch to their 

subordinates in Hawaii, the Philippines, the Panama Canal Zone, and Great Britain 

alerting them that the United States would embargo all trade with Japan, save through 

a licensing system, and that all Japanese assets in the United States would be frozen: “It 

is not repeat not expected that Japanese merchant vessels in United States ports will be 

seized at this time. United States flag merchant vessels will not at present be ordered 

to depart from or not to enter ports controlled by Japan.”54 Wakasugi Kaname, special 

aide to the Japanese ambassador to the United States, Nomura Kichisaburō, requested 

assurances from the U.S. government that it would not seize or detain Japanese ships 

wishing to enter American ports—at that time, these ships were remaining out at sea. 

The United States, notwithstanding Stark and Marshall’s provisional guidance—refused 

to provide such assurances.55

On 26 July, on the second anniversary of the American renunciation of its commercial treaty with Japan, Britain followed suit, freezing Japanese assets in Britain and 

the empire. It also notified Japan of an intent to abrogate Japan’s 5 May 1911 Treaty of 

Commerce and Navigation with the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the 

British Dominions beyond the Seas and India, as well as Japan’s 12 July 1937 trade and 

commerce treaty with India and its 7 June 1937 trade and commerce treaty with Burma. 

All these abrogations would go into effect six months later in January 1942.56 Also on 

26 July the United States appointed Gen. Douglas MacArthur as commander in chief of 

U.S. forces in East Asia and made plans to improve defenses in the Philippines.57 On 27 

July, the Dutch government too froze Japanese assets.58

Britain had been urging the United States to ramp up economic pressure on Japan (but 

to do so with great care). On 3 March 1941, the British ambassador to the United States, 

E. F. L. Wood, first Earl of Halifax, had called on Secretary of State Hull, who later 

reported of their conversation, “He brought up the question of an embargo on exports of 

gasoline to Japan” and provided a document from his embassy that began, “One of the 
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main weapons which the Democracies hold against Japan is her dependence on them for 

many of the materials without which she would be unable to maintain her war effort.” 

The British document continued, Japan had used “the last twelve months to import 

quantities of these materials far in excess of her current consumption needs.” Given that 

a “large proportion of these excessive imports has undoubtedly gone to build up strategic reserves,” the British recommended a denial of just “excess supplies.”59 According to 

a second enclosed document, “in the last six months of 1940 more than one million barrels of aviation grade spirit went to Japan, compared with 560,000 barrels in the twelve 

months of 1939. In 1941, 180,000 barrels have already gone, and orders for an additional 

250,000 barrels are reported.” The British did not recommend a complete embargo, 

simply a curtailment sufficient to prevent further Japanese stockpiling.60

Then, on 1 August 1941, Acting Secretary of State Sumner Welles revoked all valid 

licenses allowing the export of petroleum products to any country outside the Western 

Hemisphere, the British Empire, Egypt, the Dutch East Indies, unoccupied China, and 

the Belgian Congo.61 This meant no exports to Japan. Some believe that the oil embargo 

was made total not by intention but by mistake, through a bureaucratic snafu.62 In any 

case, it put Japan in dire straits. At the time Japan had reserves of 9.4 million kilotons 

and consumed 450,000 kilotons per month, giving it about a year and a half’s supply at 

stable consumption rates.63 Japanese leaders construed this period as defining a deadline 

for making alternate supply arrangements.

The escalating embargoes, far from deterring Japan, appear to have acted as an accelerant as Japanese leaders put the finishing touches on their plans to expand the war 

throughout the Pacific. Within a week of the total oil embargo, just as the British had 

predicted, the Imperial Japanese Army favored going to war in the Pacific. The total oil 

embargo meant that Japan’s Greater East Asia Co-prosperity Sphere had to be expanded 

to include the oil fields of the Dutch East Indies. In September the cabinet and thereafter an imperial conference confirmed the Imperial Japanese Army and Navy’s recommendation for the “Southern Advance” war plan to take over European colonies in 

Asia during the window of opportunity opened by the war in Europe, when neither the 

colonial powers nor Russia could interfere. The navy, but not the army, added Hawaii to 

the list of targets.64 Both services wanted to complete their conquests before the window 

began to close: Japan’s relative naval strength would peak in late 1941 at near parity with 

the U.S. Navy and thereafter decline rapidly in relative terms as a result of the American 

building program under the Two-Ocean Navy Act.65

On 10 November 1941, Foreign Minister Tōgō Shigenori warned Ambassador Grew, 

“The freezing by the United States of Japanese assets had stopped supplies of many important raw materials to Japan. Economic pressure of this character is capable of menacing national existence to a greater degree than the direct use of force.”66 With Japan’s 
power diminishing with each passing day, Prime Minister Tōjō and other leaders had 

concluded, “If Japan could not solve the fatal situation by means of diplomacy then there 

would be no way remaining to her but to take up arms and break through the military 

and economy barrier flung around her.”67

As the postwar trials made clear, in the estimation of the Imperial Japanese Army high 

command “there was but a faint prospect of a successful conclusion of the negotiations, 

and . . . Japan would therefore eventually have to go to war.” It was convinced that while 

negotiations dragged on, Japan was being subjected to gradual exhaustion of natural 

resources as the economic warfare of the Allied powers began to take full effect; that 

the nation was losing its power to fight; and that hostilities should therefore be commenced while Japanese fighting power was still relatively strong compared with that of 

the potential enemy. The Naval General Staff believed that if “war was to be inevitable, it 

should be determined upon promptly.”68

On 26 November 1941, the United States delivered another ultimatum to Japan—the 

“Hull Note,” for U.S. Secretary of State Cordell Hull. It required Japan to evacuate Indochina and China, including Manchuria, and to repudiate both its puppet government in 

China under Wang Jingwei and its Tripartite Pact with Germany and Italy. Within the 

fortnight Japan attacked Pearl Harbor—clearly not the desired outcome of a strategy of 

deterrence. In the end, the United States succeeded in deterring a Japanese attack not 

against itself but against Russia—the Imperial Japanese Army finally gave up its longstanding war plan to invade Russia as relations with the United States deteriorated.69

The U.S. Navy Fleet-in-Being at Pearl Harbor

U.S. military and economic deterrents were supposed to work hand in hand. The 

embargo strategy accurately identified and targeted a key Japanese strategic vulnerability: Japan could not sustain military operations in China, let alone across the Pacific, 

without a long shopping list of imported natural resources. In October 1941, Ambassador Nomura informed the foreign minister, Adm. Toyoda Teijirō, “If the United States 

continues to carry on economic warfare against Japan, a measure just short of armed 

warfare, the United States will be able to attain the objectives of a war against Japan 

without firing a shot.”70 Nomura warned President Roosevelt, “People in my country 

take the freezing of assets as an economic blockade and they go even so far as to contend 

that the means of modern warfare are not limited to shooting. No nation can survive 

without the supply of material vital to its industries.”71

Yet the embargo failed in its primary objectives either to roll back or deter further 

Japanese conquests. Instead, it succeeded only in its third objective, of limiting Japanese 

resource stockpiles for future military operations. The problem lay not in the strategy’s 
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understanding of an enemy critical vulnerability but in Japan’s reaction to the strategy. In 1938 analysts in the State Department warned that an oil embargo would risk 

“Japan’s forcibly taking over the Netherlands East Indies.”72 On 7 June 1940 Maxwell 

M. Hamilton, chief of the Division of Far Eastern Affairs, accurately predicted that a 

“restriction or prohibition of the exportation of petroleum products . . . would tend to 

impel Japan toward moving into the Dutch East Indies.”73 On 19 July 1941 the director of the War Plans Division provided the Chief of Naval Operations, Admiral Stark, 

with a “study of the effect of the embargo of trade between the United States and Japan” 

that predicted, “An embargo would probably result in a fairly early attack by Japan on 

Malaya [a key source of iron] and the Netherlands East Indies [a key source of oil], and 

possibly would involve the United States in early war in the Pacific.” The report recommended not embargoing all trade with Japan at that time lest the United States become 

overextended in a possible two-front war.74

The trick would be to deter such a Japanese escalation. This is where forward basing 

of the U.S. Navy came in. The stationing of the Battle Fleet in Hawaii was considered 

essential for the implementation of an embargo and as a deterrent against a Japanese 

seizure of the Dutch East Indies oil fields.75 Despite the risks of military escalation, from 

1938 to 1941 Stanley K. Hornbeck, who served as chief of the State Department’s Division of Far Eastern Affairs (1928–37) and subsequently adviser on political relations to 

Secretary of State Cordell Hull (1937–44), supported the strategy of increasing economic 

pressure so that American exports would not facilitate Japanese aggression or, even 

worse, allow Japan to stockpile resources that it would one day use against the United 

States.76

On 24 July 1940, Hornbeck reported that

the possibility of substantial embargoes by this country is linked closely with the question of the 

existing location and the possible alteration of the location of the U.S. Battle Fleet. So long as we 

have the Fleet in the Pacific, and especially while we have it at Hawaii, the Japanese have reason to 

fear what we may do in the field of embargoes. The Fleet stands as the defensive and shielding arm 

behind which and screened by which there is the potential striking power of the other arm, embargo. If and when our Fleet leaves the Pacific and moves into the Atlantic, Japan will have reason 

to be very little fearful that we will go in extensively for embargoes. Thus, our present setup—with 

authority for embargoes and with the Fleet in the Pacific—contributes greatly to the maintenance of 

the negative equilibrium in Japanese political thought.

Hornbeck believed that forward basing was the best available strategy to ensure that 

“there will be no abrupt and drastic change in [Japan’s] foreign policy in the immediate 

future.”77 Sixteen months later the abrupt and drastic change occurred anyway.

At the postwar International Military Tribunal of the Far East, defendants such as 

former prime minister Gen. Tōjō Hideki, former vice chief of the Naval General Staff 

Adm. Kondō Nobutake, and former minister of the navy Adm. Shimada Shigetarō listed 
the factors that had driven Japan to attack the United States. Quite ironically, the factors 

they cited had been the main elements of the American strategy of deterrence, which 

according to them, far from deterring further aggression had actually propelled it. 

Specifically Tōjō listed six major points: first, the American renunciation of its Treaty of 

Commerce and Navigation in 1939, followed by growing numbers of embargoed items; 

second, skyrocketing U.S. military appropriations, most notably for naval and air assets; 

third, peacetime conscription; fourth, growing military coordination among the United 

States, Britain, and the Netherlands; fifth, the strengthening of U.S. defenses in the Philippines; and sixth, capping them all off, the Allied freeze of Japanese assets.78

To this list Admiral Kondō added the forward basing of the U.S. Fleet at Hawaii, Japan’s 

deadlocked negotiations with the Dutch East Indies and French Indochina in pursuit of 

alternative sources for supplies, and the growing Allied aid to the Nationalist government of China. According to Admiral Kondō, this aid made Chiang Kai-shek “confident 

of victory” and undermined Japan’s ability to win the war in China, which was “Japan’s 

greatest concern at that time.”79 Rather than deterring Japan’s attack, as intended, the 

U.S. Navy’s fleet-in-being in Hawaii invited attack by offering a poorly defended, lucrative target.

The Boomerang Effect

Far from deterring a Japanese attack, then, escalating U.S. military and economic pressure did not even delay but apparently precipitated one. General Tōjō listed in his opening statement before the military tribunal the tightening trade embargo against Japan as 

the first of three causes of the Pacific War, causes that together forced “Japan to invoke 

the right of self-defense.”80 He highlighted the effectiveness of the American freeze of 

Japanese assets: “Japan was quite unable to keep its population alive by the products 

raised within the Empire alone. Japan had to obtain the necessary commodities by 

trade. By the freezing of assets by the United States, Britain and the Dutch East Indies, 

more than half of Japan’s foreign trade disappeared and the toil of eighty years’ standing 

[to become a great power] was wiped out.” With the oil embargo, “Japan’s navy was thus 

to lose mobility after her oil stock was exhausted; solution of the China Incident [Japan’s 

euphemism for its war against China] was made practically impossible; Japan’s defense 

was emasculated.”81

The Imperial Japanese Navy too saw the American embargoes not as deterrence but as 

a looming deadline for war. According to the testimony of Admiral Shimada, “These 

embargoes and freezing orders were deliberately designed to paralyze, and in themselves 

were capable of paralyzing within a short space of time, the entire economy of Japan. 

They were designed to force Japan’s capitulation in China from sheer industrial and raw 
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material exhaustion. One of the principal commodities vitally affected was oil. Without 

it [her] civilian economy and her entire national security would be strangled.”82

At the root of the failure of the U.S. strategy of deterrence was the enormous value 

Japanese civil and military leaders placed on the attainment of their objectives in China. 

Prior to Pearl Harbor, Japan had suffered 600,000 casualties in China, a sunk cost of 

stupendous proportions that its leaders found difficult to justify to the Japanese people.83

The domestic and political costs, not to mention “loss of face,” associated with a unilateral withdrawal from China would have been simply too great to bear. Ambassador 

Grew warned that an embargo alone would not force Japan to abandon its “adventure 

in China.” 

84

At an imperial conference in September of 1941 the prime minister, General Tōjō, 

argued that together the American oil embargo, its Lend-Lease aid to Russia, and its 

increasing military aid to Chiang Kai-shek constituted an attempt to encircle and 

destroy Japan. General Tōjō and Japan’s other leaders—civil, army, and navy—who 

rarely agreed on much, concluded that peace on American terms, entailing a withdrawal 

from China, would lead to the gradual impoverishment of Japan and undo the efforts of 

generations of Japanese to transform their country into a modern power. War with the 

United States, on the other hand, offered a fifty-fifty chance of success. Finance Minister Kaya Okinori alone repeatedly raised economic concerns indicating the unfeasibility of Tōjō’s plans. The others ignored him.85 On 5 November Tōjō predicted, “America 

may be enraged for a while, but later she will come to understand [why we did what we 

did].”86 He argued that risking war with the United States was better than “being ground 

down without doing anything.”87 His and his colleagues’ misreading of the American 

psyche also failed to deter, and like America’s deterrence strategy, produced for Japan 

a strategic boomerang, delivering precisely the kind of war Japan could never win and 

that ended with atomic bombs on Japanese cities.

As it turns out, Japanese leaders did not perceive the U.S. strategy as one designed to 

deter. They concluded that American demands put at risk the survival not only of their 

country but of themselves personally, responsible as they were for Japan’s China policy, 

leaving them a stark choice between fighting or perishing. Americans would have 

disagreed that their demands threatened Japanese survival. They did not perceive the 

tremendous value that the Japanese attached to stability in China or the extreme fear the 

Japanese leadership had of the spread of communism. Americans would have argued 

that the Japanese invasion greatly exacerbated Chinese instability, to which the Japanese 

would have responded by pointing to the rapid economic development of Manchuria as 

proof of what was possible if only the Chinese would cooperate.
Conclusions

Because the United States faced aggressors in both Europe and Asia, it had to devise 

a cost-effective and politically feasible method to deal with both. Its economy had 

not come close to recovering from the Great Depression, world trade remained hamstrung by protectionism, and American voters remained devoutly isolationist until the 

Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941 changed everything. Until then, 

isolationist voter sentiment severely constrained American policy choices.

So the United States settled for a “Europe first” strategy, which meant adopting in Asia 

a shoestring strategy of economic embargo in combination with a forward-based fleetin-being, in the hope that the two together would slow if not deter further Japanese 

expansion. This strategy, far from deterring Japan, apparently hastened its military 

operations. At the root of this strategic boomerang was the enormous value the Japanese 

civil and military leadership placed on their version of a stable China. They equated 

it with national survival. Little could deter those who already considered their very 

survival at stake.

For a trade-dependent nation like Japan, embargo was a lethal strategy. But because the 

stakes were so high, rather than backing down Japan escalated, and this escalation then 

required an expensive boots-on-the-ground solution for the United States. It turns out 

that there was no cheap deterrent strategy that would set Japan right, only a very costly 

one bought at the price of tens of thousands of American lives.

Notes

The thoughts and opinions expressed in this essay 

are those of the author and are not necessarily 

those of the U.S. government, the U.S. Navy Department, or the Naval War College.

1.I have covered these issues in detail in S. C. 

M. Paine, The Wars for Asia 1911–1949 (New 

York: Cambridge Univ. Press, 2012), see esp. 

chap. 2.

2. Secretary of State Henry L. Stimson to U.S. 

Ambassador to Japan W. Cameron Forbes, 7 

January 1932, in U.S. State Dept., Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States: 

Japan: 1931–1941 (Washington, D.C.: U.S. 

Government Printing Office [hereafter GPO], 

1943) [hereafter FRUS, Japan: 1931–1941], 

vol. 1, p. 76.

3. Department of State, Division of Far Eastern 

Affairs, “Manchuria Situation,” 6 December 

1931, p. 2, Stanley K. Hornbeck Papers, box 

369, file “Sanctions, Economic,” Hoover Institution Archives, Stanford, Calif.

4. Covenant of the League of Nations, 29 April 

1919, art. 16, available at cil.nus.edu.sg/.

5. Herbert C. Hoover, interview, 10 April 

1942, p. 3, Payson J. Treat Papers, box 45, 

file “Herbert C. Hoover Interviews,” Hoover 

Institution Archives, Stanford, Calif.

6. FRUS, Japan: 1931–1941, vol. 2, p. 201.

7. Drew Pearson, “Washington Merry-GoRound,” New York Mirror, 22 July 1942, 

Stanley K. Hornbeck Papers, box 155, file 

“Embargo, May Act,” Hoover Institution 

Archives, Stanford, Calif.

8. FRUS, Japan: 1931–1941, vol. 2, p. 201.

9. Bradford A. Lee, Britain and the Sino-Japanese 

War 1937–1939 (Stanford, Calif.: Stanford 

Univ. Press, 1973), pp. 90–91.
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10. Steven T. Ross, American War Plans 1890–

1939 (London: Frank Cass, 2002), pp. 164–65.

11. David C. Evans and Mark R. Peattie, Kaigun: 

Strategy, Tactics, and Technology in the Imperial Japanese Navy 1887–1941 (Annapolis, 

Md.: Naval Institute Press, 1997), pp. 235, 296; 

George W. Baer, One Hundred Years of Sea 

Power: The U.S. Navy, 1890–1990 (Stanford, 

Calif.: Stanford Univ. Press, 1993), pp. 130, 

134.

12. FRUS, Japan: 1931–1941, vol. 2, p. 222.

13. 宓汝成 [Mi Rucheng], “抗战时期的中国

外债” [The Foreign Loans to China during the War of Resistance], 中国经济史研

究 [Research in Chinese Economic History], no. 2 (1998), pp. 55, 59; FRUS, Japan: 

1931–1941, vol. 2, pp. 222, 326; 吴景平 [Wu 

Jingping], “抗战时期中美租借关系述评” 

[Sino-American Lend-Lease Relations during 

the War against Japan], 历史研究 [Historical Research], no. 4 (1995), pp. 53, 59–60, 64; 

Arthur N. Young, China’s Wartime Finance 

and Inflation, 1937–1945 (Cambridge, Mass.: 

Harvard Univ. Press, 1965), pp. 114–15; 

Arthur N. Young, China and the Helping Hand 

1937–1945 (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard Univ. 

Press, 1963), p. 350; Academia Sinica, Institute 

of Modern History Archives, 431.4/0004, 

清理中美戰債 [Settling Accounts for SinoAmerican Military Debts], pp. 62–81, 11-

NAA-06283, 30 June 1945; idem, 431.4/0007, 

ibid., pp. 74–78, 11-NAA-06286.

14. Baer, One Hundred Years of Sea Power, pp. 

134–37, 149–51; Sadao Asada, From Mahan to 

Pearl Harbor: The Imperial Japanese Navy and 

the United States (Annapolis, Md.: Naval Institute Press, 2006), pp. 240–41; David Isaakovich 

Goldberg, Внешняя политика Японии 

(сентябрь 1939 г.–декабрь 1941 г.) [The 

Foreign Policy of Japan (September 1939–

December 1941)] (Moscow: Издательство 

восточной литературы [Eastern Literature 

Publishing], 1959), pp. 120–21, 282–85.

15. U.S. State Dept., Foreign Relations of the 

United States Diplomatic Papers 1940: The 

Far East (Washington, D.C.: GPO, 1955) 

[hereafter FRUS, 1940, Far East], vol. 4, pp. 

605–606; Chinese Council for Economic 

Research, “Sale of War Materials by the United 

States to Japan, First Eight Months, January–

August, 1939, Compared with Corresponding 

Periods of 1938 and 1937,” Bulletin No. 16, 10 

November 1939, Arthur N. Young Papers, box 

99, “Folder: Embargo—Japan 1939,” Hoover 

Institution Archives, Stanford, Calif.

16. Richard L. Stokes, “Survey Shows Loss of U.S. 

War Exports Would Cripple Japan,” Star, 13 

October 1940, Stanley K. Hornbeck Papers, 

box 155, file “Embargo,” Hoover Institution 

Archives, Stanford, Calif.

17. Thomas W. Burkman, Japan and the League of 

Nations: Empire and World Order, 1914–1938

(Honolulu: Univ. of Hawai‘i Press, 2008), p. 

107; Akira Iriye, The Cambridge History of 

American Foreign Relations, vol. 3, The Globalizing of America, 1913–1945 (Cambridge, 

U.K.: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1993), pp. 

162–64, 166, 180; 江口圭一 [Eguchi Kei-ichi], 

十五年戦争小史 [A Short History of the 

Fifteen-Year War] (Tokyo: 青木書店, 1996), 

p. 40; Michael A. Barnhart, Japan Prepares for 

Total War (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell Univ. Press, 

1987), p. 144.

18. Stokes, “Survey Shows Loss of U.S. War Exports Would Cripple Japan.”

19. 安部彦太 [Abe Hikota], “大東亜戦争の計

数的分析” [A Statistical Analysis of the Great 

East Asian War], in 近代日本戦争史 [Modern Japanese Military History], vol. 4, 大東亜

戦争 [The Great East Asian War], ed. 奥村房

夫 [Okumura Fusao] and 近藤新治 [Kondō 

Shinji] (Tokyo: 同台経済懇話会, 1995), p. 

825.

20. Dr. Ben Dorfman, “Japan Gains Little in Her 

Manchurian Adventure,” San Francisco Chronicle, 6 August 1933, p. F5, Diplomatic Records 

Office, E.1.2.0-XI-MAI, vol. 4, 各国財政経済

及金融関係雑件満州国ノ部 [Miscellaneous 

Papers on Various Countries’ Public Finance 

and Credit, Section on Manchukuo], July–

December 1933, Foreign Ministry, Tokyo, 

Japan.

21. Michael A. Barnhart, “Japan’s Economic 

Security and the Origins of the Pacific War,” 

in Imperial Japan and the World, 1931–1945: 

Critical Concepts in Asian Studies, ed. Antony 

Best (London: Routledge, 2011), vol. 2, p. 

227; Stokes, “Survey Shows Loss of U.S. War 

Exports Would Cripple Japan.”

22. FRUS, Japan: 1931–1941, vol. 2, pp. 201–204.

23. Stokes, “Survey Shows Loss of U.S. War Exports Would Cripple Japan.”

24. FRUS, Japan: 1931–1941, vol. 2, p. 189; 

“Treaty of Commerce and Navigation between 

the United States and Japan,” in “Official 

Documents,” supplement, American Journal of 

International Law 5, no. 2 (April 1911), p. 105.

25. FRUS, Japan: 1931–1941, vol. 2, p. 190.
26. Ibid., pp. 191–92.

27. Ian Cowman, Dominion or Decline: AngloAmerican Relations in the Pacific, 1937–1941

(Oxford, U.K.: Berg, 1996), p. 172.

28. Irvin H. Anderson, Jr., “The 1941 De Facto 

Embargo on Oil to Japan: A Bureaucratic Reflex,” Pacific Historical Review 44, no. 2 (May 

1975), p. 201.

29. Cowman, Dominion or Decline, p. 173.

30. FRUS, 1940, Far East, vol. 4, pp. 572–73.

31. Ibid., pp. 573–75.

32. Ibid., pp. 576–80, 587–90, 596–99, 608–10, 

617–18, 620–25; FRUS, Japan: 1931–1941, 

vol. 2, pp. 205–207, 218–19, 223–30, 237, 269, 

537–39.

33. FRUS, Japan: 1931–1941, vol. 2, pp. 211–12; 

FRUS, 1940, Far East, vol. 4, p. 579.

34. Iriye, Globalizing of America, pp. 162–64, 

166, 180; Eguchi Kei-ichi, Short History of the 

Fifteen-Year War, p. 140.

35. FRUS, 1940, Far East, vol. 4, p. 569.

36. F. C. Jones, Japan’s New Order in East Asia: 

Its Rise and Fall 1937–1945 (London: Oxford 

Univ. Press, 1954), p. 230; Cowman, Dominion 

or Decline, p. 172.

37. FRUS, Japan: 1931–1941, vol. 2, pp. 222–23.

38. FRUS, 1940, Far East, vol. 4, pp. 1–250.

39. Ibid., p. 3.

40. Ibid., p. 567.

41. Ibid., p. 608.

42. FRUS, Japan: 1931–1941, vol. 2, pp. 226–27.

43. Ibid., p. 227.

44. Ibid., p. 228.

45. FRUS, 1940, Far East, vol. 4, pp. 617–18.

46. Eguchi Kei-ichi, Short History of the FifteenYear War, p. 154.

47. U.S. State Dept., Foreign Relations of the 

United States Diplomatic Papers 1939: The 

Far East, the Near East, and Africa, vol. 4 

(Washington, D.C.: GPO, 1955), p. 53 [hereafter FRUS, 1939, Far East, the Near East, and 

Africa].

48. FRUS, 1940, Far East, vol. 4, pp. 569–70.

49. Ibid., pp. 589–91.

50. Ibid., p. 610.

51. Ibid., pp. 613–14.

52. William Diebold, Jr., “Japan’s Vulnerability 

to American Sanctions,” Studies of American 

Interest in the War and the Peace, Economic 

and Financial Series, no. E-B 24, preliminary 

confidential memorandum first draft, 23 

November 1940, p. 3, Stanley K. Hornbeck Papers, box 369, file “Sanctions #2,” Hoover Institution Archives, Stanford, Calif.; Anderson, 

“1941 De Facto Embargo on Oil to Japan,” pp. 

212–14.

53. FRUS, Japan: 1931–1941, vol. 2, pp. 266–67; 

Wu Jingping, “Sino-American Lend-Lease 

Relations during the War against Japan,” pp. 

53, 59–60, quoting from Anderson, “1941 De 

Facto Embargo on Oil to Japan,” p. 218.

54. Chief of Naval Operations, Adm. Harold R. 

Stark, and U.S. Army Chief of Staff, Gen. 

George C. Marshall, joint secret dispatch 

to the commanding generals of Hawaii 

and the Philippines; army subordinates; 

Commander-in-Chief United States Pacific; 

Commander-in-Chief United States Atlantic; 

Commander-in-Chief U.S. Asiatic Fleet; Commander Fifteenth Naval District, headquartered in the Panama Canal Zone; and Special 

Naval Observer in London, Rear Adm. Robert 

L. Ghormley, 25 July 1941, in International 

Military Tribunal for the Far East, The Tokyo 

War Crimes Trial, comp. R. John Prichard 

and Sonia Magbanua Zaide (repr. New York: 

Garland, 1981) [hereafter IMTFE], vol. 11, pp. 

25319–21. I have taken the liberty of changing 

the punctuation, replacing x with periods.

55. FRUS, Japan: 1931–1941, vol. 2, p. 266.

56. William Logan, Jr., American associate counsel for Kido Koichi, in IMTFE, vol. 15, pp. 

36970–72.

57. Herbert P. Bix, Hirohito and the Making of 

Modern Japan (New York: HarperCollins, 

2000), p. 400; Mark A. Stoler, Allies and 

Adversaries: The Joint Chiefs of Staff, the Grand 

Alliance, and U.S. Strategy in World War II

(Chapel Hill: Univ. of North Carolina Press, 

2000), p. 59.

58. Wu Jingping, “Sino-American Lend-Lease 

Relations during the War against Japan,” pp. 

53, 59–60.

59. British Embassy to the Department of State, 3 

March 1941, in U.S. State Dept., Foreign Relations of the United States Diplomatic Papers 

1941: The Far East, vol. 4 (Washington, D.C.: 

GPO, 1956) [hereafter FRUS, 1941, Far East], 

pp. 788–90 [emphasis in original].

60. Ibid., pp. 790–91.
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61. Sumner Welles, Acting Secretary of State, to 

the Collectors of Customs, 1 August 1941, in 

FRUS, 1941, Far East, vol. 4, p. 850.

62. Anderson, “1941 De Facto Embargo on Oil to 

Japan,” pp. 201–31.

63. Eguchi Kei-ichi, Short History of the FifteenYear War, p. 162; 近藤新治 [Kondō Shinji], 

“物的国力判断」” [An Evaluation of National 

Material Strength], in Great East Asian War, 

ed. Okumura Fusao and Kondō Shinji, pp. 

212–18.

64. 糸永 新 [Itonaga Arata], “開戦前の日米戦争

計画” [Prewar Japanese and U.S. War Plans], 

in Great East Asian War, ed. Okumura Fusao 

and Kondō Shinji, pp. 280–84.

65. Baer, One Hundred Years of Sea Power, pp. 

134–37, 149–51; Asada, From Mahan to Pearl 

Harbor, pp. 240–41; Goldberg, Foreign Policy 

of Japan, pp. 120–21, 282–85.

66. Ambassador Joseph C. Grew, report of meeting with Foreign Minister Tōgō Shigenori, 10 

November 1941, in IMTFE, vol. 11, p. 25936.

67. Gen. Tōjō Hideki, testimony, 29 December 

1947, in IMTFE, vol. 15, pp. 36277, 36281.

68. Ben Bruce Blakeney, American associate 

counsel for Umezu Yoshijirō, in IMTFE, vol. 

11, pp. 25656–57.

69. 幕内光雄 [Maku’uchi Mitsuo], 満州国警察

外史 [An Unofficial History of the Manchukuo Police] (Tokyo: 三一書房, 1996), p. 147.

70. Ambassador to the United States Nomura 

Kichisaburō to Foreign Minister Adm. Toyoda 

Teijirō, 23 October 1941, in IMTFE, vol. 11, p. 

25844.

71. Ambassador Nomura Kichisaburō, statement 

to President Franklin D. Roosevelt, 10 November 1941, in IMTFE, vol. 11, p. 25981.

72. Quotation from Anderson, “1941 De Facto 

Embargo on Oil to Japan,” p. 203.

73. FRUS, 1940, Far East, vol. 4, p. 576.

74. Director, War Plans Division Richmond K. 

Turner to Chief of Naval Operations Harold 

R. Stark, “Study of the Effect of an Embargo of 

Trade between the United States and Japan,” 

19 July 1941, in IMTFE, vol. 11, pp. 25341–50; 

Adm. Harold R. Stark, testimony before the 

Senate, 4 January 1946, in IMTFE, vol. 11, pp. 

25335–36.

75. FRUS, 1940, Far East, vol. 4, pp. 582, 589.

76. Michael Barnhart, “Hornbeck Was Right: The 

Realist Approach to American Policy toward 

Japan,” in Pearl Harbor Reexamined: Prologue 

to the Pacific War, eds. Hilary Conroy and 

Harry Wray (Honolulu: Univ. of Hawai‘i Press, 

1990), pp. 67, 70.

77. Adviser on Political Relations Stanley K. 

Hornbeck to Under Secretary of State Benjamin S. Welles, 24 July 1940, in FRUS, 1940, 

Far East, vol. 4, pp. 588–89.

78. Tōjō Hideki, testimony, 29 December 1947, in 

IMTFE, vol. 15, pp. 36196, 36271–76.

79. Adm. Kondo Nobutaka, testimony, 25 August 

1947, in IMTFE, vol. 11, pp. 26567, 26664, 

24666–68.

80. Kiyose Ichirō, Japanese chief counsel for Tōjō 

Hideki, in IMTFE, vol. 7, pp. 17089–90. The 

other two were U.S. aid to Chiang Kai-shek 

and the encirclement of Japan by the United 

States in cooperation with Great Britain and 

the Netherlands.

81. Kiyose Ichirō, Japanese chief counsel for Tōjō 

Hideki, in IMTFE, vol. 7, p. 17094.

82. Takahashi Toshitsugu, Japanese chief counsel 

for Adm. Shimada Shigetarō, in IMTFE, vol. 

10, pp. 24791–92.

83. Edward J. Drea, In the Service of the Emperor: 

Essays on the Imperial Japanese Army (Lincoln: Univ. of Nebraska Press, 1998), p. 30; 

David P. Barrett, “Introduction: Occupied 

China and the Limits of Accommodation,” in 

Chinese Collaboration with Japan, 1932–1945,

ed. David P. Barrett and Larry N. Shyu (Stanford, Calif.: Stanford Univ. Press, 2001), pp. 

3–4.

84. Quotation from Anderson, “1941 De Facto 

Embargo on Oil to Japan,” p. 203.

85. David J. Lu, Japan: A Documentary History, 

vol. 2, The Late Tokugawa Period to the Present

(Armonk, N.Y.: M. E. Sharpe, 1997), p. 427; 

Meirion Harries and Susie Harries, Soldiers of 

the Sun: The Rise and the Fall of the Imperial 

Japanese Army (New York: Random House, 

1991), p. 295; Nobutaka Ike, trans. and ed., 

Japan’s Decision for War: Records of the 1941 

Policy Conferences (Stanford, Calif.: Stanford 

Univ. Press, 1967), p. 223.

86. Nobutaka Ike, Japan’s Decision for War, p. 239 

[brackets inserted by translator].

87. Quotation from Alvin D. Coox, “The Pacific 

War,” in The Cambridge History of Japan, 

ed. John W. Hall, Marius B. Jansen, Madoka 

Kanai, and Denis Twitchett, vol. 6, The Twentieth Century (Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge 

Univ. Press, 1988), p. 329.

After the Fall of South Vietnam

Humanitarian Assistance in the South China Sea

JAN K. HERMAN

The nature of the 1975 humanitarian crisis in South Vietnam, which was the result 

of the Vietnam War’s chaotic conclusion, was not altogether unfamiliar to those who 

had witnessed the aftermath of the first Indochina war in 1954.1

 Perhaps the greatest 

humanitarian assistance mission accomplished by the U.S. Navy in the latter half of the 

twentieth century occurred at the end of the first Indochina war, during which the communist Vietminh, based in northern Vietnam, overthrew French colonial rule. Under 

the Geneva terms that ended that war in 1954, the Vietnamese could decide where they 

wished to settle. Few in the south chose to go north, but with the collapse of French rule, 

hundreds of thousands of refugees streamed south to escape the communists.

On that occasion the U.S. Navy was called on to conduct Operation Passage to

Freedom, a mission that also had an important medical component. Navy physicians and hospital corpsmen provided medical care for the refugees in camps set up 

near Haiphong, the port of embarkation for the refugees. Those camps were complete 

with tents, potable water, food, and medical care. Preventive medicine teams worked 

diligently to control the rodent and insect populations, spray for malarial mosquitoes, 

and purify water. By the time Passage to Freedom was completed, Navy ships had 

evacuated more than 860,000 refugees to South Vietnam.2

In 1975, the U.S. Navy was tasked yet again, this time to assist many thousands of South 

Vietnamese intent on leaving communist Vietnam, often permanently. Some commentators have compared the U.S. Navy operation in 1954 to the events that unfolded 

in the spring of 1975, but this comparison only goes so far. The mass exodus from 

North Vietnam in 1954 occurred after hostilities had ended. In addition, the evacuation 

from north to south on board Navy ships took place during a period of three months 

and went relatively smoothly.3

 By contrast, the rapid demise of the South Vietnamese 

government during the spring of 1975 and the ensuing refugee crisis occurred during an 

CHAPTER FIVE
active conflict, and the U.S. Navy was given little or no warning that its services would 

be required to assist fleeing Vietnamese military personnel and civilians. 

Background to the Crisis

On 27 January 1973, the United States, the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, the Republic of Vietnam, and the Provisional Revolutionary Government (i.e., the Vietcong) 

signed what became known as the Paris Peace Accords. The agreement called for a 

cease-fire in place, allowing both the North and South Vietnamese armies to hold the 

positions they already occupied. The terms also allowed for those armies to resupply 

during the cease-fire. Other provisions spelled out terms for the release of American 

prisoners of war, repatriation of the dead, and future negotiations between North and 

South Vietnam for eventual reunification.

Up until 1975, that document provided the United States a face-saving solution to what 

had become the longest war in American history. But the Paris Peace Accords merely 

delayed the inevitable and offered a “decent interval,” in the phrase of a former chief 

analyst of North Vietnamese strategy for the Central Intelligence Agency, Frank Snepp.4

The cease-fire gave the North Vietnamese an opportunity to rebuild their strength 

in areas they occupied in northern South Vietnam, to stockpile munitions and other 

supplies, and to construct a vast network of roads, oil pipelines, and radio networks in 

preparation for what was to be their final offensive.5

On 1 March 1975 the communists struck with a ferocity that staggered the South Vietnamese defenders. By the close of the month the Army of the Republic of Vietnam was 

hard pressed on all fronts. The People’s Army of Vietnam now fought a conventional 

war with tanks and artillery, this time without the threat of B-52s and U.S. troops to 

slow its advance. Three North Vietnamese divisions captured the Central Highlands 

town of Banmethuat, then sliced eastward, effectively cutting South Vietnam in two. 

North Vietnamese tanks also rolled south along coastal Route 1. Names that had etched 

deep scars in the American psyche after years of war now took the headlines again: 

Chulai, Hue, Danang, Quinhon, Cam Ranh Bay, Nhatrang.

The fall of South Vietnam’s second-largest city, Danang, portended a humanitarian 

crisis of unprecedented dimensions; it was a dress rehearsal for what in a few weeks 

would become commonplace. Mobs of refugees sought escape at Danang’s port. Fleeing 

men, women, and children crawled over docks like ants, some wading into the harbor 

in pursuit of ships, tugs, fishing boats, and barges that had already left their piers. Many 

Vietnamese drowned in the attempt.
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The Humanitarian Crisis Unfolds

On 25 March 1975, the U.S. Navy alerted ten auxiliary transports to stand by for refugee evacuation—SS American Racer, SS Green Forest, SS Green Port, SS Green Wave,

SS Pioneer Commander, SS Pioneer Contender, SS Transcolorado, USNS Greenville 

Victory, USNS Sgt. Andrew Miller, and USNS Sgt. Truman Kimbro.

6

 Some refugees 

managed to escape Danang by sea, some in barges towed by tugs supplied by the Navy, 

others on board the transports named. The relentless communist advance sparked a 

chain reaction, as port after port fell to the invaders. Chaotic radio intercepts from the 

evacuation ships told of South Vietnamese army deserters selling scarce water supplies 

to refugees. On some of these vessels, firefights between rival soldiers broke out over 

food and water. The refugees were often caught in the cross fire, many being killed and 

thrown into the sea.

Conditions were almost indescribable, according to Lt. Cdr. Daniel Daly, an aide to Rear 

Adm. Donald Whitmire, commander of the Seventh Fleet’s Task Force 76 and in overall 

charge of the evacuation: “[They] were armed government deserters or Vietnamese 

soldiers somehow separated from their units among the refugees. We were afraid that 

fights would break out on those ships. We had visions of soldiers machine-gunning 

someone with a thousand people standing behind the targets being hit by the bullets 

that missed. There was no place for anyone to go.”7

Daly recalls that fatalities on those ships were becoming unacceptable. When Vietnamese army deserters hijacked USNS Greenville Victory on 3 April, Whitmire put squads 

of U.S. Marines on board the merchant ships to protect the crews. Daly recorded a radio 

exchange between Whitmire and one of those Marines on board the contract ship SS 

Transcolorado:

Admiral: “Son, this is Admiral Whitmire. I want you to tell me what conditions are really like in your ship.”

Marine: “Begging your pardon, sir, but I am currently standing in two inches of shit. 

There are no latrines on this ship for the refugees. They just squat where they are. The 

stench is unbelievable.

“About two hours ago I saw a baby being born. As its head came out of the mother, it 

plowed a furrow in the shit on the deck. About ten minutes ago, I saw the bodies of both 

the baby and the mother thrown overboard. Someone gets thrown overboard about 

every fifteen minutes.”

Daly vividly remembers watching “tears flow down Admiral Whitmire’s face as he 

listened. We all knew we were witnessing a world-class tragedy.”8
By the third week of April, the enemy had effectively neutralized what remained of 

South Vietnamese forces and was approaching Saigon from all directions. Days prior to 

the fall of the capital, the thousands of panicked refugees attempted to flee the country 

in anything that would float or fly.

Lt. Robert Lemke was on board USS Kirk (DE 1087), a 438-foot destroyer escort. 

Kirk was part of Task Force 76, cruising just off the South Vietnamese coast. As the 

war reached its tragic climax in the last week of April, that task force of U.S. Navy 

ships received a new mission: to support the evacuation of an estimated six thousand 

Americans, mainly embassy personnel and military advisers. But the task force was also 

assigned the job of securing the escape of “sensitive” South Vietnamese who had worked 

for the United States during the war. Their very survival would be in question once the 

North Vietnamese took control. Their numbers were estimated to be in the thousands, 

not counting their dependents.

Lemke one morning wandered into the ship’s Combat Information Center (CIC) before 

breakfast to catch up on the operations. A large radar screen that consolidated information from the other radar displays was prominent and hard to miss. One look put 

everything into perspective—distance to the coast and the positions of other ships and 

their movements. Each green blip was a ship or floating object. One glance enabled the 

observer to mark these ships’ locations on a master grid.

What seemed odd to Lemke was the shoreline, which appeared fuzzy and out of focus. 

He went topside to the flying bridge and through large binoculars scanned the brightening horizon. The mystery of the blurry radar screen instantly cleared up. Hundreds 

of boats were heading out to sea in Kirk’s direction. Lemke later recalled, “The radar 

looked a little fuzzy only because there was so much activity on the water.”9

As the vessels approached, he noted every type of watercraft from small fishing boats to 

rubber rafts. The lieutenant was shocked to see a small wooden dugout to which a man, 

woman, and two children clung for dear life. “On that dugout were all the family possessions, including a small motorbike. These people were simply paddling out to sea hoping 

to get to the rescue ships,” he remembers.10

By this time, Kirk’s commanding officer, Cdr. Paul Jacobs, had made his way to CIC and 

was looking at a radarscope in utter amazement. The screen was overwhelmed by tiny 

images flowing together into a single blob. “There were so many contacts that the screen 

was becoming white as small boats were heading out to sea. It looked like Dunkirk in 

reverse.”11

Lemke and the crew of USS Kirk were not the only Navy personnel to witness the 

unfolding humanitarian disaster. Up and down the coast, boats, rafts, and even canoes 
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loaded to the gunwales fogged many a radar screen. On board USS Cook (DE 1083), 

Kirk’s sister ship, the executive officer, Lt. Cdr. Ray Addicott, beheld a sea dotted by 

small boats. He noted that several contract ships from the Military Sealift Command 

were already taking refugees on board. Within hours, the sky would also be smeared 

with the exhausts of countless South Vietnamese air force and army helicopters, packed 

with refugees fleeing their homeland. Hospital Corpsman Second Class (HM2) Randy 

Hudson, a crewman of the carrier USS Hancock (CVA 19), later commented that he was 

surprised there were no midair collisions: “They were coming from all over and from 

every direction, and so frequently that the sky was dark from jet exhaust.”12 How would 

the men of Task Force 76 provide food, water, medical care, and comfort to dispirited 

people who had just lost everything, including their homeland?

Operation Frequent Wind

The evacuation of noncombatants from South Vietnam was not well organized. The 

ambassador to South Vietnam, Graham A. Martin, had long observed a policy of not 

preparing for an evacuation, arguing that closing the embassy or making other visible 

preparations for withdrawal would only panic the South Vietnamese government and 

that the beleaguered nation would then descend into chaos. Despite pleas from both 

civilian and military advisers to devise an effective evacuation plan, Martin greatly 

complicated the situation by refusing even to consider the contingency.

With the North Vietnamese armies now at the gates of Saigon, the very chaos Ambassador Martin had hoped to avoid had come to pass. Enemy rockets and mortars rained 

down on Tan Son Nhut Airport at dawn on 29 April, rendering most runways unusable. 

Plan B—Operation Frequent Wind, a backup plan (hastily put together by Task 

Force 76 with Pentagon and presidential concurrence and approved at the last minute 

by the ambassador) that entailed the use of Navy, Marine, and Air Force helicopters—

became the only viable option. That strategy called for CH-53 and CH-46 helicopters, 

staged from carriers and amphibious support ships offshore, to fly into Saigon and land 

at predetermined rendezvous sites such as soccer fields, racetracks, and parks. Those 

helicopters would then embark Americans and “sensitive” Vietnamese. After each load 

of evacuees had been safely delivered to the task force ships, the helicopters would refuel 

and return to Saigon until all had been safely transported out of the city.

Despite Ambassador Martin’s failure to prepare or to keep in close contact with the 

naval task force offshore, the shuttle mission began quickly, on the morning of 28 April. 

Bing Crosby’s hit song “White Christmas,” broadcast over a Saigon radio station, was 

the signal for evacuees to assemble at predetermined rendezvous locations. As American 

helicopters headed back out to sea with their human cargoes, Navy, Marine, and Air 

Force pilots suddenly noted the sky behind them dotted with other helicopters. South 
Vietnamese air force and army “Hueys” (Bell UH-1s) packed with refugees were heading 

out to sea, seeking any deck that would offer them refuge. It was these aircraft that were 

now showing up on radar screens throughout the task force.

USS Kirk’s chief engineer, Lt. Hugh Doyle, saw the situation for what it was: “A pilot had 

a Huey fully loaded with fuel. His family is standing next to him, and out on the horizon he knows there are U.S. ships. It doesn’t take a genius to put it all together and say, 

‘Kids! Get in the airplane. We’re going!’ We had no advance warning. They just started 

coming.”13

Just before 11 am on 29 April, sailors in Kirk’s CIC reported to the bridge an inbound 

South Vietnamese helicopter, which then flew overhead and out of sight. Kirk’s crew 

noted that the Vietnamese helicopters passed up their relatively small ship looking for 

bigger decks to land on. Nevertheless, some of the officers saw the possibilities of getting directly involved in the action and bringing home a trophy or two. Doyle recalls, 

“Wouldn’t it be great to grab a helicopter? Wouldn’t it be great to take part in this?”14

With the captain’s permission, a member of Kirk’s crew who spoke rudimentary Vietnamese began broadcasting an invitation to Vietnamese fliers looking for a place to 

land. As an antisubmarine platform, the destroyer escort had a small flight deck for its 

Light Airborne Multipurpose System (LAMPS) helicopter, which was now out of order 

and housed in its retractable hangar.

“Be careful what you wish for” might have crossed someone’s mind as Vietnamese 

Hueys suddenly began swarming above the flight deck. More than one Huey circling 

the ship had as many as twenty people crammed together; the aircraft was designed for 

fewer than half that number. Following one landing, a crewman observed that four or 

five people were grasping with one finger a single D ring attached to the aircraft’s deck.

After taking two helicopters on board, the destroyer escort’s small flight deck was at capacity. Jacobs made an instant decision. “Over the side,” he ordered, and crew members 

quickly began dragging the aircraft to the deck edge and dumping them overboard to 

make room for more landings. This exercise of jettisoning helicopters became routine 

throughout the task force as South Vietnamese Hueys descended on the fleet and—

without authorization—began landing on their decks. Many other choppers, once they 

were out of fuel, ditched in the ocean, with great loss of life.

As the Hueys landed on board Kirk and the refugees disembarked, many crewmen at 

first felt uneasy and suspicious. No one could be absolutely sure that all the “guests” 

were harmless refugees. Perhaps Vietcong or North Vietnamese infiltrators lurked 

among the refugees, bent on taking over the ship. The crew had already heard horrifying stories of murder and mayhem that had occurred on overcrowded transports.
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With the arrival of each successive aircraft and the disembarkation of its passengers, 

men assigned to a security detail relieved the Vietnamese of their weapons. Although 

the evacuees seemed to pose no threat, armed guards remained alert. Access to certain 

parts of the ship was curtailed, and, when necessary, refugees were assigned escorts. 

But most of these people were not peasants from the countryside or the poor refugees 

Lemke had recently seen escaping in a dugout. They were fairly well-off and from South 

Vietnam’s upper classes. Many were families of aircraft’s pilots. The uneasiness soon 

dissipated as the crew recognized the scope of the tragedy that had befallen these people 

now without a country.

“You could tell they were scared,” Aircrewman (Mechanical) Third Class (AW3) Donald 

Cox later recalled. “They were almost in shock as you looked at their faces. The children, of course, were crying and scared. The women were just following along and 

basically would do whatever was needed. The men were trying to protect their families. 

They were doing everything they could to try to survive.”15

In the blink of an eye, officers and men began converting their man-of-war into a 

humanitarian-assistance ship. With ten to twenty people on board each helicopter, the 

refugee population grew rapidly. The ship’s heads were made available for their sanitary 

needs, and the mess crew soon provided water and hot food on deck to the new arrivals. Very quickly, officers and men set up a holding area on the second level above the 

main deck where the refugees could rest and take a breather after their recent ordeal. 

Crewmen spread blankets and mats on the steel decks and set up lean-tos, canvas tarps, 

plastic sheeting, and awnings to shade them from the oppressive sun and tropical 

rain. Many sailors, trained as warriors, comforted distraught mothers and babies and 

brought them refreshments and other sustenance. Young sailors tenderly held babies or 

aided their mothers in diapering the infants and toddlers, bringing smiles and laughter 

to refugees who faced uncertain futures.

Not far away from where Kirk was operating, other refugees were being received as well. 

On board the carrier Hancock, HM2 Hudson heard from one of the senior medical officers that the refugees would be coming from a plague-endemic area. As a safety precaution, members of the crew received shots if they had not yet had plague immunization. 

When the refugees came on board, they were dusted with the insecticide lindane. As 

Hudson later recalled, “That was my first encounter with these folks when they came off 

the helicopters and into the superstructure. Prior to that, we were given some rudimentary Vietnamese lessons. I don’t know whether we were speaking gibberish or we were 

actually speaking the language. Yamaki, which means ‘Cover your eyes, and then turn 

around so we can spray you down.’ In retrospect, I wonder if any of that spraying was 

very effective or even necessary. It was kind of a dignity issue to me. I looked at it several 

years later and said, ‘What a welcome to America!’”16
Like the refugees who had landed on board Kirk, these former citizens of South Vietnam 

appeared to be from its upper classes. Hudson noted that “they weren’t in wretched condition. They were from Saigon, a big city. If you compared them to us, they were mostly 

middle class. None of them were in rags. I suspect that many were pretty frightened having taken a helicopter ride. They had just left their country—their home. I don’t know 

if anyone had an outright panic attack, but there was definitely an air of excitement and 

urgency. ‘Come on! Get out of the helicopter! Get on down here!’”17

By late afternoon of 29 April, helicopter activity on board Kirk had slowed considerably, 

but not before fifteen helicopters had landed, discharging a total of 157 men, women, 

and children. The following morning a far more dramatic sight awaited the crew. Hundreds of Vietnamese vessels were now fleeing South Vietnam. Nearby, larger evacuation 

ships stood by to embark some of the refugees. One of them had already taken on board 

hundreds of refugees, reminding Kirk’s chief engineer of a Hershey bar lying on a summer sidewalk and just crawling with ants.18

The contrast between these refugees and those on the various helicopters was remarkable. “The helo people were relatively calm,” Doyle noted. “The Vietnamese fishermen 

and peasants who were coming out in these boats, on the other hand, were just in a 

frenzy.”19 By this time Kirk had received orders not to rescue any of the new boat refugees but instead to stand by and protect the freighters assigned to take on these nowdisplaced persons. At midday the destroyer escort rendezvoused with the contract SS 

Green Port and transferred all of its 157 refugees to that freighter.

Mission Creep: Saving the South Vietnamese Navy

Many thought their job was done, but at 9:30 on the night of 30 April, Kirk’s captain 

received a strange order from Rear Admiral Whitmire—to approach the flagship, USS 

Blue Ridge (LCC 19), to pick up a civilian passenger. Whitmire told Jacobs that USS Kirk

had been chosen for a special mission and that Jacobs would be taking his orders from 

Richard Armitage, an agent working for the Secretary of Defense. Armitage, when he 

arrived on board, explained the mission and its importance. He briefly recounted how 

he had earlier been ordered to save or destroy as much sensitive material and technology as possible so it would not fall into the hands of the North Vietnamese. But South 

Vietnam’s sudden collapse had shortened the timetable. Most of the Vietnamese army 

had already surrendered. But the South Vietnamese navy was a different story. This 

young agent explained that senior South Vietnamese naval officers had no intention of 

surrendering their ships.

Kirk would now rescue those vessels, and Armitage outlined how. Steaming alone, the 

ship would rendezvous with the remaining South Vietnamese ships at Con Son Island, 
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more than 120 miles southwest of Vung Tau, where he and the South Vietnamese Chief 

of Naval Operations would supervise their escape to the Philippines. Faced with skepticism from Kirk’s officers, Armitage emphasized that the gamble was worth taking. If 

they didn’t carry out this mission, the ships could not be saved and their personnel 

would most likely be slaughtered by the North Vietnamese. Jacobs immediately ordered 

a new course set for Con Son Island. Another chapter of USS Kirk’s adventure was about 

to begin.

Planning for the new mission had actually begun several days earlier in an office at the 

South Vietnamese navy’s headquarters on the Saigon River. By then the North Vietnamese army was at the city’s gates. At South Vietnamese navy headquarters, Capt. 

Kiem Do, deputy chief of staff for operations, met with his old friend Armitage. The two 

had worked together on many other missions during the war. Armitage told him that he 

wanted to discuss evacuating the South Vietnamese fleet before the communists took 

over Vietnam. They agreed to gather the fleet at Con Son, strategically located relatively 

close to Saigon and the Mekong Delta.

The arrival of communist troops, however, moved up the schedule. Armitage again met 

with Captain Do and other officials of the Vietnamese navy and told them that rather 

than leaving on 3–4 May, the original plan, they would have to evacuate that very evening, 29 April. Armitage would meet them at Con Son Island. Armitage advised Do that 

the Vietnamese should send all the major ships they had not destroyed to Con Son with 

as many people on board as possible. Armitage then boarded a helicopter to get out to 

USS Blue Ridge to inform Rear Admiral Whitmire of what he had just arranged.

Armitage’s “deal” with the South Vietnamese, in which the U.S. Navy would “rescue” 

what remained of their fleet, had not been authorized by his superiors back at the Pentagon. The plan was conceived by Armitage and Do alone: “When I showed up on the Blue 

Ridge, I had nothing. I had no wallet. I had no passport. I had no identification. And I 

looked around when I came off the helo and saw the flag lieutenant. I said, ‘Lieutenant. 

This is going to be hard to believe but I’m on a mission from the Secretary of Defense 

and I need to speak to Admiral Whitmire.’”20 Now this thirty-year-old was on board 

Kirk and calling the shots. It was Wednesday, 30 April 1975.

When Kirk approached Con Son Island as dawn broke, the crew saw scores of Vietnamese ships, their decks packed with refugees. Jacobs would recall the sight: “As we 

approached we could see their fleet there . . . and swift boats [fast patrol craft] just 

milling around dead in the water. Some of them were anchored, some were not. They 

were adrift. You could look over and see the ships just loaded with people all the way 

up to the bridge. I would estimate 2,000 or 3,000 people on one of these Coast Guard 
WHECs [high-endurance cutters]. I said, ‘Oh, my God!’ . . . no water, no food—and this 

is going to be an insurmountable problem. How are we going to pull this off?’”21

Operations Specialist Second Class James Bongaard, one of Kirk’s radarmen, was 

overwhelmed by what he saw. “There were just thousands of people on top of this deck. 

I can’t really describe the look on their faces. I can only imagine what they might be 

going through. Elation that they got away. And number two, where are they going? They 

have no idea where. They’re fleeing so in one way they’re happy. But in another way they 

don’t know where they’re going. It’s sort of a blank, odd stare.”22

“They were just crammed in there just as tight as you could get,” Machinist’s Mate 

Fireman Kent Chipman remembers. “I don’t know how many people were on each ship 

below deck. But above deck, there were just thousands of people, as many as you could 

get on board. And they were sitting, standing. They were just overloaded to the max.”23

Armitage later recalled, “[I saw] 29 or 30 ships and about 31,000 people on board them. 

So the Kirk for me was ideal. They [Kirk] could communicate with the rest of the U.S. 

fleet. They would go with us across to the Philippines and be able to rescue any folks 

who might be in harm’s way. Some had been wounded. Some were pregnant. All were 

sick after a while and I needed some way to take care of those folks. And the Kirk for me 

was perfect.”24

Jacobs immediately briefed the crew on Kirk’s impending mission. But he wondered how 

he and his small ship would be able to provide humanitarian assistance to an estimated 

thirty thousand people, as well as lead them safely across nearly a thousand miles of the 

South China Sea to the Philippines.

The immediate goal was to make order out of chaos. Kirk began corralling the ships 

and shuffling them into various positions. The first task was to transfer Armitage to 

the Vietnamese flagship so he could confer with the South Vietnamese Chief of Naval 

Operations and his staff. Then several members of Kirk’s crew, including enginemen, 

electricians, machinist’s mates, and the chief hospital corpsman, went from ship to ship 

to determine which of the Vietnamese vessels required assistance. Jacobs remembers 

the sorry state of some of those ships. “Sometimes we couldn’t even pull the anchor up. 

We’d have to slip it—break it loose and let it drop. Some of them got under way without 

any anchor.”25 A number of ships could not start their engines, and Kirk’s mechanics 

worked to remedy those situations.

Some of the vessels leaving Vietnam jammed with refugees were barely seaworthy. 

Several fishing boats had never before even ventured far from land. One landing ship 

had defective bow doors that would not close completely and was taking in water faster 
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than its pumps could expel it. Before it sank, its passengers were transferred to the South 

Vietnamese flagship, Tran Nhat Duat.

The outcome of Kirk’s mission was anything but certain. How would the North 

Vietnamese victors react to the potential escape of what remained of the South Vietnamese navy? The destroyer escort was well equipped to fight Soviet submarines but 

with its single five-inch deck gun was virtually defenseless against hostile aircraft. And 

that threat was very real. By now most South Vietnamese airfields, along with fighter 

aircraft, were in the hands of the communists. Moreover, some South Vietnamese pilots 

had already defected and were flying missions against their former countrymen. “We 

were like sitting ducks,” recalls Jacobs. “They could have taken the planes off, taken the 

Kirk out and all the Vietnamese ships.”26 To emphasize the point, an unidentified lowflying jet appeared off Kirk’s starboard bow. Fortunately, the aircraft flew on; the crew 

refocused its attention on the task at hand—aiding refugees.

Kirk finally got under way with its sister ship USS Cook, which had joined the effort. 

Kirk now led a very long formation of warships and fishing boats in two parallel columns, about a mile apart, sixteen ships in each. The formation extended five miles, the 

destroyer escort in the lead. The convoy could steam only as fast as the slowest vessel, a 

speed that would seldom exceed five knots. All ships—no matter what their condition—

sought Kirk’s and Cook’s protection and were completely dependent on those ships’ 

generosity for food, water, and fuel.

The Mission Changes 

As the procession of ships moved eastward across the South China Sea, the entire idea 

of having to defend it against attack quickly evaporated. There were no attacks. The 

mission now evolved into taking Kirk’s chief hospital corpsman, Stephen Burwinkel, on 

house calls and delivering water, rice, and medicine. His responsibility for the wellbeing of an estimated thirty thousand Vietnamese was unheard-of in U.S. Navy history. 

But this hospital corpsman was no amateur.

Before becoming part of Kirk’s commissioning crew in 1972, Burwinkel had seen duty at 

a U.S. Navy hospital in Morocco, served on two ships, and tended wounded Marines in 

Vietnam. The thirty-four-year-old Cincinnati native was beloved by his crew, not only 

for his cool, even temperament and wry sense of humor but also for the consummate 

skill he brought to his profession. Burwinkel was an independent-duty corpsman—that 

is, a highly trained health-care professional able to run the medical department on any 

Navy vessel without an assigned physician. “Chief Burwinkel was just tireless,” Doyle 

would recall. “He was a country doctor making house calls. But he had 30,000 patients 

and he didn’t have a little jeep to drive around in. He had a boat.”27
Doyle was referring to a swift boat, which Kirk’s crew sent up and down the columns 

of Vietnamese ships. Burwinkel would go on board each ship to hold sick call and provide whatever health care he could. Besides his medical kit he wore a pistol on his hip, 

not knowing whether any of those vessels harbored North Vietnamese who might do 

him harm.

Following a long day of making rounds, Burwinkel would return to the destroyer escort, 

grab a bite and a catnap, replenish his supplies, and head back out. “How he did it is 

beyond me,” Doyle would recollect. “In short, he’s a wonderful man and a wonderful 

doctor, and he was absolutely what we needed at that time. He’s not a doctor, of course. 

We call[ed] him ‘Doc.’ He’s a hospital corpsman but he’s an independent duty hospital 

corpsman and very capable. I would have anointed him doctor right after we got into 

Subic because of what he did.”28

Operations Specialist James Bongaard reflected the feelings of many fellow crew members. “A lot of people like myself who saw these people up close that one day early on 

knew that we had to do everything possible to help them. For a lot of us who had been in 

the Navy just a couple of years, we had never really done anything. We’d go out and play 

war games and circle around, but we never really did anything of any accomplishment. 

Now, all of a sudden, we had someone to take care of. We were doing something special. 

We weren’t hunting people down. We weren’t trying to shoot anybody. We would give 

up sleep, give up our off-time to do anything we could to haul rice, give them water, do 

whatever we could.”29

But making a difference was indeed difficult. Despite his skill and limitless energy and 

the assistance of a junior corpsman, Hospital Corpsman Third Class Mark Falkenberg, 

Chief Burwinkel was hard pressed. Dehydration and diarrhea ran rampant on board the 

overcrowded and unsanitary ships. Because of overtaxed and often nonworking toilets, 

refugees relieved themselves in communal buckets, on the deck, or over the side. Both 

Kirk and Cook sailors found it necessary to come alongside many of these ships and 

train their fire hoses on decks besmeared with feces.

Lt. Cdr. Ray Addicott, Cook’s executive officer, vividly remembers the squalor that 

greeted his ship as it moved among the fleet: “The people were almost on top of each 

other. It was nasty. Our sanitation team would come in and hose down all the decks. A 

lot of people would spread their clothes out so we could also hose the clothes down.”30

Cook’s skipper, Cdr. Jerry McMurry, later recalled the conditions on one of the Vietnamese landing ships: “The ship was loaded with what I estimated were 4,000 people, 

and the decks were just running with urine. We used fire hoses to wash down those 

decks, and then we tried to get enough freshwater on board because it was hotter than 

hell during the day—up to 110.”31
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Conjunctivitis, also called “pinkeye,” was epidemic. “I saw many cases of conjunctivitis caused by the unsanitary conditions and exposure to the sun,” Burwinkel later 

lamented. The combination of tropical sunlight and contaminated water sent the highly 

contagious disease raging among the flotilla. Burwinkel recalls, “I was very much afraid 

of that conjunctivitis spreading because it is a very virulent illness. I was afraid that if I 

caught it, that would be the end of it.”32

Before four days had passed the corpsman had gone through his supply of antibiotic 

ophthalmic ointment to treat the eye disease. He had also expended all his Kaopectate 

and Lomotil, which he had used to stem the diarrhea epidemic. Burwinkel was out of 

other drugs and dressings too, as well as two other essential items—diapers and baby 

formula. Without emergency resupply, Doc Burwinkel and his helpers would be out of 

business. Kirk’s skipper quickly radioed an emergency appeal for medical supplies, and 

within a day the U.S. Air Force responded. Soon a specially equipped C-130 arrived on 

the scene from Clark Air Force Base in the Philippines and dropped two fully loaded 

fifty-five-gallon drums suspended from parachutes. Burwinkel was soon back making 

his rounds.

Those rounds also meant seeking out near-term pregnant women and taking them on 

board a commandeered swift boat. Burwinkel had located five women who seemed 

on the verge of childbirth and brought them on board Kirk, where he could monitor 

their condition. To accommodate the pregnant women the crew had converted a crew’s 

lounge into a maternity ward. Each morning Jacobs visited the women to deliver a pep 

talk and encourage them to get busy and start having their babies. One of those women, 

seventeen-year-old Lan Tran, later remembered the morning ritual: “He came every day 

to our room. He always smile. He told us he want at least one baby to be born on the 

ship and named after the USS Kirk.”33 Despite the captain’s cheerleading, none of the 

women gave birth. Their babies would arrive later.

The motley flotilla plodded steadily eastward across the South China Sea, a body of water notorious for frequent storms and rough seas. Sailors and passengers alike observed 

the uncharacteristic calm and commented on how fortunate that was. Lemke noted that 

“some of the ships were not very seaworthy and the mild conditions allowed them to 

transit safely. The flat seas also enabled Kirk to continue using its small boats in transferring people and material back and forth.”34

Mission Finale

Feeding and providing water to more than thirty thousand refugees were too big a job 

for Kirk and Cook alone. Soon other Navy vessels joined the flotilla to lend a hand. Swift 

boats, motor whaleboats, and a number of landing craft scurried about among the Vietnamese vessels, delivering food, water, fuel, and assistance. USS Mobile (LKA 115), an 
amphibious cargo ship, provided not only rice but the temporary loan of four corpsmen, 

a physician, and medical supplies. The stores ship USS Vega (AF 59) and the tank landing ship USS Tuscaloosa (LST 1187) also pitched in, as did Barbour County (LST 1195). 

With their small boats, these ships transferred tons of stores and rice to Kirk and Cook.

During that first week of May, Kirk’s gig (the captain’s boat) and motor whaleboat shuttled back and forth among the fleet. Its crew delivered food and water, Chief Burwinkel 

held sick call, and engineers and machinist’s mates repaired cranky diesel engines and 

bilge pumps. The other American vessels also maneuvered around the formation, providing engineering, medical, and logistical support.

As the fleet finally approached Philippine territorial waters on Monday, 5 May, a 

diplomatic crisis developed, one that threatened the entire plan and the welfare of the 

refugees. Ferdinand Marcos, president of the Philippines, suddenly declared that since 

the Republic of Vietnam no longer existed, the South Vietnamese vessels could not 

enter Subic Bay or any other port in the Philippines. The dictator was torn between his 

alliance with the United States and a desire to be an integral part of the new reality in 

Southeast Asia. Marcos perceived a weakening commitment on the part of the U.S. government to deter communist expansion. If the leader of the free world had abandoned 

an ally, South Vietnam, what guarantee did he have that it would not leave his nation to 

the same fate? The changing political landscape meant normalizing relations with communist governments in Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam. He would not offend the North 

Vietnamese by allowing the remnants of the South Vietnamese navy into his nation.

As William Sullivan, ambassador to the Philippines, tried to get Marcos to change his 

mind, the flotilla killed time by tracing a circuitous course off the Philippine coast. 

Jacobs and the other participating U.S. Navy commanding officers faced a dilemma. 

Conditions on board the Vietnamese vessels were steadily deteriorating despite their 

own best efforts. Many refugees had been at sea for more than a week. Some were 

demoralized, not only by the death of their nation, but by the loss of family members. 

Others were despondent over having left spouses and children behind. More than a few 

were reaching the ends of their ropes.

Finally, Marcos and Sullivan reached an agreement. Most of the South Vietnamese 

vessels had once been American, and now that the South Vietnamese government no 

longer existed they could be returned to U.S. ownership. Naval personnel, mostly from 

Kirk’s crew, would board the vessels, replace South Vietnamese flags with U.S. flags, 

and take command. The vessels would then enter Subic Bay as U.S. Navy ships. Shortly 

after 10 am on 6 May, personnel transfers to the Vietnamese vessels began. By day’s end 

thirty-nine Kirk crewmen had been embarked on board the ships. Lieutenant Lemke 
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was told to deliver orders to each of the Americans on those ships, along with an American flag.

Lt. Rick Sautter, officer in charge of Kirk’s LAMPS detachment, would recall the events 

on the South Vietnamese warship he boarded. “A boat came by and delivered the packet 

with the American flag. And the ceremony was to be done with as much dignity as 

possible. It was kind of a feeling of finality. That was the final step in the fact that South 

Vietnam no longer existed.”35

Capt. Kiem Do recalls the observance with great emotion: “A young officer came on 

board our ship and said, ‘You’ll have to lower the flag and hoist the American flag up 

and sail in.’ I said to him, ‘We lost our country. We lost our pride. We lost everything. 

But please. A last favor. Try to have a ceremony of down the flag and raise the flag up. A 

ceremony that would save us some face, particularly those people aboard the ship, thousands of them.’ Finally we got the approval. Every ship would have a ceremony of change 

of authority to return those ships to the American Navy. We had a very emotional 

ceremony. It was right at sunset, 6 or 7 of that day. All the people flocked to the deck and 

sang the national anthem, crying at the same time to lower their flag and then raise the 

American flag ceremoniously. So the dignity is there. Even though it is a big loss for us, 

at least it saved our face and also our dignity.” 

36

Once on board the ship Lemke was to command, he later observed, “The ship was 

silent. . . . Then, as a South Vietnamese officer prepared to lower the South Vietnamese flag, his crew sang a capella the national anthem of their former country. It was a 

very moving time. As the yellow and red colors were slowly brought down, the refugees 

joined the crew in singing their national anthem . . . and then in silence the American 

flag was raised.”37

At 12:27 pm on Wednesday, 7 May, Kirk’s log recorded a Filipino aircraft flying over to 

check the vessel’s identity. Two hours later Kirk passed just under a mile to starboard of 

Grande Island in Subic Bay. AW3 Cox observed that many of the refugees seemed elated 

once they realized “they finally were safe and that they had a new life ahead of them. 

And the new life was going to be much better than anything they could have imagined 

under communist rule.”38 Two and a half hours later the destroyer escort moored at 

Subic Bay, Republic of the Philippines, ending its five-day, thousand-mile odyssey across 

the South China Sea.

The refugees did not remain long at Subic Bay. Following the terms of the diplomatic 

agreement, they boarded vessels either operated or contracted by the Military Sealift 

Command and within two days were on their way to Guam. In a hastily assembled tent 

camp, the first of several sites the United States would provide for the Vietnamese, Navy 

medical personnel again offered their services until the refugees were moved to other 
camps in California, Arkansas, Florida, and Pennsylvania—way stations on their journeys to permanent settlement in the United States.

Conclusions

USS Kirk’s humanitarian accomplishment and those of the other Navy ships that assisted went virtually unnoticed for many years. The mood of Americans in 1975 was that 

the long Vietnam nightmare was over; they just wanted to move on. Moreover, the men 

of Kirk and of the other ships participating in that massive rescue in the South China 

Sea never thought they had done anything extraordinary. Feeding refugees and diapering infants were not war-related feats that warriors felt worth sharing with old buddies 

in American Legion or Veterans of Foreign Wars halls, and many did not discuss these 

humanitarian experiences with family or friends. 

For the officers and men of USS Kirk, however, those events of forty years ago and 

their role in rescuing the South Vietnamese refugees have had a profound impact. Cox 

observes that they had gone to Vietnam with expectations of being in combat and had 

been trained and prepared for it. But when they got there they found out that combat 

was not what was needed: “It was a heart and hand that was needed. We didn’t recognize 

it at first. We just did our jobs. It was after that that we realized that our Vietnam experience was totally different from our brothers who had walked in the field in combat. 

We recognized that it was going to be a positive experience for the rest of our lives. We 

were there to save life and not to destroy it.”39

The architect of the rescue, Armitage, added another perspective regarding the mission: 

“Seeing the men—and it was only men then—of the USS Kirk, and realizing how much 

a part of their lives and what a great capstone this was to their careers, that moved me 

that they could feel so good about their involvement in that rescue. I envied them. They 

weren’t burdened with the former misadventure of Vietnam.”40 Another player in the 

drama, Erich von Marbod, who was then a high-ranking official of the Department of 

Defense and Armitage’s superior, points out the story’s real impact. After the war, President Gerald Ford’s task force for the resettlement of Indochina refugees relocated more 

than 130,000 evacuees from Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam in communities around 

the United States. It was not long before almost all of them became American citizens. 

Since Kirk and its sister U.S. Navy vessels had saved more than thirty thousand South 

Vietnamese refugees, a quarter of Vietnamese refugees resettled in the United States by 

Task Force 76 can trace their new beginnings in this nation to that very successful and 

unusual humanitarian mission.41
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Notes

1. This chapter is based largely on Jan K. Herman, The Lucky Few: The Fall of Saigon and 

the Rescue Mission of the USS Kirk (Annapolis, 

Md.: Naval Institute Press, 2013).

2. Jan K. Herman, Navy Medicine in Vietnam: 

Oral Histories from Dien Bien Phu to the Fall 

of Saigon (Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland, 2009), 

p. 9.

3. Stanley Karnow, Vietnam: A History (New 

York: Viking, 1983), p. 666.

4. That phrase became the title of Snepp’s controversial 1977 memoir.

5.Karnow, Vietnam, p. 65.

6. Edward J. Marolda, By Sea, Air, and Land: 

An Illustrated History of the U.S. Navy and 

the War in Southeast Asia (Washington, D.C.: 

Naval Historical Center, 1992), p. 357.

7. Daniel Daly, telephone interview, 10 August 

2011.

8.Ibid.

9. Robert Lemke, telephone interview, 29 April 

2009.

10. Ibid.

11. Paul Jacobs, interview, Fairfax, Va., 29 December 2006.

12. Randy Hudson, telephone interview, 16 January 2007.

13. Navy Medicine Support Command, The Lucky 

Few: The Story of USS Kirk (U.S. Navy, Bureau 

of Medicine, Visual Information Directorate, 

2010), documentary.

14. Ibid.

15. Ibid.

16. Hudson interview.

17. Ibid.

18. Hugh Doyle, Edited Transcript of Lt. Hugh 

J. Doyle’s Vietnam Evacuation Tapes, 2 May 

1975–6 May 1975, in Hugh Doyle’s collection.

19. Ibid.

20. Navy Medicine Support Command, Lucky 

Few.

21. Ibid.

22. Ibid.

23. Ibid.

24. Ibid.

25. Jacobs interview.

26. Navy Medicine Support Command, Lucky 

Few.

27. Ibid.

28. Ibid.

29. Ibid.

30. Ray Addicott, telephone interview, 27 August 

2010.

31. Jerry McMurry, telephone interview, 7 September 2010.

32. Stephen Burwinkel, interview, Pensacola, Fla., 

16 December 2008.

33. Navy Medicine Support Command, Lucky 

Few.

34. Ibid.

35. Frederick Sautter, Jr., telephone interview, 2 

March 2009.

36. Herman, Lucky Few, p. 112.

37. Ibid.

38. Ibid., pp. 113–14.

39. Ibid., p. 122.

40. Richard Armitage, interview, Arlington, Va., 

31 October 2008.

41. Erich von Marbod, interview, Gainesville, Va., 

25 August 2011.

Continuing to Serve

Deploying Naval Vessels as Artificial Reefs

TOM WILLIAMS

Naval vessels that are close to the end of their useful lives as part of a fleet or that have 

already served their full terms of duty can still find important and honorable ways to 

contribute to the common good. Historically, ships can be sunk as part of gunnery exercises, can be sunk on purpose during wartime to form blockships, or can be turned into 

naval museums, some of which appear to be strategically placed near major waterways 

to act as potential blockships in times of war.

On 25 November 2003, President George W. Bush signed into law the National Defense 

Authorization Act (originally HR 1588, sec. 1013), allowing decommissioned ships to be 

donated for use as artificial reefs. The first ship in the program was the aircraft carrier 

USS Oriskany (CV 34), which was sunk on 17 May 2006 approximately twenty-four 

miles south of Pensacola, Florida.1

 This program is intended to reduce the inactive-ship 

inventory in a “cost-effective and environmentally sound manner.”2

This chapter will begin by summarizing briefly the historical use of blockships and ongoing U.S. Navy programs for sinking ships, during both times of war and peace. Most 

of this chapter, however, will focus on sinking naval vessels to form artificial reefs. This 

innovative use of naval ships can play an important economic role for coastal communities by increasing maritime tourism and fishing, even while playing a positive ecological 

role by boosting local marine life.

Blockships

A “blockship” is a vessel deliberately sunk to prevent the use of a river, canal, or harbor. 

It may be sunk by a navy defending the waterway, to prevent the ingress of attacking 

forces, or it may be brought by enemy raiders and used to prevent the waterway from 

being used by the defenders. This practice goes back many centuries. In the eleventh 

century, around 1070, five Skuldelev ships were sunk at Roskilde Fjord to prevent the 

northern Vikings from landing at Roskilde.3

 The ships were excavated in 1962 and 

CHAPTER SIX
identified as vessels of different types, ranging from cargo ships to warships; they are 

now on display in the Viking Ship Museum in Roskilde, which is the Danish national 

museum for ships, seafaring, and boatbuilding in the medieval period. Another example 

of early blockships can be found in the Dutch raid on the Medway and Thames Rivers 

during the Second Anglo-Dutch War (1665–67), when the Royal Navy sank a number of 

merchant ships and warships to block attacking forces.

During World War I, on the night of 23 April 1918 British naval forces sank blockships 

to neutralize the port of Bruges-Zeebrugge, Belgium. Older British ships were sunk in 

the canal entrance to prevent German ships from leaving port. The port was used by 

the German navy as a base for submarines and light shipping; the latter was of critical 

importance, especially in the English Channel. The raid was intended to sink three old 

cruisers to block the flow of traffic into and out of the port, but the execution did not go 

as planned. Of the three ships, which were all filled with concrete, only HMS Intrepid

and Iphigenia made it to their destination, which was the narrowest point of the canal; 

HMS Thetis was scuttled prematurely.4

Another example of the strategic use of blockships occurred at Scapa Flow, in the 

Orkney Islands, off the coast of Scotland, where the British placed a naval base in 1904. 

Scapa Flow has a shallow sandy bottom less than two hundred feet deep and is a natural 

anchorage for ships. Following Germany’s defeat in World War I, its fleet was relocated 

to Scapa Flow, pending a final decision on its fate by the Paris Peace Conference. On 

21 June 1919, after eight months of waiting, Rear Adm. Ludwig von Reuter made 

the decision to scuttle the German fleet at Scapa Flow; he was not aware that there had 

been a last-minute extension to finalize the details of the peace treaty.5

 He ordered 

all seventy-four ships scuttled; the British were only able to save four ships from sinking—Baden, Nürnberg, Emden, and Frankfurt. According to one estimate, “Over 

400,000 tons of modern warships were sunk, the largest loss of shipping in a single day 

in history.”6

During World War II, the British again used Scapa Flow as a naval base. However, the 

defenses constructed during World War I had not been maintained, and on 14 October 

1939 a German submarine penetrated the roadstead and sank HMS Royal Oak, after 

which HMS Iron Duke was sunk by Luftwaffe bombers. The base was closed in 1956 in 

recognition of the deferred maintenance, operating cost, and general obsolescence. The 

assemblage of ships on the bottom of Scapa Flow is now a popular destination for scuba 

divers and provides a substantial amount of trade and income for the local economy. 

Divers must first obtain a permit from authorities; they are allowed to enter the wrecks 

but not to retrieve artifacts located within three hundred feet of any wreck. The wrecks 

of Royal Oak and the dreadnought HMS Vanguard, which exploded at anchor during 

World War I, are war graves protected under the Protection of Military Remains Act of 
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1986. Another protected site is the wreck off Marwick Head, Orkney, of HMS Hampshire, which while carrying Lord Kitchener on 5 June 1916 hit a mine and sank. The 

10,850-ton armored cruiser went down in a heavy storm four days after the battle of 

Jutland; only twelve survived from its crew of 655. It lies in 210 feet of water a mile and 

a half off Marwick Head, on which the Kitchener Memorial now stands. Only divers of 

the British armed forces are permitted to visit any military sites.7

In China, it was a longtime tactic of the Chinese navy to block any maritime threat to 

China’s rivers and canals by clogging harbors with log booms and chains strung from 

rows of floating junks. Following Japan’s 1937 invasion of China, the Nationalist navy 

proved inadequate to counter the Imperial Japanese Navy, so the vast bulk of the Chinese naval ships were eventually sunk in the Yangzi River. This effort to block Japan’s 

invasion upriver proved futile. In 1940, Chiang Kai-shek ordered that the Navy Ministry be dissolved.8

 A Chinese naval force that had taken decades to build was quickly 

disbanded and destroyed to ensure it would not fall into enemy hands.

Beginning in the 1930s, conflict over the use and control of the Suez Canal escalated. By 

the 1950s the Egyptian government was planning to construct the Aswan High Dam. To 

help pay for the project, Egypt seized and nationalized the canal, so as to charge higher 

passage fees. Israel invaded Egypt on 29 October 1956, followed by Britain and France, 

on the grounds that passage through the canal should be free. In retaliation, the Egyptian blockship Akka was towed into place and scuttled, “together with another fortyseven concrete-filled ships, effectively closing the waterway.”9

 Eventually Egypt sank a 

total of fifty ships in the canal to block passage.10

Nevertheless, since World War II, with the decrease in naval warfare, there have been 

fewer instances of the use of blockships. During March 2014, however, a Soviet-era warship, decommissioned in 2011 and designated for scrapping, was sunk with two other 

Russian naval ships at the entrance to Lake Donuzlav, on Crimea’s western coast. The 

three vessels were sunk so as to fill a gap between two spits of land, in an effort to block 

the Ukrainian navy from leaving port. Rather than gaining international support for 

the Russian invasion of Ukraine, this action—plus the land-based invasion of Ukrainian territory by pro-Russian “volunteer” forces—has been widely condemned both in 

Europe and in the United States.

Many older naval vessels continue to function as museums. The historic preservation of 

naval vessels can provide economic benefits to communities through increased tourism. 

Currently there are approximately 187 ships registered in the Historic Naval Ships Association and open to visitors. Examples of U.S. Navy ships that continue to serve in this 

capacity are Arizona, Lexington, Midway, and Missouri. Many of these ship museums 
are located along important channels and in strategic harbors, where if needed they 

could be quickly relocated to serve as blockships.11

Ship-Sinking Exercises

Navies often use old ships for gunnery practice. The U.S. Navy’s ship-sinking operations, or exercises, are called SINKEXes, and it conducts most of them at four major 

locations: north of Kauai, Hawaii; off California; off the East Coast; and off Puerto Rico. 

The exercises are used to hone “weapons firing skills and proficiency.”12 According to 

Navy spokesmen, sinking exercises can also enhance fleet readiness by “providing environmentally clean target ships for at-sea live-fire exercises.” Chris Johnson, spokesman 

at Naval Sea Systems Command in Washington, acknowledged in 2012 that 118 ships 

had been sunk in SINKEXes between 1999 and 2012.13

Because of the possibility of severe damage to the environment, these SINKEX 

activities have been criticized by environmental groups, including the Sierra Club. 

But the Navy argues that it prepares all vessels used in SINKEXes in strict compliance 

with Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulations. According to a document 

provided by Lt. Cdr. Paul Macapagal, a Navy spokesman at the Pentagon, “Fleet sink 

exercises are conducted in compliance with the Marine Protection, Research and Sanctuaries Act (MPRSA). . . . Each ship provided is put through a rigorous cleaning process, 

which includes the removal of all PCB [polychlorinated biphenyl] transformers and 

large capacitors, all small capacitors to the greatest extent practical, trash, floatable 

materials, mercury or fluorocarbon containing materials, and readily detachable solid 

PCB items.”14

The problem with these preparations, environmentalists have argued, is that in 1999 

the Navy was granted a general permit from the EPA that exempted it from the strictest 

federal standards governing ocean dumping under MPRSA. According to Colby Self, a 

member of the Seattle-based Basel Action Network, which has sued to stop the SINKEX 

program, “They are ‘cleaned,’ but when you look at the requirements of the cleaning, 

it’s not sufficient. They’re not removing anything that’s not ‘readily detachable.’ No 

scraping, no use of machinery, no removal of machinery. They are not going to open up 

bulkheads to get at asbestos.”15

The Navy’s response is that SINKEX ships are sunk in deep, remote waters, in at least 

six thousand feet of water at least fifty nautical miles from land. The Navy conducts its 

own environmental surveys of the area before any sinkings are authorized to ensure that 

no humans or marine mammals are harmed. The program has carried out the sinking 

in 2005 of the forty-year-old aircraft carrier USS America, which was sunk in a SINKEX 

about three hundred nautical miles southeast of Hampton Roads. At this writing in 
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2012, four ships have been sunk, three off Hawaii in July, and one off Guam in September. But according to Chris Johnson, “No more are planned for 2012.”16

Historical Use of Artificial Reefs

Artificial reefs have been used for enhancement of commercial fishing in two ways. 

First, almost immediately after the artificial reef deployment fishermen can target 

specific species of fish. Second, there is an expectation that over time artificial reefs will 

resemble local natural reefs, as assemblages including sessile organisms associate with 

a reef’s surface, structure, and surrounding water column and eventually increase biomass at the site. This aspect has led to a redefinition of the use of artificial reefs in the 

last decade from the historic one of simply fish attractors to a more expansive one that 

includes the role of ecosystem developers, which provides recreation for scuba divers 

and other visitors.

Reef making is not new. As discussed previously, blockships have been used since 

ancient times. The Greek geographer Strabo recorded the use of artificial reefs by the 

Persians across the Tigris River to obstruct the passage of naval pirates from India.17 The 

Roman historian Polybius later recorded that the Romans built a reef across the mouth 

of the Carthaginian harbor in Sicily during the First Punic War to trap Carthaginians 

there.18 Obstructing harbors with sunken ships, logs, or other structures was a common 

naval tactic. As arsenals got more sophisticated, rocks and logs were replaced by mines 

and other more destructive devices.

In the United States, the first documented artificial reef was built in 1830, when log huts 

were sunk off the coast of South Carolina to improve fishing. However, it was not until 

the latter part of the twentieth century that artificial reefs were supported by community efforts; artificial reefs before this time were built by ad hoc volunteer groups. Most 

reefs constructed off U.S. coasts have used materials of opportunity, relying on volunteers and materials that were readily available and free, or nearly so.19

Ship sinkings not only benefit local communities but can also benefit the government, 

in terms of disposal of retired military vessels. In 1994, the Atlantic States Marine 

Fisheries Commission reported that at least 666 steel-hulled vessels had been sunk for 

reefs since 1974. Forty-one of these ships had been donated to the states by the Maritime 

Administration (MARAD) pursuant to the Liberty Ship Act (Public Law 92-402, 1974), 

amended in 1984 by PL 98-623 to include ships other than Liberty ships. Although 

MARAD ships account for only 6 percent of the total inventory of vessels, they constituted by 1994 almost all the forty-four sinkings of large ships, defined as those over 

three hundred feet long.20 Nearly half the 666 ships were very small fishing boats or 

tugboats no more than seventy-five feet long. There is today a reported demand among 
Atlantic and Gulf Coast states for between five and six hundred additional ships just to 

meet the increasing need for improved fish resources.21

MARAD and the Navy have jointly responded to the value of “reefing” retired vessels by 

establishing an Artificial Reef Program. MARAD maintains the National Defense Reserve Fleet (NDRF) as a reserve of ships for defense and national emergencies. There are 

three fleet sites: the James River Reserve Fleet, at Fort Eustis, Virginia; the Beaumont 

Reserve Fleet, in Beaumont, Texas; and the Suisun Bay Reserve Fleet, at Benicia, California. When ships are no longer considered useful for defense or aid missions, MARAD 

arranges for their responsible disposal.

In 2001, Congress passed the Floyd D. Spence National Defense Authorization Act.22

This act authorized MARAD to use appropriated funds for the procurement of shipdismantling and recycling services. Since that time, MARAD’s Ship Disposal Program 

(SDP) has utilized vessel sales and ship-recycling services as the primary means of 

disposing of obsolete NDRF vessels. The SDP includes reefing as a disposal option and 

accepts applications from coastal states, U.S. territories and possessions, and foreign 

governments. This legislation also allows MARAD to provide financial assistance for 

specific domestic reefing projects.

Using Naval Ships to Create Artificial Reefs

An important nonmilitary use of navies is in reef building. As mentioned above, the 

2003 National Defense Authorization Act (originally HR 1588, sec. 1013) allows appropriate decommissioned ships to be donated for use as artificial reefs. This legislation 

calls on the Navy to accomplish the overall process for artificial reefing to deliver a costeffective transfer of available naval vessels. This process also provides a viable alternative available to the Navy’s Inactive Ships Program, administered under the Naval Sea 

Systems Command and MARAD, under the Department of Transportation, to reduce 

the inventory of unneeded vessels.

The Navy’s program to sink ships is also known as “Ships 2 Reefs.” Its main objective is 

to reduce the size of the inactive ships inventory in a cost-effective and environmentally 

sound manner. The program is a partnership of agencies, localities, and the various 

applicants. The Navy prepares the vessel as an artificial reef through several steps, 

including environmental remediation in accordance with the EPA’s best management 

practices. Other costs, including the towing and sinking of the ships, are considered as 

part of cost-sharing proposals from applicants. MARAD coordinates federal agency 

solicitations and applications for obtaining vessels for use as artificial reefs.23

Donation and transfer applications for Navy and MARAD ships for use as artificial 

reefs may be submitted only by states, commonwealths, territories, and possessions of 
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the United States, and municipal corporations, or political subdivisions thereof. Foreign 

countries, except by Navy policy, and other foreign applicants are ineligible to apply for 

or receive obsolete warships, defined as aircraft carriers, battleships, cruisers, destroyers, frigates, and submarines. This policy specifies that applications can be submitted 

only by local governments, either on their own behalf or in support of private industry. 

For example, both the Spiegel Grove and Vandenberg projects were proposed by local 

entrepreneurs but were applied for by local governments—Florida’s Monroe County for 

Spiegel Grove and the City of Key West for Vandenberg. The Navy is currently accepting 

only one application from each state per vessel available for reefing. The first warship 

offered for donation by the Navy for sinking as an artificial reef was Oriskany.

The other ships sunk for reefs have all been MARAD vessels. MARAD recently has 

updated its own program in two ways: first, MARAD will no longer consider for reefing vessels built before 1985; second, vessels that are within twenty-four months of a 

more expeditious method of disposal, such as recycling, will not be included. The 1985 

date reflects the agency’s concerns about PCB products or components in the supply stream used in vessel construction or repairs. If these amendments to the program 

are continued, there will certainly be a negative impact on the availability of ships for 

artificial reefs.

These policy amendments were announced to the public in a memorandum dated 

13 April 2012. A recent casualty of this policy change is USS Kawishiwi, a fleet oiler that 

was scheduled to be sunk just off Dana Point Harbor, California. Fortunately, a replacement has been found in the same MARAD vessel source, Suisun Bay. USS Willamette will be scuttled at the proposed site, while Kawishiwi will be placed in MARAD’s 

recycling program.

Major Examples of Naval Ships as Artificial Reefs

There are four primary disposal options for retired naval vessels: they can be placed 

in the “mothball fleet,” sold for alternate use, such as to a foreign navy or as a service 

vessel, recycled or scrapped, or used as artificial reefs. Reefing provides an economic 

benefit not only for the U.S. government but also for the state or foreign destination of 

the vessel. The examples below illustrate the potential benefits in terms of disposal costs 

to the government and tourism or recreational value.

The two most recent reefings of naval vessels illustrate the economic benefits. The Navy 

had estimated the cost of scrapping Oriskany at twenty-four million dollars, but it cost 

only nineteen million to scuttle the ship off Pensacola. A 2007 report from the University of West Florida states that the sinking of Oriskany generated nearly four million 

dollars for Pensacola and Escambia County, receiving over 4,200 visits that year. In 
addition, a Florida State University study estimates that Oriskany, the world’s largest 

artificial reef at the time of its sinking, could generate up to ninety-two million dollars annually from tourists, divers, and sportfishermen. Even if this attraction does not 

generate that much money, utilizing the ship as an artificial reef seems to make good 

financial sense. In the case of the destroyer Radford, the net savings to the Navy were 

several million dollars, aside from immediate profits to the tristate participants.

The following sections discuss the most significant naval vessels used for artificial reefs. 

USS Spiegel Grove was the first vessel of its size to be procured as an artificial reef by 

private industry. USNS General Hoyt S. Vandenberg was the first artificial reef to have 

the specific purpose of education. The Canadian destroyer HMCS Yukon established 

the largest artificial reef of its time, still the largest on the West Coast. USS Kittiwake

was the first U.S. naval vessel donated to a foreign country for an artificial reef. USS

Oriskany was the largest naval vessel sunk as an artificial reef and the second largest was 

USS Radford, sunk in 2011. These examples help illustrate the benefits of using retired 

naval vessels as artificial reefs.

USS Spiegel Grove (LSD 32)

The dock landing ship Spiegel Grove spent the greater part of its active service participating in amphibious exercises along the eastern seaboard and in the Caribbean. Spiegel 

Grove was deployed to the Sixth Fleet from January to June 1964; from 3 November 

1966 to 11 May 1967; and from 17 April to 9 October 1971. This ship was deployed as 

an artificial reef on 17 May 2002, on which occasion it unintentionally sank ahead 

of schedule, leaving a portion of its bow exposed above water. A month later, Spiegel 

Grove was rolled onto its side. It was opened to the public, for recreational divers, on 

26 June 2002.

Spiegel Grove had been proposed to Monroe County, Florida, as an artificial reef by 

local dive industry entrepreneurs, with the primary objective of determining whether 

scuba diving on adjacent natural reef sites could be reduced through the placement of an 

artificial reef. The secondary objective was to stimulate the local economy of Key Largo 

through increased diving-related tourism.24 It was the first proposal of this magnitude 

in size, cost, and potential impact. The proposal, after meeting the preliminary requirements of the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary, the Army Corps of Engineers, 

and other agencies, was reviewed by Monroe County and submitted for approval consecutively with a request for funding.

This proposal lacked any empirical data to support its conclusions. Rather, it relied 

on the data of a 1998 National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) 

study for validation. Several creative debt-recovery strategies were described in the 
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entrepreneurs’ business plan. The narrow scope of use limited the project’s scientific potential; also, it was in need of a postdeployment data-collection strategy. The 

decision-making process appeared to be primarily political, with the intent to stimulate 

the economy of Key Largo and the Upper Keys. However, in the event, preliminary postdeployment data seem to have supported the project’s hypothesis that the artificial reef 

would relieve use pressure on the surrounding natural reefs and stimulate new populations of reef fish.25

Given the perceived success of the project, Monroe County appears to have been content 

with its decision-making process. However, since the applicants for Spiegel Grove used 

a primarily volunteer deployment workforce, they encountered several significant 

problems, resulting in delays and miscalculations of revenue needs. The problems of the 

Spiegel Grove deployment were not lost on Monroe County later, when the Vandenberg

proposal came up for review (see below).

The Reef Environmental Education Foundation (REEF) conducted a fish-monitoring 

study from April 2001 through August 2007, to evaluate the impact Spiegel Grove was 

having on fish populations.26 The overall objective of the study was to assess any changes 

in fish community structure over time—changes not just to the Spiegel Grove site but to 

the surrounding natural reef sites as well. A central biological question about the merits 

of artificial reef deployments is whether they add fish species, in terms of both numbers 

of fish (biomass) and numbers of fish species (biodiversity), to the artificial reef and the 

surrounding natural reef sites. Ultimately, resource managers and other stakeholders 

hope that artificial reefs not only add fish to the targeted site but seed surrounding reefs 

with the reproductive output from the resident fish population.

The scope of REEF’s monitoring study did not address all of these long-term impacts, 

but it is important to understand the concepts behind sinking ships as artificial reefs. 

The method of surveying used by REEF in its study involved the Roving Diver Technique (RDT), which is specifically designed to produce a list of the frequency and 

abundance of species found by divers swimming throughout the site. REEF conducted 

seventy-six RDT surveys on the Spiegel Grove site and 445 on seven surrounding reference sites. There were forty-six fish species documented on Spiegel Grove during the 

first month of surveying, April 2001, and by August the number of species had grown 

to sixty-six; the average number of species rose to seventy-six per monitoring event 

thereafter. During each of the monitoring periods individual REEF members added 138 

surveys to the scheduled number. Approximately three years after deployment, the persistence in species composition at the Spiegel Grove site through time had increased to 

levels close to those of the surrounding reefs. A total of 191 species have been documented at Spiegel Grove, of which forty-one were not documented during the monitoring but 

rather during individual survey efforts by volunteers.
Another aspect of the use of naval vessels for artificial reefs is socioeconomic impact on 

a community. Although this was not addressed in REEF’s work, it is valuable to inquire 

how much extra tourist revenue is generated by the addition of such a destination 

feature as a naval vessel redeployed as an artificial reef. As demonstrated by the Spiegel 

Grove reef site, the biological and socioeconomic impacts can reach beyond those directly associated with the vessel and spread to indirect impacts, such as relief of pressure 

by scuba divers and other users on nearby sites, and the economic benefits to ancillary 

businesses in support of tourist uses from the artificial reef. Finding answers to these 

socioeconomic questions is critical for guiding future marine resource-management 

decisions on whether to deploy artificial reefs of this type.

USNS General Hoyt S. Vandenberg (T-AGM 10)

On 1 July 1964, General Hoyt S. Vandenberg was acquired by the Navy and designated as 

a missile range instrumentation ship. It was one of ten such ships transferred from the 

Commander, Air Force Eastern Test Range to participate in the Global Atmospheric Research Experiment. Formerly named General Harry Taylor and used for a time as a U.S. 

Army Transport Service vessel, Vandenberg was refitted with extremely accurate and 

discriminating radar and telemetry equipment. On 27 May 2009, Vandenberg became 

the largest artificial reef in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary and the secondlargest artificial reef in the world at that time.27

The Vandenberg sinking was proposed to Monroe County, Florida, by an entrepreneur 

interested in creating an artificial reef with a comprehensive list of uses—scientific, educational, recreational, and economic. This project offered Monroe County an expanded 

socioeconomic base that could involve colleges and universities, the scientific community (such as Mote Laboratories, which has a field facility in the Lower Keys), and unique 

economic opportunities for the community. The 1998 NOAA study was used to validate 

the conclusions and projections of the project.

In addition, the Vandenberg team could refer to the success of the Spiegel Grove site in 

Key Largo for its proposal. The most significant difference in strategy for Vandenberg 

was the use of professionals in project development. From cleaning to sinking, the Vandenberg directors proposed using experienced companies, so as to avoid the costly mistakes of the Spiegel Grove project. However, even though they submitted an improved 

project development plan, the backers could not shake off the negative experiences of 

the Spiegel Grove sinking. Monroe County refused to sponsor another artificial reef 

project until debt recovery and postdeployment data could be analyzed. Monroe County 

did agree to provide some badly needed funding for the project after the first year’s 

debt-recovery data demonstrated that the Spiegel Grove reef was ahead of projections.
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HMCS Yukon (DDE 263)

In 1996, the San Diego Oceans Foundation (SDOF) began a precedent-setting program 

to create a Master Plan for Habitat Enhancement (MPHE) for California state waters off 

San Diego County. The intent was to create a broad framework to fulfill the desires of 

fishermen, divers, and scientists for more places to explore, more fish to catch, and specific sites reserved for habitat enhancement research. The MPHE envisioned four types 

of zones, designed to serve different user needs: six Kelp Enhancement Zones, three 

Research Zones, three Deep Water Economic Zones, and one Shallow Water Economic 

Zone. The concept of an economic zone and underwater recreation area was developed 

to meet these goals for recreational diving, fishing, and scientific research.28

The destroyer HMCS Yukon of the Canadian Forces Maritime Command (today the 

Royal Canadian Navy), scuttled off San Diego during July 2000, is the largest ship ever 

sunk on the West Coast as an artificial reef. It is resting on its port side in a hundred 

feet of water just 1.85 miles west of Mission Beach. It is in a location accessible to divers 

and fishermen, which makes it a favorite recreational area. An estimated ten thousand 

recreational dives were made on it in the first year of its new life as an artificial reef. As 

a result, this facet of the tourism industry in San Diego has flourished since the sinking. 

Most of the divers visiting the Yukon reef are from out of town and spend money locally, 

and by doing so they have increased civic revenues.29

In the fall of 2002, the SDOF proposed a study to determine what effects the Yukon

sinking had had on tourism in San Diego. It was earlier reported that Yukon had resulted in increased recreational use of the artificial reefs in the area known as “Shipwreck 

Alley” by 30 to 40 percent.30 But specific goals and objectives still must be evaluated to 

determine the level of success the project achieved.

The SDOF received in 2005 an ecological assessment from the Scripps Institution of 

Oceanography, in the Integrative Oceanography Division of the University of California, San Diego, in La Jolla.31 The assessment utilized a volunteer-based monitoring 

program to determine the colonization of marine life on the ship to gauge its ecological 

effects. The assessment covered four years, from 2000 to 2004. The data were found to 

be difficult to rely on, provided as they often were by volunteers with differing levels 

of experience in conducting fish counts, taking photographs, and collecting other data 

necessary for the assessment. The report established, however, that the initial colonizers of the ship were species that had moved from nearby artificial and natural habitats. 

Secondary colonization was ongoing, and consisted of fish that were residential elsewhere and have migrated to the ship. These species are generally smaller than the initial 

colonizers, and abundances vary. The Yukon reef provides habitat for adult species of 
commercial and sport fish, including sheepshead and bocaccio, and also provides nursery habitat for these species. The SDOF intends to continue the monitoring indefinitely.

Shipwreck Alley is a network of artificial reefs that appear to display “synergistic beneficial effects by increasing forage area,” which gives mobile species the opportunity to 

go from one site to the next.32 However, this assessment indicated that compared with 

the natural habitat in waters off La Jolla, the Yukon fish populations were significantly 

less diverse. However, diversity was increasing and should continue to do so—at least in 

the short term. The stationary communities, such as anemones and filter feeders, were 

abundant but not mature. The algal community was not prolific, likely owing to the 

antifouling paint on the substrate of Yukon’s hull. The assessment did not have the resources to address such bigger questions as whether artificial reefs increase the regional 

fish production or lead to more concentrated fish stocks. The assessment concluded that 

determining whether artificial reefs in Shipwreck Alley are beneficial or detrimental to 

natural habitats will require additional comprehensive studies of artificial reefs.

USS Kittiwake (ASR 13)

Kittiwake was a 1945-vintage submarine rescue ship. The 251-foot, 2,200-ton vessel 

was originally built to rescue sailors from damaged submarines. Kittiwake was the first 

vessel the U.S. Navy donated to a foreign country for an artificial reef. The ship, which 

assisted U.S. submarine operations around the globe for decades, had been anchored 

in recent years among the rusting vessels of the James River Reserve Fleet, commonly 

known as the “Ghost Fleet,” near Fort Eustis, Virginia.

Tourism authorities in the Cayman Islands noted the growth in popularity of scuba diving on wrecks, especially those from World War II. Noticing the draw of wreck diving 

at Truk Lagoon (Micronesia) and Scapa Flow (Scotland), they desired to see whether the 

same economic benefit could make the Cayman Islands into a diving mecca. They requested Kittiwake to join MV Captain Keith Tibbetts, a renamed Koni-class frigate built 

for Cuba by the Soviet Union in 1984 and sunk off Cayman Brac in 1996, now decorated 

with a thick coating of sponges and corals.

Kittiwake was decommissioned on 30 September 1994 and stricken from the Naval 

Vessel Register on the same day. Its title was transferred in November 2008 for an undisclosed amount to the government of the Cayman Islands. Kittiwake was sunk on a sandy 

bottom off Grand Cayman’s Seven Mile Beach on 5 January 2011. The ship, forty-seven 

feet (fourteen meters) tall, is at a depth of sixty-two feet (nineteen meters), so the top 

deck is fairly close to the surface, easily accessible for snorkelers and divers.
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USS Oriskany (CV 34): “The Mighty O”

On 15 April 1976, with defense budget cuts looming and the aircraft carrier showing 

wear and tear, Oriskany was designated for mothball fleet; it was decommissioned on 

30 September of the same year. Towed to Bremerton, Washington, the aircraft carrier 

remained in reserve until stricken from the Navy list on 25 July 1989 for use as a museum ship or scrapping. Initially intended for possible sale to Japan as a museum ship, 

the vessel was eventually ordered scrapped and was towed to the Gulf of Mexico. Three 

dismantling contracts were canceled owing to high cost and environmental concerns.

In May 2003, Yukon and Spiegel Grove having been successfully reefed, competition for 

a reef site for Oriskany commenced. On 5 April 2004 Pensacola, in Escambia County, 

Florida, was chosen from among proposed locations that included sites in Florida, Mississippi, and Texas, and a joint proposal from Georgia / South Carolina. Several other 

destinations in Florida—including the Broward/Miami-Dade County area—also wanted 

the carrier, but because of its long-term naval-aviation heritage Pensacola seemed the 

appropriate choice.

Oriskany became the first U.S. warship deployed as an artificial reef under authority 

granted by the fiscal 2004 National Defense Authorization Act (Public Law 108-136). 

The Navy announced on 5 April 2004 that it would transfer the former aircraft carrier to the state of Florida for use as an artificial reef. Ultimately, on 17 May 2006, after 

many years of planning and hazardous-material cleanup, the carrier was sunk as an 

artificial reef off Pensacola, Florida.

Some ecologists warned that the sinking of Oriskany would unnecessarily risk introducing PCBs into the food chain. The Navy worked with the Environmental Protection 

Agency to create special guidelines allowing the PCBs to stay. A study by the state of 

Florida is under way to determine whether chemicals are entering the environment. 

Meanwhile, the wreck is being dived on and fished nearly every day. The Oriskany 

reef has attracted at least thirty-eight species of fish, including goliath groupers, mako 

sharks, amberjacks, and red snappers.

USS Radford (DD 968)

The Spruance-class destroyer USS Radford was commissioned on 16 April 1977 and decommissioned on 18 March 2003, after serving twenty-six years. Radford was declared 

a candidate for reefing by the Navy in 2006 and was deeded to the state of Delaware. On 

10 August 2011 its hull was scuttled off the coast of Delaware to form part of an artificial 

reef, at a total cost of $945,000.

The Del-Jersey-Land Inshore Reef, about twenty-five miles out in the Atlantic Ocean 

equidistant from Delaware, New Jersey, and Maryland, is a joint effort of the three 
states. It is made up of subway cars, military tanks, and ships. Radford, the latest 

addition, is, at 563 feet long and seventy feet high, the largest vessel to become an 

artificial reef in the Atlantic Ocean. Delaware, New Jersey, and Maryland divided the 

million-dollar cost of stripping toxic and recyclable materials from the ship and sinking 

it. Radford is the only multistate reefing project in the country.

Asserting the value of adding a prestigious naval vessel to the local economy, the governor of Delaware, Jack Markell, declared in July 2011 that “the Navy destroyer turned 

artificial reef will provide a big boost to tourism—both for anglers and divers. And it 

will turn a sand-covered section of the ocean floor into a rich, new habitat for sea life 

from the bottom of the food chain to the top. He estimated that the reef site will be 400 

times richer in marine diversity than the natural bottom and that changes in the species 

diversity should take place there within days of the sinking.”33 There are already fourteen artificial reef sites in Delaware Bay and just offshore in the Atlantic Ocean—some 

created from ballasted tires, others from concrete culverts, and still others from surplus 

vessels. Radford is considered the most ambitious reef project Delaware officials have 

undertaken to date.

The Artificial Reef Controversy

As soon as a significant interest is shown in a reefing proposal, many articles usually 

appear denouncing and opposing it. However, most criticism is less about public interest 

than about private gain or loss. There are a few exceptions that merit discussion. One 

controversy caused by the use of derelict vessels concerns whether these potential reefs 

pollute the environment. Opponents argue that the artificial reefs constructed from 

mothballed vessels leak oil and contain hazardous substances, such as asbestos. An artificial reef program requires that preparation for deployment include a comprehensive 

cleaning, followed by established measurement to ensure that no contaminants will be 

released. Certification that the vessel is “clean” is one of the many steps in the permitting process.

Nevertheless, concern about contamination is justified. For example, the Georgia Strait 

Alliance and other environmental groups have warned that oil and other contaminants 

remain in inaccessible areas of ships, such as crankcases, fuel tanks, and day tanks 

(small tanks that directly supply individual machines). The groups have stated that 

ships sunk have also contained such hazardous materials as asbestos and paint made 

with tributyltin. Other groups, such as the Artificial Reef Society of British Columbia, 

have been more supportive, asserting that the sinking of decommissioned warships 

increases biodiversity and supports diving tourism. Environment Canada (equivalent to 

the EPA in the United States) found in a study conducted two years after sinking a vessel that there were no elevations in the concentrations of any water-quality parameters 
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measured.34 This test has been repeated several times, with similar results. The accepted 

practices for preparing a vessel for use as an artificial reef are considered safe, and are 

monitored by the government agencies charged with environmental oversight.

Another issue is the view that artificial reefs are simply a disguise for ocean dumping. 

Opponents argue that the variety of materials being used in artificial reefs, such as tires 

and concrete blocks, which are heavily regulated by ocean-dumping agreements and 

statutes, are not being properly prepared for use as an artificial reef but simply dumped. 

Strict criteria are needed for creating artificial reefs, including cleaning and proper 

preparation of the material. The United States and the international community have 

promulgated regulatory measures designed to prevent the abuse of artificial reefing. 

These regulations are intended to ensure that fishery habitat enhancement will not 

be used as a pretext for disguised ocean dumping. The international agreements and 

accepted principles of international law, however, provide only discretionary protection. Guidance over artificial reefs in U.S. waters comprises international standards and 

domestic statutes, in conjunction with agency actions that are often seen as inconsistent, 

thereby creating increased opportunity for disguised ocean dumping.35

The benefits to the environment of artificial reefs are widely acknowledged. An example 

is the case of the Florida Keys. In 1998, the Australian Institute of Marine Science issued 

a report, Status of Coral Reefs of the World, of deteriorating quality in the waters of the 

Keys.36 A meeting of the NOAA Coral Reef Taskforce on 4 May 2006 placed two coral 

species on the Endangered Species List: Acropora palmate (elkhorn coral) and A. cervicornis (staghorn coral).37 However, the NOAA report also noted that the use of artificial 

reefs had contributed to the improvement in conditions. Much of the literature specific 

to the Florida Keys addresses the tendency to “love reefs to death”; this study suggests 

that the use of artificial reefs has in fact significantly lessened the pressures associated 

with tourism on the natural reefs.

Many reports describe in positive terms the carrying capacity of the reef system, focusing on the lessening of pressure on existing reefs and the establishment of artificial 

reefs. In addition, the increased number of corals and filter feeders has improved water 

quality and possibly increased juvenile fish of commercial and sport species, such as 

groupers, and other valuable reef species, such as lobsters. Artificial reefs provide additional habitats for the development of these and other species that feed the food chain.38

Conclusions

Artificial reefs provide one practical solution to the precipitous decline in marine 

resources. Man-made reefs date back to ancient times. Today, artificial reefs made 

from sunken Navy ships can play an important role in conservation and restoration of 
natural reefs by relieving pressure of use and establishing habitats to increase marine life within these miniecosystems. The biological elements necessary to establish 

and sustain marine ecosystems are present in artificial reefs. With proper planning 

and employment strategies, artificial reefs can achieve their intended purposes while 

minimizing unintended consequences. The socioeconomic benefits of artificial reefing 

are paramount. Savings to the U.S. Navy and MARAD in maintaining vessels and the 

cost savings of reefing compared with the alternative disposal options make this option 

increasingly appealing.

In particular, artificial reefs provide an impetus for tourism by supplying alternatives 

to traditional venues, such as natural reefs. Providing variety helps maintain interest in 

an area for reef users.39 The presence of diverse marine life in these areas also provides 

entrepreneurial opportunities for businesses in such sectors as scuba diving, fishing, 

education, research, and ecotourism. These activities, furthermore, require ancillary 

commercial services, such as boat charters, lodging, and food services, all of which 

assist the primary users of artificial reefs, while generating increased revenues. With 

economic growth comes increased competition between businesses. As a result, the reef 

users may benefit from cheaper charter fees.40

Recently, there has been a sharp increase in the use of naval vessels as artificial reefs. 

The cost of scrapping, the low value of salvageable material, and the identified benefits 

of artificial reefing underlie a demand curve that has prompted MARAD and the U.S. 

Navy to expand their efforts to reef retired vessels. As the U.S. Navy actively seeks today 

to reduce the number of inactive ships, more former warships may soon be turned into 

artificial reefs.

Notes

1.“USS Oriskany (CV 34),” Unofficial US Navy 

Site, navysite.de/.

2.“U.S. Navy Ship Sinking Exercises (SINKEX),” 

Unofficial US Navy Site, navysite.de/.

3.“Roskilde 6,” The Navis I Project, www2.rgzm

.de/navis/.

4. Colin McKenzie, “Albert McKenzie VC,” The 

Raid on Zeebrugge: 23rd April 1918, www

.mckenzie.uk.com/.

5. Robert K. Massie, Castles of Steel: Britain, 

Germany, and the Winning of the Great War at 

Sea (New York: Ballantine Books, 2004), pp. 

778–88.

6.“Scapa Flow Scuttling of the German High 

Seas Fleet,” World War 1 Naval Combat, www

.worldwar1.co.uk/.

7.“Wrecks Designated as Maritime Scheduled 

Ancient Monuments,” Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA), www.gov.uk/.

8. Bruce Swanson, Eighth Voyage of the Dragon: 

A History of China’s Quest for Seapower (Annapolis, Md.: Naval Institute Press, 1982), p. 

166.

9. Michael H. Coles, “Suez, 1956: A Successful 

Naval Operation Compromised by Inept Political Leadership,” Naval War College Review

59, no. 4 (Autumn 2006), p. 110.
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10.“Suez Crisis” (course reading, HIST351: Islam, 

the Middle East, and the West, Saylor Academy, n.d.), p. 8, accessed 26 December 2012, 

www.saylor.org/.

11. Historic Naval Ships Association, www.hnsa

.org.

12.“U.S. Navy Ship Sinking Exercises (SINKEX).”

13. Tamara Dietrich, “Environmentalists Aim to 

Stop Navy’s ‘Target Practice,’” Newport News 

Daily Press, 3 October 2012.

14. Ibid.

15. Ibid.

16. Ibid.

17. National Geographic Education: Reference and 

News, s.v. “reef,” education.nationalgeographic

.com/education/.

18. Ron Hess et al., Disposal Options for Ships 

(Santa Monica, Calif.: RAND, 2001), p. 59, 

available at www.rand.org/.

19.“Guidelines for Marine Artificial Reef Materials,” Gulf States Marine Fisheries Commission,

no. 38 (January 1997), p. 2, available at www

.gsmfc.org/. 

20. The Role of Vessels as Artificial Reef Material 

on the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico Coasts of 

the United States, Special Report 38 (Arlington, Va.: Atlantic States Marine Fisheries 

Commission, 1994), pp. 4, 6.

21. Ibid.

22. Floyd D. Spence National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2001, Pub. L. No. 

106-398, 114 Stat. 1654A-1 (30 October 2000).

23. National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal 

Year 2004, Pub. L. No. 108-136, 117 Stat. 1392 

(24 November 2003).

24.“Business Plan for the Sinking of the USS Spiegel Grove,” Key Largo Chamber of Commerce 

Artificial Reef Committee, 1997.

25. V. R. Leeworthy, T. Maher, and E. A. Stone, 

“Can Artificial Reefs Reduce or Alter User 

Pressure on Adjacent Natural Reefs?,” Bulletin 

of Marine Science 78, no. 11 (2006), pp. 29–37.

26. Ibid.

27.“Sinking the Vandenberg . . . From Ship to 

Shipwreck,” Florida Keys & Key West, www

.fla-keys.com/.

28. City of San Diego, California, Final Programmatic Environmental Impact Report, LDR No. 

98-0686 (San Diego, Calif.: San Diego Underwater Recreation Area and Yukon Project, 

September 1999).

29. See San Diego Oceans Foundation, sdof.org.

30.“San Diego Sunken Ship: A Diver’s Paradise,” ABC News, 12 September 2000, www

.ABCNEWS.com/.

31. Ed Parnell, Ecological Assessment of the HMCS 

Yukon Artificial Reef off San Diego, CA (USA) 

(La Jolla, Calif.: Scripps Institute of Oceanography for San Diego Oceans Foundation, 7 

January 2005).

32. Ibid.

33.“Destroyer Will Be Sunk to Create Artificial 

Reef off IR Inlet,” StructureSpot, 31 July 2011, 

structurespot.com/.

34. Marnie Eggen, “That Sinking Feeling: Do 

‘Artificial Reefs’ in BC Waters Increase Biodiversity or Waste?,” Alternatives Journal 23, no. 

1 (Winter 1997).

35. John Macdonald, “Artificial Reef Debate: 

Habitat Enhancement or Waste Disposal?,” 

Ocean Development and International Law 25 

(January–March 1994), pp. 87–118.

36. Judy Lang and Clive Wilkinson, eds., Status 

of Coral Reefs of the World (Townsville, Qld.: 

Australian Institute of Marine Science, 1998), 

p. 130.

37.“Elkhorn and Staghorn Corals Listed in 

Threatened Status,” National Oceanographic 

and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), 5 

May 2006.

38. Ibid.

39. J. W. Milon and R. Schmied, “Identifying 

Economic Benefits of Artificial Reef Habitat,” 

in Artificial Reef Research Diver’s Handbook,

ed. J. G. Halusky (Gainesville: Univ. of Florida, 

Sea Grant College Program, 1991).

40. Robert A. Collinge and Ronald M. Ayers, Economics by Design: Principles and Issues (Upper 

Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice Hall, 2000), p. 45.

Naval Sonars, Strandings, and Responsible 

Stewardship of the Seas

DARLENE R. KETTEN

In 1923 Thomas Edison founded what would become the Naval Research Laboratory 

in Washington, D.C. Today the laboratory has a broadly based program of research 

and development and satellite centers, aligned with the Navy’s systems commands. All 

these facilities operate under the Office of Naval Research, established in 1946 with the 

mission of fostering Navy-relevant scientific research. The Office of Naval Research 

allocates nearly two billion dollars in research funds annually to support a wide range 

of scientific programs. Many of these are based at civilian institutions and address basic 

research questions that have little to do directly with immediate mission needs but 

touch on current and future issues that may impact naval operations and effectiveness. 

They range from neuroscience and medicine to climate change and ecology.

Since 2000 there has been a dramatic global increase in U.S. Navy–funded research 

on underwater hearing in marine animals and on the potential for acoustic impacts on 

them. Although strandings of marine mammals have been reported for over two thousand years, scientific and public attention has become focused by a string of stranding 

cases related to naval sonar exercises. In 1996, twelve Cuvier’s beaked whales beached 

on the same day, in rapid succession, on the coast of Kyparissiakos Gulf in western 

Greece. All died. Alliance, a NATO research vessel, had been conducting sonar exercises 

offshore using midfrequency (MFA) and low-frequency (LFA) sonars for several days 

prior to the beachings. Four years later, in March and May 2000, a mass stranding of 

beaked whales occurred, first in the Bahamas and then off Madeira, coincident with 

naval exercises using MFA sonars.1

 Subsequent widely publicized events in the Canary 

Islands in 2002 and 2004, off Hawaii in 2004, and in Madagascar in 2008 fueled public 

concern that the use of midrange sonars may be a significant cause of marine mammal 

strandings.2

At present, there are no solid answers about what exactly triggered these whale strandings. Was it the sounds per se, the movements of the ships, a peculiarity of the sound 

CHAPTER SEVEN
profiles of those areas, a special sensitivity to some aspect of sonar signals in the species 

that stranded, or perhaps a “perfect storm” of some or all of these factors? During the 

past fifteen years there has been a major research effort, funded primarily by the U.S. 

Navy, to understand the mechanisms behind sonar-related strandings, with the ultimate 

goal of preventing future occurrences. The exact relationship between naval sonar and 

strandings remains in some ways perplexing, but there has been significant progress.

Historical Background of Strandings

Aristotle noted the phenomenon of marine strandings in his treatise on animals circa 

350 bc. In ad 1324, a law in England gave all rights over beached, entrapped, or fished 

cetaceans to the Crown.3

 From the fifteenth century onward, there are illustrations of 

beached whales in Europe. Clearly, there are abundant natural causes for marine mammals to strand, to die and wash ashore, or to find themselves alive on a beach or in water 

too shallow or with currents and tides too strong for them to return to deeper water, 

particularly if weakened by disease, age, or injury.

The term “stranding” technically refers to an event in which an animal is found alive or 

dead in an “inappropriate” location. Strandings take many forms. One or more animals 

may be beached, well up on the shore or simply near shore in water depths or areas that 

are atypical, such as the case of a normally pelagic (oceanic) species coming into a bay 

or estuary, or they may become entangled in lines or fishing gear at sea. Approximately 

four thousand animals strand annually along the U.S. coast and in American territorial 

waters. Strandings occur singly and in groups. The number of individuals and species 

involved vary widely both by region and by season.4

 A “mass stranding” is defined as 

more than two animals, not mother-calf or mother-pup pairs, stranding simultaneously 

or synchronously in close proximity. Therefore, a mass stranding can involve as few 

as three animals or hundreds, and the animals may be, as is true for any stranding, on 

a beach (as in the Greek, Bahamian, and Canary Island cases) or, if normally pelagic, 

sighted in a bay or estuary (as occurred in Hawaii and Madagascar).5

 A stranding incident may be declared an “unusual mortality event” on the basis of several factors: the 

rarity of the species, the number of individuals involved, the location of the species, and 

the numbers stranding and dying in comparison with common patterns for that species. 

These definitions are based on the practices of the Marine Mammal Health and Stranding Response Program of the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s 

National Marine Fisheries Service.6

 But this terminology is fairly common in all stranding response networks worldwide.

When a report of a stranding is received, local response network personnel are activated. They attempt to assist the animal if it is alive. If it is dead or must be euthanized, 

they collect the carcass and record “Level A Data”—observations on the animal’s 
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gender, size, and condition, reports of any known perimortem events, and documentation of the physical environment near the stranding. Most such reports do not provide 

conclusions on a likely cause of death. Rather, a systematic examination of the body, 

called a necropsy, is performed, on the beach or at an established facility, following an 

established protocol.7

 The aim of the necropsy—often involving X-rays, histopathology, 

polymerase chain-reaction studies, and other tests, in addition to gross dissection—is to 

provide a comprehensive analysis of the animal’s condition and obtain and assess any 

evidence potentially relating to the cause of death.

Because of the inevitable postmortem loss of tissue integrity; the practical limitations on 

examining large animals under, often, field conditions; and the limited number of personnel fully trained to perform necropsies, especially in remote areas, complete answers 

are not always possible for every animal. In the last decade, clear causes of death could 

be assigned only in 30–40 percent of all examined cases. Even for unusual mortality 

events, in which numerous experts are brought in to examine every case and the large 

numbers of individuals examined offers a better probability of finding cross correlates, 

causes of death were determined for only 53 percent of events in the past five years.

Any analysis needs to take into account potential biases from sampling error. Human 

population distributions impact reporting of strandings, as shown by comparing 

maps of report locations over time.8

 An overwhelming majority occur in the Northern 

Hemisphere, although increasingly there are reports from South America and Oceania. 

As electronic capabilities spread globally, improvements will most likely occur in the 

spread and speed of reporting, as well as in on-site documentation by both the public 

and professionals. This will undoubtedly lead to a truer global picture of these events 

and their causes.

While marine mammals certainly succumb to disease, age, complications in calving, 

habitat disruption, food shortages, predators, and naturally occurring injuries and 

toxins, many are impacted by human activities, particularly through bycatch (animals 

inadvertently caught in nets in large fishing operations), entanglement in lines or 

debris, collision with ships, or occasionally direct attack, such as shootings. There are 

also more subtle but equally mortal human-derived risks, stressors that can be acute or 

cumulative, such as chemical pollutants and noise from boat traffic. Bycatch numbers, 

estimated to range as high as a hundred thousand annually worldwide, account for the 

majority of human-related stranding deaths.9

 However, in recent years, as a result of 

better gear design and the use of acoustic warning devices on nets, estimates have 

been reduced to less than two thousand annually, on a par with those related to commercial and scientific whaling. Traditional fisheries capture far fewer animals in hunts 

and drives.
Noise, historically, is the most common method used to drive or herd marine mammals. 

Aristotle refers to using “a loud and alarming resonance . . . to induce [dolphins] to run 

in a shoal high and dry up on the beach and so to catch them while stupefied with the 

noise.”10 Such methods continue today in the Taiji drive fisheries in Japan and traditional hunts in the Faeroe Islands. Depth and fish finders have also been used to bring 

whales to the surface.11 Clearly, multiple human activities have potentially significant 

impacts on whales; human-generated, or anthropogenic, sound is one we are just beginning to appreciate.

Ocean Sound: Natural versus Anthropogenic

The ocean is not naturally silent. Indeed, a quiet ocean is a dead ocean. There are myriads of natural sources of ocean noise, most notably geophysical events—such as earthquakes, seafloor spreading, and volcanic activity—most of which produce sounds in the 

seismic or infrasonic domain. Substantial noise is generated by wave action, bubbles, 

and cavitation or is transmitted into the water by ice movements and atmospheric 

events, notably lightning and storms. Some sources, like hydrothermal vents, particularly the “black smokers” in the deep ocean, produce low-frequency “belches” at frequencies of 5–250 hertz (Hz) that raise ambient sound levels by from 20 to 35 decibels (dB).12

By far the largest contributor to natural marine noise, however, is life itself. Marine 

fauna produce sounds ranging from infra- to ultrasonic frequencies at source levels 

higher than 200 dB. Most of these sources are concentrated in the continental shelf 

regions, where 95 percent of all ocean life lives, although there are pelagic and migratory 

species as well. Virtually all marine fauna produce and rely on sound for a broad range 

of critical cues and activities—for example, navigation, detection of prey and predators, 

communication, and mating. The classic Wenz curves provide an excellent summary 

of the relative contribution of biologic versus geophysical and atmospheric sources, as 

well as human sources. They demonstrate graphically how animals evolved to exploit 

less naturally noisy bands for their vocalization frequencies and how human sources are 

competing in some of those bands.13

Atop this background, or “natural ambient,” anthropogenic sources are adding to 

the total noise budget at an ever-increasing pace. According to the findings of a panel 

convened by the Ocean Studies Board under the auspices of the National Academy of 

Sciences, humans are adding significant new noise to the marine environment at a rate 

of 3 dB per decade, although recent data suggest that the rate is slowing as vessel hull 

designs and propulsive systems improve.14 Human contributions to the ocean soundscape include vessel noise, industrial operations, sonars (military, navigational, and 

fisheries), and technologies for research and oil and gas exploration that employ seismic, 

explosive, and impulse sources. There is no human activity in the ocean, whether in the 
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coastal or blue-water domain, that does not add noise, either intentionally or as a byproduct. Many of these activities, including defense and commercial shipping, are not 

just beneficial but critical for our modern lives.

Military sonars, which are primarily low- to midfrequency sources ranging 100 Hz to 

8 kilohertz with source levels over 200 dB, have received to date the greatest attention 

in the media, although they are estimated to contribute less than 5 percent to the ocean 

noise budget, according to the Ocean Studies Board.15 Seismic source technologies 

constitute the next-largest source. These are the mainstay of oil and gas exploration and 

include air-gun arrays, impulse sources with peak spectra below 100 Hz. Commercial 

sonar systems are next, in use as navigational aids and as depth sounders for transport, fisheries, tourism, and recreational vessels. These range from low- to midsonic to 

ultrasonic. Source levels are difficult to determine, as exact noise specifications are not 

always provided by manufacturers, but they have been estimated to exceed 230 dB.

Commercial shipping is by far the dominant source of human-generated noise. Virtually all NATO navies have been reduced over the last two decades, by as much as half in 

all ship categories.16 At the same time, the global merchant marine fleet has increased 

exponentially. Shipping alone is estimated to have increased background noise by 15 

dB in the last fifty years and now accounts for over 50 percent of the total ocean noise 

budget in the Northern Hemisphere. The sounds we are adding may be infrequent or 

constant, narrow or broad spectrum, and they vary in intensity by place and time, raising the issue of how to evaluate not just immediate or acute effects but also long-term, 

cumulative impacts. In some ocean areas, particularly in fragile coastal habitats, we are 

effectively creating a noise environment akin to that of industrial workplaces.

Beaked Whales: An Aquatic Canary for Sound Impacts?

Most concerns for sonar impacts have focused on beaked whales, specifically on Cuvier’s beaked whales (Ziphius cavirostris), as this is the prevalent species in the majority of beachings associated with naval exercises. Systematic analyses of beaked-whale 

strandings have determined that the overall number of whales beached in association 

with any naval activity is relatively low compared with those resulting from all other 

events but also that there is a striking pattern that should be investigated.17 From 1874, 

when international efforts to document beachings began, up to 2004, 136 events involving a total of 539 beaked whales were recorded. Of these, 126 cases, with 486 animals, or 

90 percent of all recorded beaked-whale strandings, occurred after 1950, implying a loss 

equivalent to approximately eight animals per year for the last sixty years.

Echo-ranging devices were first developed in the early twentieth century, and their development gathered momentum to counter submarines in World War I.18 World War II 
brought sonar to the fore and saw the introduction of hull-mounted systems. By 

the 1960s, surface-ship active scanning sonars with longer pings and greater detection ranges were common. This period also saw the development of systems that 

exploited bottom-bounce and convergence-path rather than direct-path algorithms, 

again increasing range, followed by systems of different frequencies, notably LFA and 

MFA sonars.

The first atypical Cuvier’s beaked-whale stranding occurred in 1963, near La Spezia, 

Italy, shortly after a new generation of MFA sonars became available. Several review 

panels noted increases in beaked-whale strandings following the initiation of NATO 

LFA sonar trials after 1981.19 Cuvier’s beaked whales were involved in all the cases in 

which sonars were implicated. Prior to 1950, this species had not commonly stranded, 

either singly or en masse.

Although the number of sonar-related beaked-whales beachings averages fewer than 

ten animals per year, it is not the raw number that is important but rather the fact that, 

as the data demonstrate, at least one species can be seriously impacted to the point of 

a mortal hazard by naval sonar exercises. Just as in the human workplace, the demonstration of noise hazard led to broader concern for noise in general and its potential for 

stress and physical damage, in this case not to workers but to threatened or endangered 

species, many of which rely nearly exclusively on hearing for survival.

While there is a demonstrable association in time and place between sonar activity and 

beaked-whale strandings, there is as yet no clear explanation of how direct or indirect 

effects of sonar lead to beached animals. One confounding element, one that argues 

against sound per se as the culprit, is the fact that these beachings are rare compared 

with the breadth and number of MFA sonars in use, not only by naval forces, but also 

as commercial devices. Further, no mass beaked-whale beachings have been reported 

near any major naval base, worldwide. Lastly, beaked-whale hearing is not known to be 

exceptionally sensitive at middle to low frequencies in comparison with that of other 

whales. Why then are other and more abundant dolphin and whale species in the areas 

of strandings not similarly impacted?

Until a mechanism explaining the beachings is determined, it is impossible to say 

definitively whether these events represent uniquely a beaked-whale phenomenon. It is 

reasonable to hypothesize that beaked whales are more susceptible to certain kinds of 

anthropogenic sound exposure than are other marine mammals, but there have been 

two other incidents, in Hawaii in 2004 and Madagascar in 2008, in which one other cetacean species, the melon-headed whale (Peponocephala electra), appeared to have been 

impacted by sound. As with the Greek case, the absence of any other evident cause led 

the review panels to conclude that exposure to an intense sound source was the likeliest 
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explanation. However, it was later reported that a mass stranding of melon-headed 

whales had occurred simultaneously with the Hawaiian stranding but several thousand 

miles away, near Rota, in the Mariana Islands, suggesting some unappreciated trigger, 

such as prey movement or lunar cycles, had been the true underlying cause.20

The lack of clear answers for all cases has led to assertions in the press and in legal 

suits that the beaked-whale incidents are merely a harbinger of a serious problem of 

mortalities and broader impacts to a wide range of marine species, potentially at an 

ocean-wide scale. To date, however, there is no direct evidence of broad species or otherwise broad-scale impacts. There is, however, the possibility of widespread undetected 

hearing loss among marine mammals from many anthropogenic sources, and that is a 

legitimate concern.

Noise-Induced Hearing Loss

Noise can cause damage to any ear. But “sound” and “noise” are not the same thing. 

Sound is a physical phenomenon that animals detect via their auditory systems, which 

in turn vary in acuity by species. Noise, by contrast, is defined as an aperiodic signal that 

interferes with sound perception and has a negative physiological or behavioral impact.21

In humans, noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL) is common but varies in onset and 

prevalence across individuals and cultures. Exposure at any age to excessive noise, especially over the long term, produces temporary or permanent hearing deficits in the form 

of increased threshold—the sound level below which a sound cannot be detected. Approximately 15 percent of people over twenty years old in the United States have highfrequency NIHL. By age forty-five, 2 percent have substantial, broad-frequency NIHL, 

and by age seventy-five half have extensive, profound hearing loss from long-term noise 

exposure compounded by presbycusis, age-related auditory system degeneration.22

There is no standard method for predicting absolute hearing loss from excess noise 

exposures, only the probability, based on average hearing abilities. Current U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration and European regulations attempt to ameliorate the probability of NIHL by limiting continuous, eight-hour-workday exposures 

to an ambient sound pressure level (SPL) of 85 dB in air, with a mandatory halving of 

exposure time for each 3 dB increase in ambient SPL. The principal idea is to lessen the 

probability of a traumatic loss by avoiding SPLs that could exceed the dynamic range 

of inner-ear tissues. It is equally important to provide time for recovery from fatigue of 

critical inner-ear components, particularly membranes and cells.

Sounds change as they travel through air or water. The probability of damage depends 

on the characteristics of the sound not at its source but when it is received at the ear, 

including intensity, frequency, duration, whether the signal is impulsive or continuous, 
and, above all, the subject’s sensitivity at that frequency. Collectively these elements 

result in a physical and physiological response in the middle and inner ear. NIHL is the 

result of damage to the inner ear’s sensory hair cells, which have small fibers that when 

bent by acoustic stimuli trigger a neural response. Hair-cell overstimulation results 

in temporary insensitivity (a temporary threshold shift, or TTS), primarily through 

metabolic exhaustion or tissue fatigue. Permanent hearing loss (permanent threshold 

shift, or PTS) occurs from irreparable structural cell damage in the inner-ear sensory 

cells and membranes, and it leads progressively to irreversible retrograde auditory-nerve 

degeneration. Such damage manifests itself in the inability to hear a given frequency at 

any sound level and can be seen, in postmortem microscopic examinations of the inner 

ear, as “dead zones” in the sensory cell array.

There are some commonalities to the basic mechanisms of NIHL across mammals, even 

though hearing abilities differ. Animals are generally more susceptible to damage at 

their most sensitive frequencies. At any frequency that they can hear, losses will occur 

in relation to, first, the power spectrum of the signal and, at some frequencies, one-third 

octave higher; second, intensity and duration, which can synergistically exacerbate 

losses; and third, impulse noise, which produces greater impacts than does continuous 

noise at equivalent levels.

In laboratory experiments with cats, monkeys, and rodents, threshold shifts as large 

as 50 dB have been produced that returned to normal sensitivity (i.e., TTS), although 

recovery sometimes required as much as thirty days. Exposures that induced shifts of 

over 50 dB typically resulted in PTS. To date there is no means of accurately predicting 

PTS from measures of TTS onsets, particularly for marine mammals, since responses 

to identical exposures vary widely by both species and individuals. Only in experiments 

with genetically identical strains of mice has a close response pattern been found across 

individuals. This suggests that there is a large genetic element for NIHL susceptibility that complicates conclusions when relatively few individuals are tested in any one 

species.

Hearing curves and TTS data are now available for twelve species of odontocetes 

(toothed whales) and pinnipeds (seals, sea lions).23 Although it is still unclear how 

robust or fragile marine mammal ears are and what their total range is, there is clear 

evidence that despite adaptations for diving and high-pressure environments, they are 

not impervious to permanent noise damage. In audiometric tests of captive animals 

permanent hearing losses have been documented that are consistent with hearing damage from disease, aging, and NIHL. Experiments have also been conducted to determine 

exposure levels that induce small and fully recoverable TTS. Longitudinal studies on 

captive animals demonstrate progressive losses with age and, as in humans, steep losses, 

or “notches,” near the best sensitivities in several marine mammal species.24 Recent 
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postmortem studies of ears from some of these subjects have found evidence of extensive neural losses consistent with long-term profound hearing deficits.25 Ears from some 

beachings also show NIHL and age-related changes, as well as other ear pathologies, 

including labyrinthitis ossificans (a condition in which infections produce bone growth 

that obliterates the inner ear), and evidence of parasitic infestations and chronic middleear disease. All of these are natural hazards for a wild animal, but none are symptomatic 

of acute noise injury.26

Hearing is considered the most important sensory system for most marine species and 

particularly for marine mammals. Studies to date show that marine mammals, like 

other mammals, can be impacted temporarily or permanently by excess noise and that 

the effects may range from mild to profound impairment. Although individual animal 

health is a concern, the critical issue is biological significance, which means populationlevel rather than isolated individual impairments. A finding of a single animal with a 

hearing impairment is not a reliable indicator of a population-level impact. However, 

a high incidence of NIHL across genders and ages in any one population would be of 

great concern, as that is not likely to occur through natural processes. Shifting the 

noise budget of the oceans can result in a significant population-level hazard not only 

to marine mammals but also to other species, particularly fishes, if the noise spectrum 

coincides with their best hearing sensitivities. Current data are insufficient to formulate 

population-level noise-hazard criteria. To achieve that level of understanding, broader 

species hearing baselines and monitoring systems need to be developed.

The fact that marine mammals sustain natural hearing loss makes demonstrating a 

direct cause from any anthropogenic source problematic, particularly if few animals 

are examined. To date there has been no demonstrable evidence of direct acute, traumatic, disruptive, or profound auditory damage in any marine mammal as the result of 

anthropogenic noise exposure, including to sonar.27 This does not negate concern that 

it could happen, but it does underscore the need for a better understanding of the many 

facets and consequences of sound use. What the examinations of the beached animals 

do show is that even in the absence of any demonstrable auditory trauma, nonauditory 

effects can range from behavioral disruption to incidental trauma or even death, and 

they are an equally important element to consider.

Controversial Theories about Sonar Impacts

The apparent susceptibility of beaked whales to sonar-related stranding triggered a 

search for mechanisms that could explain why they, of all the marine mammal species, 

are especially vulnerable. It is unclear whether sonar and ship movements played direct 

roles in the pathologies documented in the Bahamian, Greek, and Canary Island cases, 

as opposed to attendant stress and trauma from beaching or some other action the 
exposures induced. Key questions remain about what to mitigate: direct sound exposure, a behavioral response to sound exposure, a physiological process set in motion by 

sound exposure, the physical impacts of beaching, or some combination of the above.

Necropsies of beached beaked whales showed blood deposits within the inner ears, 

hemorrhaging in the subarachnoid space surrounding the brain, the presence of blood 

in the orbits and oral cavity, and hemorrhages in fatty tissues and in some cerebral ventricles. Some animals in the 2002 Canary Islands incident were reported to have widely 

disseminated intravascular bubbles.28 This was also reported in a retrospective study 

of archived specimens of several species of stranded animals in the United Kingdom.29

There is a substantial probability that some of these findings are artifacts of a suite of 

complicated processes including salvage, transport, and storage as well as variable preand postmortem environments.

One workshop summarized possible impacts as follows: a behavioral avoidance response to sound leading directly to beaching; maladaptive dive responses (rapid ascent, 

staying at depth, remaining at the surface) leading to air emboli, hypoxia, hyperthermia, 

cardiac arrhythmia, hypertensive hemorrhage, or other trauma; and tissue damage or 

other physiological effects resulting directly from sound exposure (acoustically mediated bubble formation and growth, vestibular responses, tissue resonances, bleeding 

diathesis, disseminated coagulopathy, or vascular fragility).30

At this stage, nothing should be ruled out without a careful, balanced assessment, 

but it is important to focus on mechanisms consistent with the greatest number of 

significant observations across cases. For example, there is considerable debate over 

the suggestion of lethal effects of emboli based on observations of bubbles postmortem. Direct acoustic induction of bubble formation and the possibility of bubbles being 

related to a decompression-like, or “bends,” phenomenon in whales were assessed in a 

recent workshop of marine mammal and dive physiologists.31 Diagnosis of decompression sickness requires the presence of several features lacking in the animals examined.32

The presence of bubbles per se and in isolation is not sufficient to give a diagnosis of 

decompression sickness.33 Intravascular air bubbles, or air emboli, in dived animals, 

including humans, are a common phenomenon and are not in themselves dangerous.34

They have also been shown to form and increase with postmortem time in experiments 

with animals “dived” in hyperbaric chambers. Postdiving, air comes out of solution, 

forming small bubbles in the blood that travel to the lungs and are released via the respiratory process. Bubbles in postmortem animals observed in necropsies are most likely 

related to the cessation by death of normal off-gassing processes by the lungs, resulting 

in bubbles that continue to grow in number and size throughout the body. A cascade 

of bubble formation could be set off in such cases by nicking a vessel, as is common 
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in a necropsy, introducing a small amount of air that sets off an avalanche of bubble 

formation.35 Other workshops found that tissue resonances at any sonar frequency are 

insufficient to produce trauma at even the level of the capillary bed, let alone to account 

for the hemorrhages reported.

These debates are good examples of how the process of hypothesis, scientific inquiry, 

and review can work effectively. A number of studies are now under way to monitor 

blood gases, lung collapse, structural variations in airways, and vasculature of marine 

mammals.36 Further, necropsy procedures are being standardized both to regularize reports of presence of bubbles and to introduce procedures that will minimize artifacts.37

It is not clear, however, when, if ever, the debates will be resolved to the satisfaction of 

all parties.

One important ongoing area study is on the behavioral effects of sound on beaked 

whales. The Behavioral Response Study research program is an international consortium of acousticians, engineers, observers, and behaviorists engaged in a series of 

five-year projects involving field measurements of the response of tagged beaked whales 

to sonar and control sounds.38 The studies entail deployment of a vertical-array sound 

source for controlled sound exposures of tagged focal animals for up to several hours, 

during which they are subjected to different signals and source levels. Results to date 

have provided our first glimpse into the highly variable responses across species to the 

same stimulus under equivalent conditions. It is now clear that beaked whales have a 

characteristic avoidance response, but it is not specific to sonar—it occurs with any 

novel sound. By contrast, pilot whales gravitate toward novel stimuli.

Estimating Impacts in the Wild

At present, any activity that may impact marine mammals requires an environmental 

impact study and estimation of potential “Level A” and “Level B” incidental events, 

commonly referred to as harassments, or “takes.” Level A is defined as activity that has 

the potential to injure a marine mammal stock in the wild. Level B is the potential to 

disturb a marine mammal stock by causing disruption of behavioral patterns, including, 

but not limited to, migration, breathing, nursing, breeding, feeding, or sheltering. Level 

B in particular is quite broad; it may represent anything from a simple shift of attention, 

equivalent to noting a car (or ship) passing by, to a substantial disruption of behavior 

that will endanger several animals. The first National Research Council (NRC) report 

on the subject, in 1994, commented that as “researchers develop more sophisticated 

methods for measuring the behavior and physiology of marine mammals . . . , it is likely 

that detectable reactions, however minor and brief, will be documented at lower and 

lower received levels of human-made sound.” A later NRC report, from 2000, concluded 

that it “does not make sense to regulate minor changes in behavior having no adverse 
impact; rather, regulations must focus on significant disruption of behaviors critical to 

survival and reproduction.” The next NRC report concerned with ambient noise, published in 2003, stated that the previous recommendations were still relevant.39

The consensus of the successive NRC committees is that the definition should raise the 

threshold of harassment from detectable individual responses to biologically significant—that is, at the population level—events. One consequence of using gaugeless individual responses as a metric is misinterpretation of the number of estimated potential 

“takes,” particularly in the popular press. A recent example of this is a series of articles 

appearing in the New York Times from October through December 2012 that seized 

on the maximal number of potential incidental takes in a Navy environmental impact 

study as an indication that millions of animals would be grievously harmed by proposed 

Navy activities.

One New York Times editorial asserted that a weapons training and testing program 

had a potential for thirty-three million “takes,” but it failed to explain that this number 

derives from a calculation of each possible perception by any single animal for any underwater sound generated in excess of natural ambient levels by the proposed operation, 

regardless of the level received and absent any observable effect. Nor did the editorial 

consider that the permitting process rigorously evaluates potential “takes” according to 

severity, examining carefully the possibility of an animal’s being significantly disturbed 

or harmed, before any permit is issued. The reader is left with an impression of incalculable numbers of ruptured eardrums, extensive hearing loss, resultant ship strikes, and 

deaths from “sonic chaos.”40

Popular-press articles like this bolster claims that marine mammal mortalities from 

sound are underestimated. Several lawsuits have asserted that whales are killed by 

sound and sink rapidly, disappearing without any indication of the event. This is a denial of the physiology of death. Bodies initially sink, but they typically refloat within a few 

days. After days or weeks, as decomposition progresses, they expand, lose body-wall integrity, and finally sink again.41 The timeline varies depending on water temperature, as 

well as such other factors as gut content, amount of body fat, scavengers, and so on, but 

there is no reason to expect this process to be substantially different for a whale, which 

postmortem becomes a well-insulated, warm carcass that fosters bloat and refloating.

Several lawsuits brought against both the military and research institutions have asserted that they are not meeting the requirements of the Marine Mammal Protection 

Act (MMPA). One sought to halt LFA deployments on the basis of the Bahamian cases 

of beaked-whale beachings involving midrange sonars. To date there is no evidence 

of strandings related to use of LFA sonars in isolation. Nevertheless, this lawsuit was 

successful. Furthermore, much of the suit’s discussion centered on the potential for 
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excessive numbers of takes and inadequate appreciation of posited impacts, as well as 

failure to follow the normal procedures for submission and review of an impact assessment under Endangered Species Act (ESA) and MMPA regulations and definitions.

While such suits are motivated by sincere concerns, their potential impacts are quite 

broad. The issue of restrictions on sound sources is not simply a military matter. Liabilities and costs related to ESA and MMPA permitting are a common problem for every 

endeavor, whether currently regulated or not, that involves the use of sound in the seas, 

including research, exploration, resource development, and commercial shipping.

It is appropriate for any entity operating in the oceans to proceed with care. Sonar 

exercises have, as the public well appreciates, resulted in serious and regrettable disturbances that led to strandings and deaths of marine animals. High-profile events like 

the dramatic beachings in the Bahamas are being construed as global events, in terms 

of both species affected and numbers of harmful sound sources. One recent counterproductive victory was a lawsuit by which an experiment to test the audibility of sonars 

intended to protect whales from ship strikes was halted, with the result that the project 

was subsequently abandoned.

Realistically, it is virtually impossible to eliminate all acoustic impacts from all endeavors for all marine mammals. Therefore, the key issues that must be assessed are: What 

combination of frequencies and sound pressure levels are needed for each anthropogenic acoustic task? What species are present in the area the device will ensonify at levels 

exceeding ambient? What is the probable severity of any potential impact to exposed 

marine mammals from the combined frequency-intensity-temporal characteristics of 

the source? Above all, are these factors likely to produce any biologically significant 

impact to any marine species?

In the most recent NRC report, published in 2005, a major recommendation was to 

structure future research on marine mammals to assist predictions of populationlevel consequences.42 Individual effects are inputs to the database, but the true issue is 

biological significance, which implies a species- or population-level effect deriving from 

impacts that are capable of altering the viability of a significant portion of the population. Just as with injury, biologically significant alterations are the appropriate determinants for behavioral harassment criteria.

Conclusions

There is no denying that anthropogenic noise has the potential to harm marine life. The 

results from the last decade of intense research efforts on this issue show that anthropogenic noise, intentional or incidental, can be biologically significant, disrupting critical 

behaviors in ways like abandonment of feeding grounds, corruption of communication 
signals, and alteration of migration routes, and in some rare cases, causing distress 

to marine mammals to the point of beaching. It is the responsibility of the media and 

scientists alike to report events fully and responsibly, to assist in educating the public 

about the foundations for and extent of legitimate concerns, and to prevent the “mediafueled” rounds of hearings and litigation that were experienced in connection with 

acoustic testing off Heard Island near Antarctica, the Acoustic Thermometry of Ocean 

Climate experiments, and now military sonars.43 At this time, there is no clear demonstration of a population-level impact on any marine mammal species from any acoustic 

event; nevertheless, the sonar-related beaching cases have clearly raised valid concerns 

that warrant a full explanation. As the 2005 National Research Council report stated, 

“On the one hand, sound may represent only a second-order effect on the conservation 

of marine mammal populations; on the other hand, what we have observed so far may 

be only the first early warnings or ‘tip of the iceberg’ with respect to sound and marine 

mammals.”44 The remaining uncertainties in these cases is the root cause of much of the 

fear of dire consequences of noise in the oceans.

Although many questions remain, the research to date has provided some clear answers, 

and equally important, it has shown how essential a strong, collaborative research program on sound and its impacts is to protecting marine life and the health of our oceans. 

Thus far, the research on sonar impacts has been supported nearly entirely by funding 

from the Marine Mammal Program of the Office of Naval Research, the Energy and 

Environmental Readiness Division of the Chief of Naval Operations staff, and, recently, 

the U.S. Navy’s newly formed Living Marine Resources Program. Much of this research 

was directed at assisting the U.S. Navy to understand the core hazards to marine life 

associated with maritime operations and how to avoid or at the least mitigate those 

risks. However, the insights and technologies this work has fostered are providing our 

first clear glimpse of how whales operate at depth and over time. These Navy-funded 

research programs quickly expanded knowledge of marine mammal hearing and 

produced innovations in underwater acoustic propagation models, tags for monitoring 

animals at depth, and increasingly sophisticated operational aids for detecting and predicting movements of individual animals at sea. These innovations assist not only the 

Navy but also shipping, fisheries, and research to reduce bycatch and ship strikes and to 

monitor migration patterns, essential behaviors, and population trends. These programs 

determined critical sound exposure limits and supported development of technologies 

to test wild stranded animals on-site for hearing loss and injury. Remote sensors now 

allow us to monitor individual free-ranging animals for changes in dive patterns and 

physiology in response to sound.

Continuing such broad-based programs of basic and applied research is critical to 

understanding of not just sonar impacts but a far greater range of potential hazards to 
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ocean life. Parameterizing hazards is essential for the informed risk assessments that 

are part of this endeavor. There is an undeniable hazard to some marine mammals 

from any underwater noise at some level and in some location, but the focus must be 

shifted from the impossible goal of avoiding any possible individual impact to one with 

a greater perspective. Such a shift, backed by data and implemented with caution and 

judicious oversight, can prevent stagnation and provide a path forward on the basis of 

an understanding of what can be achieved without substantive harm and of clear and 

valid limits for responsible stewardship of the oceans.

Notes

1. D. L. Evans and G. R. England, Joint Interim 

Report Bahamas Marine Mammal Stranding 

Event of 15–16 March 2000 (Washington, D.C.: 

National Oceanographic and Atmospheric 

Administration [NOAA], National Marine 

Fisheries Service, and U.S. Navy Dept., 2001); 

L. Freitas, “The Stranding of Three Cuvier’s 

Beaked Whales Ziphius cavirostris in Madeira 

Archipelago: May 2000,” ECS Newsletter 42 

(2004), pp. 28–32.

2.A. Frantzis, “Does Acoustic Testing Strand 

Whales?,” Nature 392 (1998), p. 29; A. 

D’Amico and W. Verboom, eds., “Report 

of the Bioacoustics Panel,” SACLANTCEN 

Bioacoustics Panel, La Spezia, Italy, 15–17 

June 1998; D. R. Ketten et al., “Cranial Trauma 

in Beaked Whales,” in Proceedings of the 

Workshop on Active Sonar and Cetaceans (n.p.: 

ECSN, 2003), pp. 21–27; A. D’Amico et al., 

“Beaked Whale Strandings and Naval Exercises,” Aquatic Mammals 35, no. 4 (2009), pp. 

452–72; A. Fernández et al., “Last ‘Atypical’ 

Beaked Whales Mass Stranding in the Canary 

Islands (July, 2004),” Journal of Marine Science 

Research & Development 2 (2012), p. 107. See 

also D. R. Ketten, Beaked Whale Necropsy 

Findings for Strandings in the Bahamas, Puerto 

Rico, and Madeira, 1999–2002, Technical 

Publication WHOI-2005-09 (Woods Hole, 

Mass.: Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, 2005).

3. Natural History Museum, Out of the Blue: 

The UK Whale & Dolphin Stranding Scheme

(London: Dept. of Zoology, 2005), available at 

www.nhm.ac.uk/.

4.“National Marine Mammal Stranding Program,” Marine Mammal Health and Stranding 

Response Program, mmhsrp.nmfs.noaa.gov/.

5. For Madagascar, “Independent Review of a 

2008 Mass Stranding in Madagascar,” International Whaling Commission, [2008], iwc

.int/. For Hawaii, “July 2004 Mass Stranding 

of Melon-Headed Whales in Hawai‘i,” NOAA 

Fisheries Office of Protected Resources, 2004, 

www.nmfs.noaa.gov/.

6.“Strandings,” NOAA Fisheries Feature, www

.nmfs.noaa.gov/.

7. N. Young, ed., Odontocete Salvage, Necropsy, 

Ear Extraction, and Imaging Protocols (Washington, D.C.: Office of Naval Research and 

NOAA Fisheries, 2007), available at csi.whoi

.edu/.

8. D’Amico et al., “Beaked Whale Strandings and 

Naval Exercises.”

9.A. Read, P. Drinker, and S. Northridge, Bycatches of Marine Mammals in US Fisheries 

and a First Attempt to Estimate the Magnitude 

of Global Marine Mammal By-catch (Woking, 

Surrey, U.K.: WWF-UK, 2006); A. Read, “The 

Looming Crisis: Interactions between Marine 

Mammals and Fisheries,” Journal of Mammalogy 89, no. 3 (2008), pp. 541–48.

10. Aristotle, The History of Animals, trans. 

D’Arcy Wentworth Thompson (Oxford, U.K.: 

Clarendon, 1910), p. 231.

11. Roger Payne, Among Whales (New York: 

Scribner’s, 1995), p. 431.

12. Decibels are a measure of sound pressure 

and intensity. Pressure and intensity are both 

calculated with respect to a reference pressure. The reference pressures used in these 

measures differ in air and water. For airborne 

sound, the reference is twenty micropascals, 

written “re 20 μPa.” For underwater sound, the 

reference pressure is re 1 μPa. Consequently, 
a sound in air and in water that has the same 

intensity (acoustic power per unit area) has 

decibel values that differ by 61.5 dB—that is, 

a sound measured in air at 100 dB re 20 μPa 

would have a decibel value of 162 dB re 1 μPa 

in water.

13. G. M. Wenz, “Acoustic Ambient Noise in 

the Ocean: Spectra and Sources,” Journal of 

the Acoustical Society of America 34, no. 12 

(1962), pp. 1936–56.

14. National Research Council [hereafter NRC], 

Ocean Noise and Marine Mammals (Washington, D.C.: National Academies, 2003).

15. Ibid.

16. Bryan McGrath, Nato at Sea: Trends in Allied 

Naval Power (Washington, D.C.: American 

Enterprise Institute, 18 September 2013), 

available at www.aei.org/.

17. D’Amico et al., “Beaked Whale Strandings and 

Naval Exercises.”

18. A. D’Amico and D. Pittenger, “A Brief History 

of Active Sonar,” Aquatic Mammals 35, no. 4 

(2009), pp. 426–34.

19. NRC, Low-Frequency Sound and Marine 

Mammals: Current Knowledge and Research 

Needs (Washington, D.C.: National Academy, 

1994); NRC, Marine Mammals and LowFrequency Sound: Progress since 1994 (Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press, 2000); 

NRC, Ocean Noise and Marine Mammals; T. 

M. Cox et al., “Understanding the Impacts of 

Anthropogenic Sound on Beaked Whales,” 

Journal of Cetacean Research and Management 

(2005).

20. T. Jefferson et al., “An Unusual Encounter with 

a Mixed School of Melon-Headed Whales 

(Peponocephala electra) and Rough-Toothed 

Dolphins (Steno bredanensis) at Rota, Northern Mariana Islands,” Micronesica 38 (2006), 

pp. 239–44.

21. K. D. Kryter, Handbook of Hearing and the Effects of Noise (New York: Academic, 1996); N. 

Slepecky, “Overview of Mechanical Damage 

to the Inner Ear: Noise as a Tool to Probe Cochlear Function,” Hearing Research 22 (1986), 

pp. 307–21.

22.“Quick Statistics,” National Institutes of Health: 

National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD), www.nidcd

.nih.gov/.

23. B. L. Southall et al., “Marine Mammal 

Noise Exposure Criteria: Initial Scientific 

Recommendations,” Aquatic Mammals 33, no. 

4 (2007).

24. S. H. Ridgway and D. A. Carder, “Hearing 

Deficits Measured in Some Tursiops truncatus 

and the Discovery of a Deaf/Mute Dolphin,” 

Journal of the Acoustical Society of America

101 (1997), pp. 590–94; R. J. Schusterman, 

B. L. Southall, D. Kastak, and C. Reichmuth, 

“Age-Related Hearing Loss in Sea Lions and 

Their Scientists,” Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 111 (2002), pp. 2342–43.

25. D. R. Ketten, “Marine Mammal Auditory System Noise Impacts: Evidence and Incidence,” 

in “The Effects of Noise on Aquatic Life,” ed. 

A. Popper and A. Hawkins, special issue, Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology

730 (2012), pp. 207–12.

26. Ketten et al., “Cranial Trauma in Beaked 

Whales,” pp. 21–27.

27. D’Amico et al., “Beaked Whale Strandings 

and Naval Exercises,” pp. 453–72; Ketten et 

al., “Cranial Trauma in Beaked Whales,” pp. 

21–27.

28. A. Fernández, “Pathological Findings in 

Stranded Beaked Whales during the Naval 

Military Manoeuvres near the Canary 

Islands,” in “Proceedings of the Workshop 

on Active Sonar and Cetaceans,” ed. P. G. H. 

Evans and L. A. Miller, special issue, European 

Cetacean Society Newsletter, no. 42 (2004), pp. 

37–40.

29. P. D. Jepson et al., “Gas-Bubble Lesions in 

Stranded Cetaceans,” Nature 425, no. 6958 

(2003), pp. 575–76; P. D. Jepson et al., “Acute 

and Chronic Gas Bubble Lesions in Cetaceans 

Stranded in the United Kingdom,” Veterinary 

Pathology 42 (2005), pp. 291–305.

30. Cox et al., “Understanding the Impacts of 

Anthropogenic Sound on Beaked Whales.”

31. S. K. Hooker et al., “Deadly Diving? 

Physiological and Behavioural Management 

of Decompression Stress in Diving Mammals,” 

Proceedings of the Royal Society B (2012).

32. A. Brubakk and T. Neuman, Bennett and Elliotts’ Physiology and Medicine of Diving, 5th 

ed. (New York: Elsevier, 2002); C. Edmonds 

et al., Diving and Subaquatic Medicine, 4th ed. 

(London: Arnold, 2002), p. 719.

33. C. A. Piantadosi and E. D. Thalmann, “Pathology: Whales, Sonar and Decompression Sickness,” Nature 428, no. 6984 (15 April 2004), 

p. 716ff.
meyers$:___WIP from C 032812:_Newport Papers:_NP_42 Elleman-Paine:_InDesign:NP_42 07 Ch7Ketten.indd June 25, 2015 12:54 PM

34. Z.-L. Jiang et al., “Flow Velocity in Carotid 

Artery in Humans during Immersions and 

Underwater Swimming,” Undersea and Hyperbaric Medicine 21, no. 2 (1994), pp. 159–67; 

Edmonds et al., Diving and Subaquatic 

Medicine; M. Ferrigno, “Breath-Hold Diving,” 

in Bove and Davis’ Diving Medicine, ed. A. A. 

Bove (Philadelphia: W. B. Saunders, 2004), pp. 

77–93.

35. There are a great many other postmortem 

processes, such as bacterial activity, that 

produce bubbling and froth. See W. U. Spitz, 

ed., Spitz and Fisher’s Medicolegal Investigation of Death: Guidelines for the Application 

of Pathology to Crime Investigation, 3rd ed. 

(Springfield, Ill.: Charles C. Thomas, 1993), 

p. 829; R. S. Cotran, V. Kumar, and T. Collins, 

Robbins Pathologic Basis of Disease, 6th ed. 

(Philadelphia: W. B. Saunders, 1999), p. 1425.

36. G. L. Kooyman, P. Ponganis, and R. Howard, 

“Diving Animals,” in The Lung at Depth, ed. 

C. Lundgren and J. Miller (New York: Marcel 

Dekker, 1999), pp. 587–620.

37. Young, Odontocete Salvage, Necropsy, Ear 

Extraction, and Imaging Protocols.

38. B. Southall et al., “Marine Mammal Behavioral 

Response Studies in Southern California,” 

Advances in Technology and Experimental 

Methods, Marine Technology Society Journal

46, no. 4 (2012), pp. 48–59.

39. NRC, Ocean Noise and Marine Mammals.

40.“Marine Mammals and the Navy’s 5-Year 

Plan,” New York Times, 12 October 2012.

41. Spitz, Medicolegal Investigation of Death.

42. NRC, Marine Mammal Populations and Ocean 

Noise: Determining When Noise Causes Biologically Significant Effects (Washington, D.C.: 

National Academies, 2005), p. 15.

43. W. Munk et al., “The Heard Island Feasibility Test,” Journal of the Acoustical Society of 

America 96 (1994), pp. 2330–42; J. R. Potter, 

“ATOC: Sound Policy or Enviro-vandalism? 

Aspects of a Modern Media-Fueled Policy Issue,” Journal of Environment and Development

3 (1994), pp. 47–76.

44. NRC, Marine Mammal Populations and Ocean 

Noise, p. 15.

U.S. Coast Guard Response to the Deepwater 

Horizon Oil Spill

REAR ADM. MARY L ANDRY, U.S. C OAST GUARD (RETIRED)

Navies and coast guards can respond in nonmilitary ways to natural, and especially 

man-made, disasters. On 20 April 2010, the BP (formerly British Petroleum) Deepwater 

Horizon offshore oil rig caught fire in the Gulf of Mexico, about 250 miles to the south 

and east of Houston, Texas. The fire could be seen thirty-five miles away. Eleven of the 

126 crew members on board the oil rig perished. From 20 April through 19 September 

2010, when the wellhead was finally sealed, an estimated 4.2 million barrels of oil 

leaked out of the five-thousand-foot-deep well, creating the largest offshore oil spill in 

U.S. history.

The exact cause of the blowout is still being investigated. One study of the accident was 

initiated by the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) and the Minerals Management Service on 22 

April 2010, only two days after the accident and the same day the Deepwater Horizon rig 

collapsed into the water and sank to the bottom of the Gulf.1

 It appears, on the basis of 

this study and other scientific reports, that human error was to blame—technicians on 

the surface misread the fluid pressure data from the oil well below. Once the accident 

occurred, the rig’s “blowout preventer” refused to close properly, which meant that leaking oil could not be contained. The National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon

Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling report, released on 5 January 2011, blamed the accident 

on human error, specifically risky decisions based on a desire to save time and money.2

USCG ships and personnel were among the first responders to the explosion and 

oil spill. Not only did the Coast Guard help ensure the safety of the remaining crew 

members as they evacuated the rig, but it initiated a maritime search for those who 

were missing. Most important, it became the first point of contact for coordinating 

disaster-response efforts. Rear Adm. Mary Landry, commander of the Eighth Coast 

Guard District, headquartered in New Orleans, Louisiana, was the top Coast Guard official coordinating a field response that at its height involved over forty-seven thousand 

people from federal, state, local, tribal, and private-sector agencies and the international 

CHAPTER EIGHT
community in what she has described as the largest fully integrated response this country has undertaken using the incident command system. After setting the scene of the 

accident, this chapter will examine the national response to Deepwater Horizon, mainly 

from Rear Admiral Landry’s perspective.

The Blowout, Fire, and Oil Spill on Deepwater Horizon

On 2 April 2010, just eighteen days before the Deepwater Horizon accident, President 

Barack Obama stated in a North Carolina speech that offshore oil drilling was “technologically very advanced” and that “oil rigs today generally don’t cause spills.”3

 While, as 

noted, the exact circumstances that led to Deepwater Horizon’s blowout, fire, and subsequent oil spill are still under dispute—legal wrangling could continue for years, perhaps 

even decades, to fix responsibility for the accident and to determine appropriate fines 

and compensation—it is quite clear in hindsight that President Obama was too optimistic, as were the federal regulators overseeing offshore drilling and the companies that 

were pushing the technological edge in drilling ever farther offshore and at ever deeper 

depths. The nation had seen fewer spills and vastly improved response actions as a 

result of Exxon Valdez and the subsequent Oil Pollution Act of 1990. But it had become 

complacent; also, certainly, no containment system had been developed, tested, and 

proven to secure a blowout taking place a mile below the surface of the Gulf of Mexico. 

Before turning to a description of the cleanup effort and the impact of the oil spill on 

the environment, it will be useful to describe the drilling site, the equipment being used, 

and the likely causes of the accident. These details are relevant for understanding why 

the U.S. Coast Guard made many of its later decisions on how best to respond to the oil 

spill. The Deepwater Horizon oil rig was a fifth-generation, deepwater, semisubmersible, 

mobile, offshore drilling unit. It was designed to drill subsea wells to explore for new 

oil fields in waters up to eight thousand feet deep; it was one of only a handful of oil rigs 

in the world capable of drilling at depths of over five thousand feet. Deepwater Horizon

had been built for R&B Falcon, Inc. (a firm that provides marine drilling-rig services), 

by Hyundai Heavy Industries in Ulsan, South Korea. Construction began in December 

1998, the keel was laid on 21 March 2000, and the platform was delivered on 23 February 2001, soon after the acquisition of R&B Falcon by Transocean Ltd. Transocean then 

leased the oil rig to BP on a three-year contract for deployment in the Gulf of Mexico; 

the contract was renewed a number of times, ultimately through 2013. BP paid a daily 

fee of over $500,000 for the use of this platform.4

Deepwater Horizon worked on wells in several oil fields before moving to the Macondo 

Prospect in February 2010, soon after BP acquired drilling rights there in 2009. This 

field begins about forty-one miles off the southeast coast of Louisiana and lies under 

approximately five thousand feet of water. By 20 April, drilling of an exploratory well at 
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this location had been technically “concluded”; engineers were in the final stages of sealing the wellhead when the accident took place.5

At 9:45 pm central time on 20 April 2010, a geyser of seawater erupted approximately 

240 feet into the air. Such an event is called a “blowout.” This one appears to have been 

caused by human error—engineers, thinking the methane gas pressure in the well was 

significantly lower than it really was, began to replace the heavier drilling fluid with 

lighter seawater, which proved insufficiently dense to contain the release of methane. 

When the blowout occurred, a mixture of water, mud, and methane gas was ejected. 

After the methane ignited, this caused a series of explosions and then an enormous 

fireball. Engineers on the rig attempted to activate the blowout preventer, which would 

normally have cut off the gas flow, but the device failed. The preventer had apparently 

sustained damage in the initial event—it is not known for sure.

One of the many contractors that had employees working on the rig was Halliburton. 

One of the main jobs of the Halliburton workers was to seal the wellhead with concrete. 

Drilling had fallen six weeks behind schedule, however, and when it came time to finish the wellhead the “steps required to form a cement seal in the well were shortened 

or skipped, and the usual test on the cement was eliminated.”6 In addition, software 

modeling by a Houston-based Halliburton engineer named Jesse Gagliano showed that 

twenty-one centralizers needed to be used, and there were only six on board Deepwater 

Horizon: “Installing the extra centralizers would take up to ten hours, considerable time 

on a rig that was costing BP a million dollars a day to lease and operate.”7

 To save time, 

the extra centralizers were not added. Arguably, it was the combination of these shortcuts that resulted in the blowout.

At the time of the explosion there were 126 crew on board: seven were employees of BP, 

seventy-nine of Transocean, and many others working for contractors like Halliburton, Anadarko, and M-I SWACO. Eleven workers went missing and “were never found 

despite a three-day Coast Guard (USCG) search and rescue operation” and so were 

presumed dead.8

 The eleven who died were two mud engineers, Gordon Jones and Keith 

Blair Manuel; a driller, Dewey Revette; a toolpusher, Jason Anderson; a crane operator, 

Aaron Dale Burkeen; two assistant drillers, Donald Clark and Stephen Ray Curtis; three 

floor hands, Karl Kleppinger, Jr., Shane Roshto, and Adam Weise; and a derrick hand, 

Roy Wyatt Kemp. Most were young, in their twenties and thirties; Keith Manuel was the 

oldest, at fifty-six, driller Dewey Revette next, at forty-eight.9

The oil rig was immediately evacuated, and numerous injured workers were airlifted 

to medical facilities. Seventeen of the survivors suffered serious injuries. Investigations 

into the causes of the accident revealed that senior Transocean officials had authorized 

safety alarms on Deepwater Horizon to be “inhibited,” since “they did not want people 
woken up at three o’clock in the morning due to false alarms.” The long-term impact of 

this decision was that on the day of the accident “visual and sound alarms which should 

have gone off when sensors detected fire or combustible or toxic gases did not warn 

workers of impending danger.”10

After burning for approximately thirty-six hours, Deepwater Horizon sank on 22 April 

2010, which, coincidentally, was Earth Day. Wreckage from the rig was found resting on 

the seafloor about 1,300 feet, or about a quarter of a mile, to the north and west. Meanwhile, oil continued to seep out of the wellhead. Several efforts to cap the well failed. 

The oil spill lasted for eighty-seven days before it was finally capped on 15 July 2010. 

Relief wells were then drilled so as to seal the well permanently. The well was declared 

“effectively dead” on 19 September 2010. Although estimates differ, the total spill size 

was about five million barrels (210 million U.S. gallons), making Deepwater Horizon the 

largest accidental marine oil spill in U.S. history.

Creating the Incident Command System 

Rear Admiral Landry responded to this accident by using the Incident Command System (ICS), which had been the doctrine for response in the Coast Guard since the mid1990s. This system was created to help align federal agencies and enhance coordination 

with states, local communities, Native American tribes, the private sector, and nongovernmental organizations, so as to improve the nation’s ability to respond to crisis. The 

ICS is based on the premise that the most economical and efficient way to respond to 

crises of the magnitude of the Deepwater Horizon accident is to integrate Department 

of Defense (DoD) capabilities within the existing domestic response structure. This not 

only makes fiscal sense but also maintains respect for the governance structures and 

legal authorities that exist at the local, state, and federal levels. By the time this incident 

occurred, the expectation for oil spill crisis response was that federal, state, and local 

authorities and the private sector (in this case, BP, as the responsible party) would operate with unity of effort under the Incident Command System.

Since the nineteenth century the U.S. military has been limited in what tasks it can undertake within the country’s borders, under the insurrection statute and posse comitatus.

11 But there have been instances where the National Guard, under state authority, has 

responded to natural disasters as well as human-made events, such as the Los Angeles 

riots in 1992. The military’s support for civil authorities has evolved over time. For 

example, Public Law (PL) 91-606, commonly known as the Disaster Relief Act of 1970, 

heavily influenced the modern approach to the military support to civil authorities.12

This act expanded disaster relief and increased the required coordination of federal 

relief programs. Up to this time, disaster relief had been provided by numerous agencies 

in an uncoordinated fashion, making it difficult for individuals, businesses, and state 
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and local governments to obtain assistance being offered. In particular, the Disaster Relief Act encouraged states to develop comprehensive relief plans to prepare for disaster 

relief operations. The Secretary of the Army was given the lead for all military support 

in disaster response, and his leadership shaped how the military provided this capability 

in domestic situations. 

The next significant piece of legislation that influenced DoD’s support to civil authorities (DSCA) came with the enactment of the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and 

Emergency Assistance Act, PL 100-707, signed into law on 23 November 1988. While 

expanding the federal government’s ability to provide disaster relief to state and local 

governments after major natural disasters, the Stafford Act also specifically authorized 

local military forces to provide an immediate response to save lives, prevent human 

suffering, and mitigate property damage without prior approval from the Secretary of 

Defense. The act authorized these missions to last up to ten days without specific funding approval, although the local commander was required to request a mission assignment as soon as possible. 

During this time the DoD continued to publish military directives and guidance on 

how to support civil authorities.13 In the same way that federal law improved coordination among federal agencies, DoD consolidated its guidance for the DSCA mission. In 

1992 the federal government published the Federal Response Plan, which focused on 

federal roles and responsibilities during a disaster.14 In 1993, DoD republished its military directive, DoDD 3025.1, consolidating all the policies and procedures into one system to provide military support to civilian authorities. A 1997 directive (DoDD 3025.15) 

clarified the policy’s intent on how state and local authorities could request assistance 

directly from the military. 

While both the federal law and DoD legal authorities and policies had been updated to 

meet the changing times over the years, the events of 9/11 catapulted this work to a new 

level as the nation reacted to the first act of war on American soil since World War II. 

Progress in improving incident management quickened; reforms were implemented, 

and the new funding and added attention from Congress after the terrorist attacks 

brought fundamental changes. In 2003, President George W. Bush signed Homeland 

Security Presidential Directive 5, “Management of Domestic Incidents,” to enhance the 

ability of the United States to manage domestic incidents by establishing a single and 

comprehensive national incident-management system. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) was given responsibility to administer the National Incident 

Management System (NIMS). There was also a concerted effort to have states adopt 

the Incident Command System, by making NIMS participation a condition of federal 

preparedness-grant funding. The NIMS can be applied to incident management of 
everything from terrorist attacks to natural disasters, and it has become the basis for 

preparedness and response. 

In the wake of 9/11, DSCA has rapidly evolved to meet the threat against the homeland. 

It continues to be refined in the context of providing capabilities to meet “all hazards,” 

including natural and man-made disasters. The policy and planning work at the federal 

level has made an important leap from scenario-based planning for each potential type 

of event (which resulted in reams of planning documents to reflect particular scenarios 

from pandemic to terrorism), to capabilities-based planning (where capabilities are 

examined and refined to deliver what is needed under any circumstance). 

During 2004, the federal government updated the Federal Response Plan, renaming it 

the National Response Plan, which was itself updated in 2006; finally in January 2008 it 

was renamed again as the National Response Framework (NRF).15 The NRF was released 

as a national guide to conduct all-hazards response. It was built on flexible coordinating 

structures to align key roles and responsibilities across the country, linking all levels of 

government (including federal, state, and local), nongovernmental organizations, and 

the private sector. Meanwhile, the DoD has continued to update policy regarding the 

DSCA mission, publishing DoDD 3025.18 on 29 December 2010 and change 1 to that 

directive on 21 September 2012.16

Finally, Presidential Policy Directive (PPD) 8, National Preparedness, published on 30 

March 2011 is intended to strengthen the security and resilience of the nation through 

systematic preparation for all hazards. Most importantly, it incorporates the concept 

of an integrated, capabilities-based approach to preparedness, an approach involving 

everyone from the local citizen to the largest federal agencies and businesses. It should 

allow for better tracking of the nation’s ability to build and improve the capabilities 

necessary to prevent, protect against, mitigate the effects of, respond to, and recover 

from threats that pose the greatest risk to the security of the country. Rather than emphasizing preparedness and response to specific types of incidents, like earthquakes or 

hurricanes, PPD 8, National Preparedness, treats domestic incident response as a system 

with mutually complementary phases and as one that is as a whole one of the building 

blocks of a more capable and resilient nation ready to deal with all hazards through an 

“all of nation” response.

The USCG and the NIMS

The U.S. Coast Guard was particularly well positioned to take charge in a crisis. As 

far back as 1915, Capt. Ellsworth Price Bertholf, Commandant of the Revenue Cutter 

Service when it merged with the Life-Saving Service to become today’s Coast Guard, 

stated, “The Coast Guard occupies a peculiar position among other branches of the 
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Government, and necessarily so from the dual character of its work which is both civil 

and military. Its organization, therefore, must be such as will best adapt it to the performance of both classes of duties.”17 The U.S. Coast Guard had begun investing in NIMS 

in the wake of the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill and continued to improve it as the nation 

expanded its incident management capabilities. 

The Coast Guard, as the fifth armed service, is unique in that it is the only service with 

federal regulatory and law-enforcement authorities. It has operated as a military service 

in every war and conflict in our nation’s history, even while serving locally in the ports 

and waterways throughout the nation. When the Coast Guard moved into the newly 

formed Department of Homeland Security in 2003, it continued to focus on incident 

management and in that connection often worked side by side with Department of 

Defense colleagues in making the adjustments necessary to integrate NIMS successfully 

into domestic crisis response. 

Simultaneously with the Coast Guard’s work, the other branches of the armed forces 

were examining better ways to integrate their capabilities into the federal response 

structure. The Department of Defense assigned permanent Defense Coordinating Elements (DCEs) into the ten Federal Emergency Management Agency Regions across the 

country. Led by Defense Coordinating Officers (DCOs), the DCEs have tremendously 

improved the ability of DoD to meet the DSCA mission requirements. 

Rather than NIMS, the military uses the Joint Operation Planning and Execution 

System (JOPES). It emphasizes the chain of command and a very clear command-andcontrol hierarchy, while NIMS places emphasis on unity of effort and coordination with 

and among federal, state, and local entities, all of which retain their own authorities and 

jurisdictions. The DCOs and their teams act as the interpreters of the two “languages” 

of NIMS and JOPES, thereby ensuring that military capabilities can be integrated as 

needed in a crisis, with clear lines of authority and chains of command for the military 

coordination with civil authorities. Synchronization between the military and civil 

response structures continues to improve among the DCEs, in exercise programs, and 

in actual responses to major events. It often appears seamless to people both working 

in and observing from outside the disaster response. That being said, there are always 

novel aspects to crisis response that challenge unity of effort and coordination. The Gulf 

oil spill was no exception.

Reacting to the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill

Rear Admiral Landry assumed command of the Eighth Coast Guard District, headquartered in New Orleans, Louisiana, during June 2009. This timing was deliberate, 

meant to allow her to get in place and oriented to the region prior to the peak of the 
hurricane season. She gave a high priority to traveling to meet each of the Gulf Coast 

governors and other key leaders, visit state emergency operations centers, and inspect 

key Department of Defense commands. The list included the governors of Louisiana, 

Florida, and Mississippi, and the homeland security leaders and heads of the emergency 

operations centers of these three states, as well as Texas and Alabama. 

Rear Admiral Landry also visited the Army Corps of Engineers, Mississippi Valley 

Division, with headquarters in Vicksburg, Mississippi, under the command of Maj. Gen. 

Mike Walsh. The Army Corps of Engineers was a key component, providing critical 

waterway management of locks and dams throughout the district and heavily involved 

in building the $14.5 billion hurricane barrier and flood-control project authorized by 

Congress in the wake of Katrina to protect New Orleans from another flooding crisis.

The 2009 hurricane season passed relatively quietly, but it was merely the calm before 

the real storm—on 20 April 2010, when the Deepwater Horizon accident occurred. 

The government reaction to this accident was the largest fully integrated response the 

United States has ever undertaken using the Incident Command System. At its height, 

tens of thousands of responders were being coordinated from federal, state, local, tribal, 

and private-sector entities. There were also representatives included from academia, 

national laboratories, nongovernmental institutions, and the international community. 

The response was organized under the National Oil and Hazardous Substances Pollution Contingency Plan (NCP), the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 (OPA 90), and the Coast 

Guard’s Spill of National Significance (SONS) protocol.18 The NCP had been published 

in 1968 in the wake of a massive oil spill from the tanker Torrey Canyon off the coast of 

England, and it outlined a process for a comprehensive and coordinated spill response. 

The NCP continued to be updated to reflect best practices and lessons learned from 

various worldwide incident responses; the latest update was completed in 1994 after the 

passing of OPA 90 legislation following the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska. The SONS 

protocol was the Coast Guard’s published policy doctrine, continuously exercised. 

Legislation and doctrine clearly outlined the structure of the response under the 

Incident Command System and laid out a unified command construct wherein the 

federal and state agencies and responsible party would work together to minimize 

the environmental impact from the spill. But it soon became clear that the scale and 

scope of the Deepwater Horizon incident would eclipse what had been envisioned in 

the OPA 90 legislation and would test the doctrine and practices of all involved. Every 

tanker, every barge, every coastal marine oil terminal that transferred oil from the 

waterway to shore, and every mobile offshore drilling unit, such as Deepwater Horizon

itself, had to have a plan to respond to a worst-case discharge of oil. In other words, 

the responsible party had to provide its own resources on the basis of what it identified 
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as the worst-case-scenario discharge. The oil companies, in turn, relied on contracts 

with companies called “oil-spill-response organizations,” which had both locally based 

resources and access to resources around the world. 

In terms of natural resources, the Eighth Coast Guard District is one of the richest in 

the United States, by virtue of its extensive shipping, fishing, and offshore drilling. 

Rear Admiral Landry clearly outlined the “worst case scenario parameters” during the 

first hours of the response. As she repeatedly stated in her first news conferences to the 

Today Show, “The potential scale and scope of this spill was going to be immense and 

require the full capacity of response companies, federal agencies, states, local communities, and even the Department of Defense.” 

It is hard to describe the sense of urgency everyone felt after the accident—it was like being in a vortex where everyone was totally consumed by the task at hand and what drew 

us all together was a full sense of what was at risk. The intensity can be compared to that 

of the Coast Guard work in port security post-9/11. Just as 9/11 required us to protect 

our nation and way of life from terrorism, the responders to Deepwater Horizon were 

focused on saving an ecosystem and a way of life along the Gulf Coast. 

Immediate Decisions after the Accident 

The role of the Department of Defense under its DSCA mission was enormous. During the first week of the incident an important meeting and conference call was held 

that would set the tone and direction for the response by federal agencies, including 

the Department of Defense. As District Commander, the author assumed the role of 

Federal On Scene Coordinator (FOSC), which meant field coordination of the overall 

response. The goal for the FOSC was to direct the response, working to gain consensus 

among all parties with equities in the response: the Gulf Coast states and local communities, the federal agencies such as the Department of Commerce for federal fisheries 

and the Department of the Interior for federal trust territories and the offshore energy 

sector, and others.

Rear Admiral Landry directed the responsible party, in this case BP, to meet its legal 

obligation under OPA 90, which required the responsible party to be ready to respond 

to the worst-case scenario. In the initial days she was in constant contact up the chain 

of command, all the way to the Commandant of the U.S. Coast Guard, Adm. Thad 

Allen, who was briefing senior cabinet officials and President Obama, along with senior 

officials of the White House team. Admiral Landry was also in contact with governors 

of the Gulf Coast states, with Louisiana senators Mary Landrieu and David Vitter, and 

with other senior congressional leaders from the Gulf Coast states. Within that first 

week several cabinet secretaries and congressional leaders saw the site of the incident by 
air and arrived in Robert, Louisiana, for a tour of the command post, a briefing, and a 

press conference. The group included the Secretary of Homeland Security, Janet Napolitano; the Secretary of the Interior, Ken Salazar; the administrator of the Environmental 

Protection Agency, Lisa Jackson; and the White House Energy and Climate Coordinator, Carol Browner. The governor of Louisiana, Bobby Jindal, accompanied the group 

and spoke at the press conference.

After this event the cabinet secretaries convened in a room to conduct a conference call 

with other key leaders in Washington, D.C. The importance of this call should not be 

underestimated, in that it included the Secretary of Defense, the Chairman of the Joint 

Chiefs of Staff, and the White House National Security Staff lead for domestic response 

(Richard Reid). Several of these senior leaders were answering to President Obama 

and keeping him informed on a regular basis. The Coast Guard and FEMA are both 

under the Department of Homeland Security, and Secretary Napolitano had options for 

how best to execute the response to the crisis. The author vividly recalls that Secretary 

Napolitano agreed that the response was best handled under OPA 90 legislation, leaving 

the responsible party funding the response, as opposed to declaring a disaster using the 

Stafford Act, which would require federal funding.

A second important point of this phone call came when the Secretary of Defense offered 

anything that might be needed as part of the response under the DSCA rubric. He also 

suggested that the response team bring in the National Guard to support the governors 

but have DoD pay the National Guardsmen under federal orders so individual states 

would not be burdened and would not have to struggle with reimbursement. The fact 

that the Secretary of Defense and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs both participated 

so early in the event demonstrated to everyone that this would be a comprehensive 

response and that we would be supported by the full capacity of the nation. 

As the days, weeks, and months unfolded, active-duty service members, reservists, and 

National Guardsmen all served in the response in various capacities, and DoD equipment was used for everything from logistics to oil skimming. Rear Admiral Landry 

repeatedly stated, “There is a sense of urgency, and there has been since day one. We 

have not backed off on this since day one.”19 Reflecting this urgency, Governor Jindal 

declared a state of emergency for Louisiana on 29 April. The loss of tourist dollars 

quickly impacted almost all the Gulf states; estimates of lost revenue climbed into the 

billions of dollars. 

At the start of Deepwater Horizon cleanup, a Tyndall Air Force Base unit agreed to provide airspace management. The Gulf of Mexico is like a small city; over thirty thousand 

people work offshore every day. Helicopters fly people and logistical supplies back and 

forth to and from the oil rigs. At first the goal was to keep the footprint light and not 
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interfere with routine practices of airspace activity, but over time and after a few near 

midair collisions, the government put in flight restrictions and ramped up its airspacemanagement capacity. 

Because this was a domestic situation, the Air Force took a supporting and advisory role 

from the very beginning, thus allowing the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to 

exercise its statutory jurisdiction over management of airspace. There were later accusations that press access to the scene of the accident was too restricted. Local and federal 

authorities were challenged for denying access to members of the press attempting to 

document the spill from the air, from boats, and on the ground, by blocking access to 

areas supposedly open to the public. There was one report that the U.S. Coast Guard 

stopped Jean-Michel Cousteau’s boat and another that a CBS News crew was denied access to oil-covered beaches. The Coast Guard readily admitted that the communication 

of restrictions was not as clear as it could have been and that this had led to misunderstandings. The Coast Guard public-affairs team, turning to DoD public-affairs specialists for additional capacity, worked through the problems of managing the balance 

between transparency and safety and environmental protection during this massive 

response. The latter issues included what were labeled “the boom wars.” Booms (floating 

barriers meant to contain oil on the surface and to block sensitive areas) were a scarce 

commodity. There were incidents of booms being stolen, of people cutting through 

booms, and of journalists and civilians tramping through oiled areas, further damaging 

marshes. These were some of the reasons the Coast Guard put restrictions in place. 

A suspicious public and media, however, believed the motive behind the restrictions was 

to deny access. Members of Congress criticized the restrictions placed on journalists’ 

access. The FAA, for its part, argued that all media access had to be arranged through 

the Coast Guard. The Coast Guard, supported by DoD, worked hard to overcome the 

misunderstanding, allowing as many as four hundred journalists to embed themselves 

on board boats and aircraft, in this way giving access while maintaining safety and 

environmental protection.

Oil Spill Response

Another example of Department of Defense capability was the Navy’s oil spill response 

equipment. The primary components of the strategy for addressing the spill were containment, dispersal, and removal. Oil began seeping out of the underwater well almost 

immediately after the accident. An early estimate by BP authorities suggested a rate of 

a thousand barrels per day, but on 28 April 2010, Rear Admiral Landry stated that it 

could be closer to five thousand barrels per day, which soon became the official estimate.20 Later estimates were as much as ten times higher, at between 52,700 and 62,200 

barrels per day. Total estimates of leaked oil were approximately 4.9 million barrels 
(210,000,000 U.S. gallons), plus or minus 10 percent. BP challenged these higher figures, 

saying that not only had the government overestimated the total volume but these 

higher estimates did not reflect over 810,000 barrels (thirty-four million U.S. gallons) of 

oil collected or burned before entering the Gulf waters. Notwithstanding, and although 

the total volume is still in dispute, the amount was significant enough to require the full 

response capacity of the private sector and government.

The Navy has its own oil-recovery equipment, which it uses on naval installations. BP, 

trying to mobilize everything that was commercially available in the region, found it 

necessary to contract the Navy equipment for additional capacity. The National Guard 

proved especially resourceful, building land berms to protect marsh areas and inlets. 

The berms absorbed the oil before it entered these sensitive areas, wetlands already at 

risk from loss of land and coastal erosion. Booms stretching altogether over 4,200,000 

feet were eventually deployed, either to corral the oil or to serve as barriers. The booms 

extended an average of eighteen to forty-eight inches above and below the water surface 

and were especially effective in relatively calm and slow-moving waters. Adding onetime-use sorbent booms, a total of 13,300,000 feet of booms were deployed.

A good example of DoD logistics capability was demonstrated in the midst of the “boom 

wars.” By the early weeks of the response BP had bought virtually the entire global 

inventory of ocean booms, but governors of the Gulf Coast states were insisting they 

be provided with enough booms to outline their coastlines and inlets. BP called every 

ocean-boom manufacturer in the world trying to satisfy the demands of a particular 

governor who insisted that deliveries were not coming fast enough. BP found that one 

of the oil-spill response organizations had extra ocean booms in storage in Alaska 

and authorized a million dollars to have the military fly the booms to the Gulf Coast 

overnight.

According to satellite images, despite the use of booms to stop the spread of oil, the spill 

directly impacted sixty-eight thousand square miles of ocean, an area about the size 

of Oklahoma. This was frustrating for Rear Admiral Landry, who noticed during one 

aerial inspection that many boats and much cleanup equipment appeared to be sitting 

idle just beyond the edges of the oil slick. To put pressure on BP, she announced that the 

Coast Guard would double its manpower in the Gulf: “There is really no excuse for not 

having constant activity. . . . Our frustration with BP is there should be no delays at all” 

in making use of emergency equipment.21

By early June 2010, after several early failures by BP to stem the flow from the wellhead, 

oil had washed up onto about 125 miles of Louisiana’s coastline. Thad Allen, who had 

retired as Coast Guard Commandant in May but was still the national incident commander in the Gulf, compared the spill to a war: “And this is a war, it’s an insidious 
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war . . . because it’s attacking, you know, four states one at a time, and it comes from 

different directions depending on the weather.”22 At about this same time, the barrier 

islands in Mississippi, Alabama, and the panhandle of Florida began to be impacted. By 

July, tar balls had appeared along the shores of Lake Pontchartrain. By September, a new 

wave of oil unexpectedly hit sixteen miles of Louisiana coastline and marshes west of 

the Mississippi River in Plaquemines Parish. By October the oil spill even reached Texas. 

By some estimates, a total of 1,074 miles of coastline was damaged by oil in Louisiana, 

Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida. 

On 15 July 2010, after many delays and failed attempts, the wellhead was finally capped. 

One industry expert noted that however frustrated the federal, state, and public stakeholders had been with the time it took, industry had designed and built in three months 

a solution that would under normal research and development standards have taken two 

to three years. Everyone now agrees that the optimal situation would have been to have 

the cap on standby during the drilling process, and that is now a Department of the 

Interior response requirement for deepwater drilling. 

Before the wellhead was capped significant amounts of oil were diverted to containment ships, but most of it escaped into the surrounding waters. There were three basic 

approaches for removing the oil from the water: combustion, offshore filtration, and 

collection for later processing. Rear Admiral Landry announced a decision to use 

“controlled burns” miles from shore, which it was hoped “could reduce the amount of 

oil collected within fireproof booms by more than half, though she acknowledged that 

the downside was that a plume of soot and possibly toxic air pollutants would be spewed 

into the atmosphere.”23 From the end of April to mid-July 2010, 411 controlled in-situ 

fires destroyed approximately 265,000 barrels (11,100,000 U.S. gallons) of oil, or about 

5 percent of the amount leaked. As for filtering contaminated water, in mid-June BP 

ordered thirty-two machines that could separate oil and water, each capable of extracting up to two thousand barrels (320 cubic meters) of oil per day. After a week of testing, 

BP began to use this equipment and by 28 June had removed 890,000 barrels of oil. The 

USCG later calculated that 33,000,000 U.S. gallons of tainted water had been recovered 

by filtration, extracting five million U.S. gallons of oil (about 2 percent of the leaked oil). 

Finally, about 3 percent of the oil was skimmed from the surface of the water. In total 

2,063 skimmers were used, about sixty of them open-water skimmers. 

Within about two weeks of the Deepwater Horizon disaster, most of the surface oil 

appeared to have dissipated. Much of it washed up on shore. By summer 2010, approximately forty-seven thousand people and seven thousand vessels were involved in the 

cleanup project, which soon became one of the largest on record. Sandy beaches and 

marshlands were the two main challenges. For beaches, the main techniques included 

sifting sand, removing tar balls, and digging out tar mats by hand or with mechanical 
devices. For marshlands, techniques such as vacuuming and pumping, low-pressure 

flushing, vegetation cutting, and bioremediation were used. As of January 2013, the oil 

cleanup alone had cost BP over fourteen billion dollars. 

Although the majority of visible oil deposits were ultimately collected, an unknown 

amount of subsurface oil remained unaccounted for. In 2010, the Department of the 

Interior and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration stated that “75% 

[of the spilled oil] has been cleaned up by Man or Mother Nature.” However, since only 

about 25 percent of the released oil was collected or removed by BP, this meant that 

about 75 percent of the oil remained in the environment in one form or another.24 In 

2013, at a meeting of the Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill and Ecosystem Science Conference, 

some experts suggested that as much as a third of the oil may have mixed with deep 

ocean sediments, where it could continue to harm ecosystems and commercial fisheries.

The methods used to clean up the spill oil were also notable for the sheer volume of an 

oil dispersant called Corexit they used. It was estimated that 1,840,000 U.S. gallons were 

dispersed. Some of the application methods were considered “purely experimental,” and 

“BP’s use of chemical dispersant underwater, for example, was the first time this method 

was attempted.”25 Almost half the total amount of dispersants, or some 771,000 U.S. 

gallons, was released at the wellhead. In addition, over four hundred airplane sorties to 

disperse Corexit were flown.

There were many unanswered questions about the use of dispersants, especially in 

such large quantities. Rear Admiral Landry acknowledged these concerns but pointed 

out that federal scientists had approved their use: “That threshold we crossed was not 

done lightly. . . . It was done in cooperation with all the federal agencies. . . . It’s all a 

series of trade-offs. We are really trying to minimize the environmental impact of all 

these methods being done.”26 On 2 August 2010 the Environmental Protection Agency 

determined that dispersants had stopped a large amount of oil from reaching the coast 

by breaking it down. However, outside experts continued to voice concerns about this 

approach. Two years after the spill, one study found that Corexit had increased the 

toxicity of the oil by up to fifty-two times.27

The Department of Defense was instrumental in support of the overall crisis response, 

as were many other federal, state, local, nongovernmental, and academic institutions. 

An employee from BP remarked in conversation with the author months after the event 

that had someone asked him whether BP would need the federal government’s help in a 

scenario such as Deepwater Horizon he would have said no but that this response would 

have proved him wrong; he now readily admitted that it needed the help. 
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Conclusions

The Deepwater Horizon accident was later blamed on excessive risk-taking by the rig’s 

crew: “On the platform the day of the blowout, tests and sensors showed dangerous 

pressure levels rising in the well, but the idea of a blowout was unthinkable to workers.”28

Considering the unexpected size of the Deepwater Horizon accident and the enormous 

oil spill that it caused, the USCG did a remarkable job helping orchestrate a response 

that had to take into account all the many instruments of state power. Once the safety 

of the survivors among the crew was confirmed, top priorities included protecting 

beaches, marshlands, and estuaries from the spreading oil by utilizing controlled burns, 

skimmer ships, floating booms, and well over a million U.S. gallons of Corexit oil 

dispersant. However, adverse effects from the response and cleanup activities, extensive 

damage to marine and wildlife habitats and to the fishing and tourism industries, and 

human health problems continued to have a noticeable impact. For example, in July 

2013, more than three years after the spill, the discovery of a forty-thousand-pound tar 

mat near East Grand Terre, Louisiana, prompted the closure of the local waters to commercial fishing. The Oil Pollution Act of 1990 required the responsible party not only to 

pay for the response itself but to make restitution for the environmental impact, under 

a formal natural resource damage-assessment process. That process is still ongoing and 

could take years. Additionally, in a novel move, Congress passed in June 2012 the Restore Act, which stipulates that 85 percent of the civil penalties collected by the federal 

government from the responsible parties is to go directly to offsetting environmental 

and economic impacts to the Gulf states.29

This incident shows that oil spill response was inadequate, including how the DoD deploys in support of civil authorities. During Deepwater Horizon it took a two-star Coast 

Guard admiral—Rear Adm. Jim Watson—several days working with the Department of 

Defense just to get the accounting straight for the military interdepartmental purchase 

request required to allocate troops and capabilities to the crisis. Something is wrong 

with a system that tied up that much manpower to figure out the paperwork in the 

critical first days of the response.30 Additionally, some units in DoD deploy to domestic 

situations with the same complements they use going overseas. But when deploying 

domestically they need to go in lighter, to have more adaptive packages, so as to ensure 

that the most efficient and effective resources are applied to the situation. DoD resources do not come cheap, but they can be indispensable. The key is to strike the right 

balance between what is needed for domestic crisis response and what the Department 

of Defense is uniquely able to provide.

The legal disputes caused by the Deepwater Horizon explosion and oil spill are not 

over. Numerous investigations to determine responsibility for the accident have been 

conducted. Notably, a U.S. government report on the disaster in September 2011 
determined that defective cement on the wellhead was mainly to blame, for which it 

faulted BP, Transocean, and Halliburton. Earlier in 2011 a White House commission 

had likewise criticized BP and its partners for a series of cost-cutting decisions and 

an insufficient safety system. It concluded that the spill resulted from “systemic” root 

causes and that “absent significant reform in both industry practices and government 

policies, might well recur.”31 In November 2012 BP and the Department of Justice settled 

outstanding federal criminal charges, and BP agreed to four years of government monitoring of its safety practices and ethics. In January 2013, Transocean agreed to pay $1.4 

billion for violations of the Clean Water Act, and two months earlier BP and the Department of Justice agreed to a record-setting $4.525 billion in fines. As of February 2013, 

however, BP had paid a stunning $42.2 billion in criminal and civil settlements, as well 

as payments to a recovery trust fund—altogether the largest payout of its kind in history.

Notes

Tragically, eleven souls were lost in the initial 

explosion of Deepwater Horizon, there was damage 

to the environment, and many people’s lives were 

altered. But the healing continues, and the Gulf 

Coast was saved.

The thoughts and opinions expressed in this essay 

are those of the author and are not necessarily 

those of the U.S. government, the U.S. Navy Department, or the Naval War College.

1.“Coast Guard Confirms Horizon Sinks,” 

Upstream Online, 22 April 2010, www

.upstreamonline.com/. 

2.Ayesha Rascoe, “BP and Firms Made Risky 

Decisions before Spill: Report,” Reuters, 5 

January 2011, reuters.com/.

3. Glenn Croston, The Real Story of Risk: 

Adventures in a Hazardous World (Amherst, 

N.Y.: Prometheus Books, 2012), p. 103, citing 

“Remarks by the President in a Discussion 

on Jobs and the Economy in Charlotte, North 

Carolina,” White House: Office of the Press 

Secretary, 2 April 2010, www.whitehouse.gov/.

4. Croston, Real Story of Risk, p. 103.

5.“Updated: Search Continues for 11 Missing 

Workers,” Rigzone, 22 April 2010, rigzone

.com/.

6. Croston, Real Story of Risk, p. 103. 

7.Abrahm Lustgarten, Run to Failure: BP and 

the Making of the Deepwater Horizon Disaster

(New York: W. W. Norton, 2012), p. 310.

8. Leslie Kaufman, “Search Ends for Missing Oil 

Rig Workers,” New York Times, 24 April 2010, 

p. A8. 

9. Tomás Mac Sheoin and Stephen Zavestoski, 

“Corporate Catastrophes from UC Bhopal 

to BP Deepwater Horizon: Continuities in 

Causation, Corporate Negligence, and Crisis 

Management,” in Black Beaches and Bayous: 

The BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill Disaster,

ed. Lisa A. Eargle and Ashraf Esmail (New 

York: Univ. Press of America, 2012), p. 62.

10. Ibid., p. 69, citing E. Pilkington, “BP Rig’s 

Alarms Were Switched Off ‘to Help Workers 

Sleep,’” Guardian, 24 July 2010.

11. The Insurrection Act of 1807, 10 USC §§ 

331–35; Posse Comitatus Act, 18 USC § 1385, 

original at 20 Stat. 152, passed 18 June 1878. 

12. Pub. Law No. 91-606, 84 Stat. 1744, 31 December 1970, as quoted by Alice R. Buchalter, 

Military Support to Civil Authorities: The Role 

of the Department of Defense in Support of 

Homeland Defense (Washington, D.C.: Library 

of Congress, February 2007), p. 4. 

13. DoD Issuances: The Official Department of 

Defense Website for DoD Issuances, www.dtic

.mil/whs/directives/corres/.

14. See www.FEMA.gov. 9230.1-PL Supersedes 

FEMA 229 (April 1992). 

15.“National Response Framework,” Federal 

Emergency Management Agency, www.FEMA

.gov/. 
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16. This directive with change 1 included superseded DoDD 3025.1 and 3025.15, and it 

provides the most current DoD policy guiding 

the DSCA mission. DoD Issuances.

17.“United States Coast Guard Historian’s Office,” 

United States Coast Guard, www.uscg.mil/.

18. See “Emergency Response: National Oil and 

Hazardous Substances Pollution Contingency 

Plan (NCP) Overview,” EPA: United States 

Environmental Protection Agency, www2.epa

.gov/; Oil Pollution Act of 1990, 33 USC § 

2701, as amended through PL 106-580, 29 December 2000; U.S. Homeland Security Dept., 

Spill of National Significance (SONS) Response 

Management, Commandant Instruction

16465.6 (Washington, D.C.: Commandant, 

United States Coast Guard, 23 May 2012).

19. Mike Magner, Poisoned Legacy: The Human 

Cost of BP’s Rise to Power (New York: St. Martin’s, 2011), p. 247.

20. John Barnshaw and Lynn Letukas, “Beyond 

Petroleum in the Gulf of Mexico: The Characteristics and Consequences of Catastrophe,” in 

Eargle and Esmail, Black Beaches and Bayous,

p. 44.

21. Magner, Poisoned Legacy, p. 247.

22. Ibid., p. 256.

23. Ibid., p. 212.

24. Richard A. Kerr, “A Lot of Oil on the Loose, 

Not So Much to Be Found,” Science 329, no. 

5993 (13 August 2010), pp. 734–55.

25. Sheoin and Zavestoski, “Corporate Catastrophes from UC Bhopal to BP Deepwater 

Horizon,” p. 79.

26. Magner, Poisoned Legacy, p. 234.

27. Douglas Main, “Dispersant Makes Oil 52 

Times More Toxic,” Science on NBC News.com, 

www.nbcnews.com/.

28. Croston, Real Story of Risk, p. 104.

29. Bruce Alpert, “Congress Passes Restore 

Act, Flood Insurance Extension in Massive 

Transportation Bill,” Greater New Orleans 

Times-Picayune, 29 June 2012, www

.nola.com/.

30. The author understands that DoD has since 

improved the military interdepartmental 

purchase request process.

31.“Obama Oil Spill Commission’s Final Report 

Blames Disaster on Cost-Cutting by BP and 

Partners,” Daily Telegraph (London), 5 January 

2011.

Deep Blue Diplomacy

Soft Power and China’s Antipiracy Operations

ANDREW S. ERICKSON AND AUSTIN M. STRANGE

For the first time in its modern history China has deployed naval forces operationally 

beyond its immediate maritime periphery for extended durations, to protect merchant 

vessels from pirates in the Gulf of Aden. Over a six-year span beginning in December 

2008, China has contributed over ten thousand navy personnel in nearly twenty task 

forces and has escorted over six thousand Chinese and foreign commercial vessels 

in the process. While it is uncertain how many task forces will be deployed and for 

how long, China will likely remain in the Gulf of Aden through 2015, and perhaps 

longer if the United Nations further extends its mandate for navies to fight piracy off 

Somalia.1

 China’s naval antipiracy mission represents an unprecedented instance of 

conduct by the Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) of sustained longdistance operations. It provides a rare window by which outside observers can see how 

the naval component of China’s “going out” strategy cuts across economic, political, 

and strategic dimensions. While many of China’s other maritime activities damage 

its international image, antipiracy operations in the far seas project soft power and a 

positive image.

The Chinese navy’s antipiracy missions provide much-needed security for Chinese 

overseas interests. But the PLAN has also crafted its antipiracy missions to portray 

blue-water operations positively abroad. Increasingly, the PLAN’s antipiracy mandate is 

oriented toward broader international security objectives. Commercial escort statistics 

exemplify this trend: initially China’s navy was only allowed to escort Chinese-flagged 

ships through the Gulf of Aden, but now in some cases over 70 percent of ships in given 

Chinese escort flotillas have been foreign flagged. Similarly, to secure the maritime 

commons Chinese commanding officers and sailors serving off Somalia have worked 

increasingly in the framework of bilateral exchanges with other navies as well as in 

multistakeholder settings.

CHAPTER NINE
This chapter explores the soft-power dimension of China’s far-seas antipiracy operations. It addresses the extent to which Gulf of Aden deployments might increase the 

PLAN’s prospects for cooperation with other navies and also the impact of these missions on the role the navy plays within China’s larger diplomacy. Finally, it assesses how 

these deployments might relate to future Chinese naval development.

Historical Background

A sharp increase in piracy attacks off Somalia threatened to interfere with China’s 

foreign trade. Several well-publicized pirate attacks prior to the PLAN’s antipiracy 

deployment in 2008 demonstrated Chinese vulnerability. Tianyu 8, a fishing boat with 

twenty-four crewmen, the Chinese tanker Zhenhua 4, and the Sinotrans-owned cargo 

ship Dajian, as well as two Hong Kong–registered ships, Stolt Valor and Delight, were all 

pirated prior to the PLAN’s deployment.2

 Over 1,200 Chinese merchant vessels transited 

the Gulf of Aden during the first eleven months of 2008, and of this number eightythree were attacked by pirate groups. Direct threats to China’s economic interests and 

citizens abroad were thus important drivers of the PLAN’s first antipiracy deployment.

As the PLAN’s initial deployment prepared to set sail in December 2008, Senior Col.

Huang Xueping, Ministry of National Defense secondary spokesman and deputy 

director of the ministry’s Information Office, convened a news conference in which he 

clarified the points that, first, the mission’s primary objective was to protect Chinese 

shipping interests, and that, second, it did not represent a change in Chinese foreign 

policy or a desire to project greater blue-water naval capabilities.3

 Idealistic and realistic 

interpretations of China’s antipiracy operations differ greatly. The former focuses on 

China’s desire to contribute meaningfully to regional and international security, while 

the latter includes a “desire to protect Chinese shipping, expand China’s influence, and 

to provide opportunities for realistic training that will enhance the PLAN’s capabilities 

in military operations other than war.”4

In line with the realists, economic interests in the Gulf of Aden had perhaps the greatest impact on pragmatic Chinese policy makers. As Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu 

Jianchao explains, “Piracy has become a serious threat to shipping, trade and safety on 

the seas. . . . That’s why we decided to send naval ships to crack down.”5 China’s overseas 

maritime trade is highly dependent on vulnerable sea lines of communication (SLOCs), 

such as the Bab el Mandeb, Strait of Hormuz, Indian Ocean, Strait of Malacca, Strait of 

Singapore, and South China Sea. China currently relies on just five SLOCs for roughly 

90 percent of its overseas trade. In particular, approximately 60 percent of all commercial vessels that transit through the Strait of Malacca are Chinese flagged.6
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For China, therefore, the economic benefits of protecting its international trade are 

abundantly clear. China’s leadership continues to emphasize the PLAN’s imperative to 

secure Chinese overseas maritime interests. Specifically, energy supplies transported 

via international SLOCs will constitute a larger percentage of China’s aggregate energy 

consumption. Having become a net oil importer in 1993, for example, China now relies 

on seaborne oil imports for over 40 percent of its oil consumption.7

 China’s oil import 

dependence will rise substantially between now and 2030, by some estimates to as high 

as 80 percent.8

Oil and other energy imports constitute just one of many sectors in China that face 

growing dependence on the sea. China Daily reported that as early as 2006, maritime 

industries accounted for $270 billion in economic output, nearly 10 percent of China’s 

gross domestic product.9

 In 2009, over 260 companies, across various industries, reportedly engaged in international maritime shipping.10 In 2010 it was reported that each 

year over two thousand Chinese commercial vessels were transiting the Gulf of Aden.11

In 2011, more than two years after the PLAN’s first antipiracy deployment, a professor 

at China’s National Defense University observed, “From the current situation, ocean 

lifelines have already become a soft rib in China’s strategic security.”12

China’s growth as a sea power has been rapid. It currently has more seafarers, deep-sea 

fleets, and ocean fishing vessels than any other nation. It has become, in the words of 

Ju Chengzhi, of the Ministry of Transport, a “maritime shipping power” (海运大国). 

In 2009 China’s merchant maritime fleet reportedly consisted of over 3,300 vessels and 

forty thousand crewmen.13 People’s Daily reported in 2011 that China surpassed South 

Korea as the world’s largest shipbuilder in terms of capacity and new orders.14

China’s maritime responsibilities are huge, since it has thirty-two thousand kilometers 

of coastline and claims over three million square kilometers of offshore waters.15 Public 

awareness of the importance of maritime issues is increasing. Two Chinese media outlets have reported separate public surveys in which 86 percent and 91 percent of Chinese 

citizens polled supported the PLAN’s antipiracy deployment.16 Simultaneously, many 

Chinese “netizens” (frequent Internet users) have criticized their government for its inability to ensure Chinese sailors’ safety.17

Domestically, in the period before deployments began Beijing faced strong political incentives to intervene decisively to protect its shipping. These political concerns at home 

paralleled international expectations. Such deployments, it was predicted, would enhance China’s image as a “responsible stakeholder” in international society, particularly 

in the domain of maritime security.18 In the years since, China’s antipiracy operations 

have already aided the PLAN substantially in developing its blue-water capacity.
Military Development and Blue-Water Aspirations

Beijing’s deployment of PLAN antipiracy forces appears to be spurring on Chinese 

military development. As the Chinese newspaper Global Times puts it, over five years 

of deployments to the Gulf of Aden have transformed PLAN antipiracy forces from 

“maritime rookies to confident sea dogs.”19 Since China has not fought an actual war 

since its 1979 conflict with Vietnam, this experience of maintaining multiyear, distant 

deployments of warships is extremely valuable. In 2011, a PLAN senior captain effectively summarized the multidimensional benefits of distant sea antipiracy operations: 

“The experience definitely would be unprecedented not only for officers and sailors, but 

also for the durability and function of the ships.”20

Furthermore, antipiracy operations have positioned the PLAN as China’s most active 

service. By proving its effectiveness against threats to Chinese overseas interests, the 

PLAN has ensured that it will continue to procure some of the military’s newest and 

best technology.21 More broadly, the persistent threat of piracy in international waters 

has enabled China to expand its far-seas security operations under the umbrella of 

benign international cooperation.22

Close analysis of PLAN antipiracy activities reveals four primary conduits for projecting 

soft power: the escort of commercial ships and other direct operational aspects of PLAN 

antipiracy missions; navy-to-navy meetings, combined training, and other exchanges 

and instances of cooperation with foreign navies; participation in multistakeholder 

dialogues on land and at sea related to international antipiracy operations; and, perhaps 

most significantly, a growing number of port visits conducted by PLAN warships for 

replenishment and diplomatic purposes before, during, and after service in the Gulf of 

Aden. Exploiting these channels has positioned the PLAN as an important and highly 

visible player in China’s comprehensive quest for international soft power.

Antipiracy services provided by the PLAN to commercial ships have primarily included 

area patrols, escorts, and on-ship protection.23 Wang Yongxiang, deputy commander 

of the tenth escort task force, explains that specific tactics depend on multiple idiosyncratic factors: “the schedules of the merchant vessels to be escorted, their characteristics, 

and how well our warships have rested. We want to not only ensure the safety of our 

charges, but also improve the efficiency of escort protection.”24 Area patrol—monitoring 

certain maritime zones in and around the Gulf of Aden—is the approach least employed 

by the PLAN. When China’s navy does engage in area patrols, it typically maintains two 

base points 550–600 nautical miles apart—for example, one a hundred nautical miles 

north of Yemen’s Socotra Island and the other seventy-five nautical miles southwest of 

Aden Harbor.25 On a normal mission PLAN vessels travel between these points, typically taking two to three days to do so.26
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Of all the services provided by China’s antipiracy forces, the escort of civilian ships is 

the most common; it has become a daily practice for PLAN task forces in the Gulf of 

Aden. Task forces consist of two warships—usually a combination of destroyers and 

frigates—and a replenishment or landing ship. However, since the first task force, two 

or more warships concurrently stationed in the Gulf of Aden have led separate flotillas 

of merchant ships, sometimes in opposite directions, through an area west of longitude 

fifty-seven east and south of latitude fifteen north.27

PLAN escort efficiency has improved significantly since 2008. As a 2010 Liberation 

Army Daily article states, “From the first escort to the escort of the 1,000th ship the 

Chinese naval task force used over 300 days, from the 1,000th to the 2,000th ship used 

over 220 days, and from the 2,000th to the 3,000th ship only used over 180 days’ time.”28 

As early as 2011, approximately 70 percent of ships escorted by China’s navy at any 

given time were foreign.29 In terms of aggregate escorts over the first four years, roughly 

50 percent of PLAN-escorted commercial vessels were foreign flagged.30 People’s Navy 

reported in mid-2011 that China had provided escort services to ships from over fifty 

foreign countries, and this figure has likely increased over the past four years.31 People’s 

Daily emphasizes that escort services are provided gratis for Chinese and foreign commercial ships.32 That is, PLAN escort services are being provided as a complimentary 

public good to the international community.

Foreign civilian ships can apply online to join a PLAN escort convoy via the China 

Shipowners’ Association website. Zhai Dequan, deputy secretary-general of the China 

Arms Control and Disarmament Association, has asserted, “China shoulders responsibility for foreign vessels based on growing national strength and a friendly policy”; 

many other states do not send escort forces, because of limited interest and the enormous costs. In Zhai’s opinion, “such international cooperation and exchanges also help 

the rest of the world to know more about China and accept it.”33

Given the international context in which China’s antipiracy operations take place, 

the PLAN has taken steps to professionalize its services. For example, the use of the 

English language is important while conducting international operations; the twelfth 

task force had an on-duty translator on board the frigate Yiyang to liaise with foreign naval and merchant counterparts.34 Each PLAN task-force member receives four 

“pocket books” covering the psychological aspects of deployment, security, international law, and the application of international law to military operations. Also, naval 

officers specializing in international law provide full-time legal support to officers 

and crews in meetings with ships of other nations.35 These efforts have assisted China’s 

internavy exchanges.
Internavy Exchanges and Dialogues at Sea

Chinese and international commentators greatly value the unprecedented exposure of 

PLAN vessels and crews to foreign navies.36 Rear Adm. Michael McDevitt, USN (Ret.), 

articulates the historical significance of the PLAN’s deployments in this way: “In terms 

of international engagement, the first decade of the 21st century should be divided 

into a pre–anti-piracy operations period and a post-anti-piracy period, because once 

the PLAN began to conduct anti-piracy operations, the entire nature of its approach to 

international naval engagement changed appreciably.”37

The missions have had an undeniable impact on Chinese naval diplomacy; interaction with foreign navies that was novel in 2008 is now routine in the Gulf of Aden and 

adjacent waterways. In 2011, Han Xiaohu, commander of China’s eighth escort task 

force, visited in March the flagship, a frigate, of NATO’s Operation Open Shield; in 

May, hosted the Singapore navy’s Rear Adm. Harris Chan, then commander of U.S.-led 

Combined Task Force (CTF) 151, on a PLAN warship; and in June hosted the European 

Union Naval Force (EU NAVFOR) commander on board the frigate Wenzhou.

38 The 

PLAN and Singapore navy conducted bilateral exchanges in September 2010 in the 

Gulf of Aden, sending personnel on board each other’s ships.39 China’s navy conducted 

more exchanges with CTF-151 in July 2012 and with NATO in April and July 2012.40 An 

article in People’s Daily stated in 2012 that Chinese naval escort task forces continue to 

inform the outside world about the “activities of suspicious ships through network mailbox and radio station every day and shared information resources with 50-odd warships 

of 20-plus countries and organizations.”41

China’s naval diplomacy in the region goes well beyond shipboard interactions with 

Western antipiracy forces. For example, PLAN task forces off the Horn of Africa 

have also been active in a variety of bilateral exchanges. The PLAN and the Russian 

navy executed joint antipiracy escorts for the first time in October 2009, during the 

Peace Blue Shield 2009 (平蓝盾—2009) exercise.42 Similarly, China’s navy held 

extensive joint exercises with Russian navy Blue Shield units in May 2011 and 

conducted similar antipiracy joint exercises in both 2012 and 2013.43 Amid comprehensive Sino-Russian joint maritime exercises in 2012, Chinese and Russian naval 

forces performed extensive piracy-deterrence and rescue joint training off the coast 

of Qingdao.44

The Chinese navy is not interacting only with large navies. During November 2009, 

PLAN military officials met with Dutch counterparts to perform on-ship inspections 

and exchanges, and during 2010 PLAN forces collaborated with South Korean naval 

units in antipiracy exercises in the Gulf of Aden.45 In 2012, China and South Korea 

conducted joint antipiracy exercises in which helicopters of the two sides landed on 
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each other’s warships for the first time.46 In April 2011, China’s eighth escort task force 

sent Wenzhou and Qiandaohu to conduct joint antipiracy exercises with the Pakistani 

guided-missile destroyer Khyber.

47 These combined drills followed the Pakistani-hosted 

Peace 11 multinational maritime exercises, which included naval ships from, among 

other states, China, the United States, Britain, France, Japan, and Pakistan. China sent 

guided-missile frigates Wenzhou and Ma’anshan, two helicopters, and seventy special 

forces commandos.48 More recently the PLAN conducted joint antipiracy training with 

the Ukrainian navy in the Gulf of Aden. All of these efforts support China’s growing 

naval diplomacy.

Chinese Naval Diplomacy

At-sea engagements with other navies are crucial for establishing a positive image of 

China’s growing global maritime presence. These engagements are complemented by 

a growing focus by the PLAN on establishing effective relationships with littoral states 

in and adjacent to the Indian Ocean region. Indeed, since 2008 the nature and scope 

of Chinese naval port visits have expanded continuously. Growing port calls bolster 

China’s far-seas soft-power projection by facilitating interaction and dialogue between 

China and the many countries whose ports and geographic locations heighten the strategic value of these relationships.

The PLAN is increasing port visits (see the table) as its far-seas antipiracy presence 

matures. A small sample reveals the dynamism with which the PLAN is engaging the 

navies, governments, and citizens of littoral states in connection with its antipiracy 

missions. For example, during September 2012, Yiyang of the twelfth escort task force 

arrived in Karachi for a second cycle of rest and replenishment, during which it held 

seminars and other exchanges with Pakistani naval counterparts.49 Later that year Rear 

Adm. Zhou Xuming and members from the twelfth escort task force met with Commo. 

Jonathan Mead, acting commander of the Australian Fleet, in Sydney on an official 

visit. The Australian chief of navy, Vice Adm. Ray Griggs, remarked, “I welcome the 

continued opportunity for our navies to share their experiences today as we exchange 

lessons learned in the conduct of counter-piracy operations.”50 More recently, in late 

2013 the fifteenth escort task force, in addition to holding friendly exchanges with fleets 

from the EU, United States, and NATO, docked for friendly visits in Tanzania, Kenya, 

and Sri Lanka.51

Clearly, uninterrupted operations in the Gulf of Aden have helped to facilitate PLAN 

maritime engagement with other countries in the vicinity as well as those strategically 

situated on the route from China to Somali waters. China has effectively increased the 

role of naval diplomacy as a component of its antipiracy deployments in a number of 

world regions. People’s Daily reports that “since the 2nd Chinese naval escort task force, 
the Chinese navy has established a new mechanism of organizing escort warships to 

pay friendly visits to foreign countries, and the Chinese naval escort task forces have 

successfully paid friendly visits to more than 20 countries, such as India, Pakistan, the 

United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Singapore.”52

ALGERIA

Algiers

• 2–5 April 2013, friendly visit

AUSTRALIA

Sydney

• 18–22 December 2012, friendly visit

BAHRAIN

Manama

• 9–13 December 2010, friendly visit

BULGARIA

Varna

• 6–10 August 2012, friendly visit

BURMA

Rangoon

• 29 August–2 September 2010, friendly visit

DJIBOUTI

Djibouti

• 24 January 2010, replenish/overhaul

• 3 May 2010, replenish/overhaul

• 13 September 2010, replenish/overhaul

• 22 September 2010, replenish/overhaul

• 24 December 2010, replenish/overhaul

• 21 February 2011, replenish/overhaul

• 5 October 2011, replenish/overhaul

• 24–29 March 2012, replenish/overhaul

• 14 May 2012, replenish/overhaul

• 13–18 August 2012, replenish/overhaul

• 1–6 December 2012, replenish/overhaul

• 6–8 June 2013, replenish/overhaul

• 28 July 2013, replenish/overhaul

• 7–9 October 2013, replenish/overhaul

• 22–26 February 2014, replenish/overhaul

• 1–5 April 2014, replenish/overhaul and 

friendly visit

EGYPT

Alexandria

• 26–30 July 2010, friendly visit

FRANCE

Toulon

• 23–27 April 2013, friendly visit

GREECE

Crete

• 7 March 2011, replenish/overhaul

Piraeus

• 9–13 August 2013, friendly visit

INDIA

Cochin

• 8 August 2009, friendly visit

ISRAEL

Haifa

• 14–17 August 2012, friendly visit

ITALY

Taranto

• 2–7 August 2010, joint drills and friendly visit

KENYA

Mombasa

• 2–5 January 2014, friendly visit

KUWAIT

Shuwaikh

• 27 November–1 December 2011, friendly visit

MALAYSIA

Port Kelang

• 6 December 2009, friendly visit

MALTA

• 26–30 March 2013, friendly visit

MOROCCO

Casablanca

• 9–13 April 2013, friendly visit

MOZAMBIQUE

Maputo

• 29 March–2 April 2012, friendly visit

OMAN

Masqat

• 1–8 December 2011, friendly visit

Salalah

• 21 June–1 July 2009, replenish/overhaul

• 14 August 2009, replenish/overhaul

• 2 January 2010, replenish/overhaul

• 1 April 2010, replenish/overhaul

Selected Port Visits by PLAN Antipiracy Forces
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• 8 June 2010, replenish/overhaul

• 10 August 2010, replenish/overhaul

• 8 January 2011, replenish/overhaul

• 19 January 2011, replenish/overhaul

• 10 April 2011, replenish/overhaul

• 8–11 June 2011, replenish/overhaul

• 23 June 2011, replenish/overhaul

• 7–10 November 2011, replenish/overhaul

• 21–24 February 2012, replenish/overhaul

• 1–3 July 2012, replenish/overhaul

• 9 July 2012, replenish/overhaul

• 28–29 March 2013, replenish/overhaul

PAKISTAN

Karachi

• 5–8 August 2009, joint drills and friendly visit

• 7–13 March 2010, joint drills and friendly visit

• 13 March 2011, joint drills

• 8 September 2012, replenish/overhaul

PHILIPPINES

Manila

• 13–17 April 2010, friendly visit

PORTUGAL

Lisbon

• 15–19 April 2013, friendly visit

QATAR

Doha

• 2–7 August 2011, friendly visit

ROMANIA

Constanţa

• 31 July–3 August 2012, friendly visit

SAUDI ARABIA

Jidda

• 27 November–1 December 2010, friendly visit

• 3 September 2011, replenish/overhaul

• 17 June 2012, replenish/overhaul

• 1–6 January 2013, replenish/overhaul

• 5–28 April 2013, replenish/overhaul

• 14–18 September 2013, replenish/overhaul

• 2–6 November 2013, replenish/overhaul

SEYCHELLES

Port Victoria

• 14 April 2011, friendly visit

• 16–20 June 2013, friendly visit

SINGAPORE

Changi

• 5–7 September 2010, replenish/overhaul and 

joint drills

• 18–20 December 2011, replenish/overhaul and 

friendly visit

• 5–10 September 2013, friendly visit

SOUTH AFRICA

Durban

• 4–8 April 2011, friendly visit

SRI LANKA

Colombo

• 5–7 January 2010, friendly visit

• 7–12 December 2010, friendly visit

Trincomalee

• 13–15 January 2014, friendly visit

TANZANIA

Dar es Salaam

• 26–30 March 2011, joint drills and friendly visit

• 29 December 2013–1 January 2014, friendly visit

THAILAND

Sattahip

• 16–21 August 2011, joint drills and friendly visit

• 21–25 April 2012, friendly visit

• 12–16 September 2013, friendly visit

TURKEY

Istanbul

• 5–8 August 2012, friendly visit

UKRAINE

Sevastopol

• 31 July–3 August 2012, friendly visit

UNITED ARAB EMIRATES

Abu Dhabi

• 24–28 March 2010, friendly visit

VIETNAM

Ho Chi Minh City

• 13 January 2013, friendly visit

YEMEN

Aden

• 21 February 2009, replenish/overhaul

• 25 April 2009, replenish/overhaul

• 23 July 2009, replenish/overhaul

• 28 September 2009, replenish/overhaul

• 5 February 2010, replenish/overhaul

• 16 May 2010, replenish/overhaul

• 26 July 2010, replenish/overhaul

• 1 October 2010, replenish/overhaul

Selected Port Visits by PLAN Antipiracy Forces, continued
Whereas in all of 2009 PLAN task forces berthed in foreign ports in just five states, 

Chinese antipiracy flotillas have, among them, stopped in over ten countries every year 

since 2010. Moreover, the nature of port calls has evolved dramatically during the past 

six years. In 2009 and 2010 most Chinese port calls were conducted for replenishment, 

rest, and relaxation. But by 2012 Chinese antipiracy escort task forces had made eight 

port calls for friendly visits (i.e., for primarily diplomatic reasons), and this trend has 

continued over the last two years. This demonstrates a growing share of Chinese naval 

resources devoted to diplomacy. More importantly, it illustrates the efficiency with 

which the PLAN is deriving soft-power capital from its contributions to international 

maritime nontraditional security.

China has also bolstered international exchanges by hosting foreign navies at Chinese 

ports and cities. In mid-May 2011 China invited twenty representatives from eight 

African nations, including Algeria, Cameroon, and Gabon, to participate in a twentyday maritime law enforcement program in Zhejiang Province.53 At the first International Symposium on Counter-Piracy and Escort Cooperation, in February 2012 at the 

PLAN Command College in Nanjing, Navy Military Studies Research Institute senior 

researcher Cai Weidong stated, “The Chinese navy hopes to build up a platform for international cooperation that will allow naval forces of different countries to familiarize 

themselves with each other. I hope the platform well serves our antipiracy goals.”54

As these examples illustrate, China has derived incrementally greater soft-power benefits from its antipiracy operations by boosting the number of both midmission port calls 

and diplomatic and friendly visits en route home. Chinese scholar Wang Yizhou has 

called for a higher degree of “creative involvement,” a foreign policy concept that identifies and adapts creative and flexible modes of foreign engagement on a case-by-case 

basis.55 The PLAN seems to be applying Wang’s concept in the far seas, perhaps most 

notably through its antipiracy operations, without changing their fundamental form. 

Adding more stops before and after antipiracy service in the Gulf of Aden has allowed 

the PLAN to accumulate larger soft-power gains. This practice reflects the PLAN’s 

greatest lesson from far-seas antipiracy missions: there is no substitute for experience, 

and six years of continuous operations have allowed China gradually to become more 

effective in securing its comprehensive interests through the deployment of antipiracy 

task forces.

Arguably even more than foreign port calls, other nontraditional maritime security 

operations facilitated by Beijing’s Gulf of Aden antipiracy presence contribute to China’s 

“deep blue diplomacy.” Escort of foreign vessels carrying Syrian chemical weapons 

through the Mediterranean and active participation in search and rescue operations 

during the frantic search for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 in early 2014 are just two 
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examples of how the PLAN has leveraged antipiracy resources to contribute to international security.56

Some commentators are less sanguine about China’s attempts to expand its maritime 

relations; it is important to note that there are objections to the notion that China’s 

antipiracy missions are benign. In that view, self-interested economic and security calculations are arguably the largest drivers of the PLAN’s deployment of warships to the 

Gulf of Aden, and viewing port visits as diplomatic exchanges risks oversimplification, 

since many states may view them as harbingers of creeping Chinese power projection.57

For example, the tiny island-state Seychelles is one of several coastal and island African 

states in which China has actively sought to enhance its soft power.58 China could be 

using antipiracy operations to support an aggressive naval development policy, as well 

as to pursue a more active grand strategy that involves overseas access facilities and a 

long-term trend toward a greater overall global presence.

Chinese Naval Development

The PLAN is just one of several “independent” providers of antipiracy assets in the Gulf 

of Aden. While the majority of naval antipiracy forces fight pirates under the aegis of 

multilateral commands, several states—including China, India, Iran, Japan, Malaysia, 

and Russia—have primarily operated on a unilateral basis rather than under the command of multinational antipiracy forces such as CTF-151, NATO’s Operation Open 

Shield, or EU NAVFOR. This posture suggests that China is probably trying to learn 

as much as it can from other navies without revealing much about its own operations, 

while also, clearly, maintaining ideological independence in foreign policy.

China’s preference to abstain from combined operations is driven by several factors. 

First, greater independence allows the PLAN to conduct its preferred method of antipiracy operations—relatively low-risk escort operations aimed at deterring, rather than 

actively searching for, pirates. It also offers China an individual identity as a provider of 

maritime public goods, rather than as just another state operating within Western-led 

security mechanisms. Moreover, if China joined the existing security structure, potential frictions might arise that could preclude meaningful integration, such as sensitivities related to information sharing and technology theft. Some Chinese defense experts 

opposed acceptance of the U.S. Navy’s invitation to participate in the 2014 RIMPAC 

exercises and other joint maritime cooperation activities for such reasons.59

These concerns notwithstanding, China’s antipiracy operations over the past several 

years have made meaningful contributions to Gulf of Aden security. In addition, they 

have achieved unprecedented coordination between China and other antipiracy maritime forces in the region, such as those of the United States. While suspicions abound 
regarding China’s motives, antipiracy cooperation may contribute to more positive 

outside perceptions of China and its international status. China has been “ready to 

exchange information and cooperate with the warships of other countries in fighting Somalian pirates” since its inaugural deployment in 2008.60 One PLAN antipiracy 

task force commander, Adm. Du Jingcheng, has recalled that he was eager to “facilitate 

exchanges of information with escort naval vessels from other countries.”61

In the nearly six-year period beginning December 2008, the PLAN has coordinated 

information with over twenty nations, including the United States.62 Li Faxin, associate 

professor (and lieutenant commander) at the Naval Marine Academy, states that PLAN 

antipiracy forces have established “high-trust partner relations” (高度信任的伙伴关系) 

with many nations operating in the Gulf of Aden.63

Positive results have also been facilitated by Shared Awareness and Deconfliction 

(SHADE), a voluntary multistate antipiracy information-sharing mechanism. SHADE 

meetings occur quarterly in Bahrain and regularly host naval and industry leaders from 

various states. Willingness on the part of independent navies, China’s in particular, to 

synchronize their antipiracy operations with those of Western forces within the SHADE 

mechanism is a historic achievement for twenty-first-century maritime commons 

governance.

China was denied SHADE chairmanship in 2009 but, notwithstanding, coordinates 

its antipiracy escorts with those of other SHADE members. For example, China has 

participated in SHADE’s Convoy Coordination Working Group and coordinates its 

monthly escort schedules with other navies providing independent escorts. China, 

India, and Japan reportedly began coordinating their antipiracy operations as early as 

2011.64 They mutually arranged escort schedules twenty-nine times between January 

and March 2012, with China acting as the coordinator for ten escorts, India for ten, and 

Japan for nine.65

Conclusions

For six years the PLAN’s antipiracy operations in the Gulf of Aden have symbolized 

China’s burgeoning out-of-area naval activity. They also showcase Beijing’s growing ability to achieve soft-power objectives while concurrently promoting its overseas 

interests and military development. Important components of these missions include 

escort of commercial ships, navy-to-navy meetings, participation in multistakeholder 

dialogues on antipiracy operations, and, most significantly, the growing number of port 

visits undertaken by PLAN warships. These position the PLAN as an important and 

highly visible player in China’s recent soft-power diplomacy.
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China’s ongoing antipiracy operations in its far seas have generated many positive 

assessments. In contrast to its contentious near seas, where Beijing is consistently 

embroiled in sovereignty disputes that show no signs of abating, antipiracy missions 

represent the most significant positive component of China’s naval engagement to date, 

particularly with regard to the degree to which Chinese vessels and sailors are interacting with the outside world. This interaction not only enhances China’s maritime image 

in the eyes of its antipiracy partners but may help alleviate fears that China’s naval rise 

might one day threaten twenty-first-century maritime prosperity in regions beyond the 

near seas. The United States and China reportedly planned over forty visits, exchanges, 

and other engagements for 2013, double the number in the previous year, and successfully carried out joint antipiracy exercises in 2012 and 2013.66 In 2014, China participated in RIMPAC for the first time, the U.S.-hosted forum that is currently the largest 

naval exercise in the world.

The PLAN’s experience fighting piracy in distant seas is a benchmark that can be used 

by Beijing to cement its positive image in the international arena. Antipiracy operations 

prove that the PLAN can be a provider—not merely a consumer or, worse, a disrupter—

of maritime commons security. International society largely perceives Chinese naval 

contributions to fighting piracy as positive developments, perceptions that stand in 

sharp contrast to China’s hard-power naval approaches in the East and South China 

Seas. The nature and perceived efficacy of China’s soft power are constantly being 

scrutinized by scholars.67 While it is too early to speculate exactly how Beijing’s contributions to antipiracy today will bolster its future soft-power influence, the results 

should be at least moderately positive. More generally, the Gulf of Aden case suggests 

that China will continue to reap international political benefits commensurate with its 

contributions to international maritime security.

Notes

The thoughts and opinions expressed in this essay 

are those of the authors and are not necessarily 

those of the U.S. government, the U.S. Navy Department, or the Naval War College. An expanded 

version of this chapter appeared as an article in the 

Winter 2015 issue of the Naval War College Review,

pp. 71–91.

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Xin], “海军将继续派兵护航” [Navy Will 

Continue to Send Troops to Escort], 解放军

报 [Liberation Army Daily], 27 December 

2013, mil.news.sina.com.cn/.

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2艘已获释” [4 Hong Kong Cargo Ships Apply 

for People’s Liberation Army Escorts, 3 Vessels 

Have Already Been Hijacked, 2 Vessels Have 

Already Been Released], 人民网--港澳频道

[People’s Net: Hong Kong & Macau Channel], 

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海洋热点 [Ocean Hot Spots], 当代海军

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的软肋. 这主要是因为: 一是过度依赖外轮

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13. Xu Jingjing, “Why We Want to Escort.”

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网 [China News Net], 4 January 2009, news

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Three Modes of Action in Escort”; Fu Zhiwei, 

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26. Yang Jingjie, “Captains Courageous.”

27. Sun Zifa, “Chinese Navy Escort Fleet to Adopt 

Three Modes of Action in Escort”; Fu Zhiwei, 

“China’s Escort Fleet Will Set Up Seven Patrol 

Zones.”
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28. 李建文 [Li Jianwen], “为了黄金航道的和谐

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数突破 3000 艘之际” [For the Harmony and 

Safety of the Golden Waterway: Written at 

the Time of the 3000th Escort Breakthrough 

by Naval Escort Task Forces of Chinese and 

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Daily], 4 December 2010, p. 4, www.chinamil

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Escort Task Forces Hits 4,000,” Liberation 

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.cn/.

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europe.chinadaily.com.cn/.

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New Course for Moving toward Deep Blue: 

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.cn/.

35. 刘炎迅 [Liu Yanxun], 陈晓舒 [Chen 

Xiaoshu], 王婧 [Wang Jing], 何婧 [He 

Jing], 李郝然 [Li Haoran], and 姚忆江 [Yao 

Yijiang], “远征索马里背后: 中国海军挺进

‘深蓝’” [Background of Expedition to 

Somalia: Chinese Navy Pushes Forward to 

Blue Water (lit., “Deep Blue”)], 中国新闻周

刊 [China News Weekly], no. 403, 5 January 

2009, pp. 22–27.

36. 孙彦新 [Sun Yanxin] and 朱鸿亮 [Zhu 

Hongliang], “中国海军首批护航编队开创

人民海军历史上多个‘第一’” [Chinese Naval 

First Escort Task Force Achieves Multiple 

“Firsts” in History of People’s Navy], Xinhua, 

28 April 2009, news.xinhuanet.com/.

37. Michael McDevitt, “PLA Naval Exercises with 

International Partners,” in Learning by Doing: 

The PLA Trains at Home and Abroad, ed. Roy 

Kamphausen, David Lai, and Travis Tanner 

(Carlisle, Pa.: Army War College Press, 2012), 

pp. 81–125.

38. “NATO Flagship Welcomes Chinese Naval 

Task Force Commander,” news release, Allied 

Maritime Command Headquarters, 28 March 

2011, www.manw.nato.int/; Liu Yiwei and 

Tang Shifeng, “CTF-151 Commander Visits 

8th Chinese Naval Escort Task Force,” Liberation Army Daily, 9 May 2011, eng.mod.gov

.cn/; “EU NAVFOR Force Commander Meets 

CTF 526 in Salalah,” EU NAVFOR Public Affairs Office, 27 June 2011, www.eunavfor.eu/.

39. 张鑫鑫 [Zhang Xinxin] and 余黄伟 [Yu 

Huangwei], “我护航编队与新加坡护航编队

互访” [Chinese and Singaporean Escort Task 

Forces Exchange Visits], 人民海军 [People’s 

Navy], 28 September 2010, p. 1.

40. 吴德春 [Wu Dechun], 胡全福 [Hu Quanfu], 

and 米晋国 [Mi Jinguo], “第十一批护航编队

与美盟151编队指挥官非正式互访” [Commanders of Eleventh Escort Task Force and 

CTF-151 Hold Informal Exchanges], 人民海

军 [People’s Navy], 13 July 2012, p. 1; 陈典宏

[Chen Dianhong] and 米晋国 [Mi Jinguo], 

“第十一批护航指挥员与北约508特混编队

指挥官会面交流” [Commanders of Eleventh 

Escort Task Force and NATO 508 Special 

Forces Hold Exchanges], 人民海军 [People’s 

Navy], 18 July 2012, p. 1.

41. Cao Jinping and Mo Xiaoliang, “Review of 

Chinese Navy’s Escort Missions.”

42. For an interview on the exercise hosted by Li 

Jie, see 李杰 [Li Jie], “中俄联合护航行动意

义非凡” [Sino-Russian Joint Escort Operations Have Profound Meaning], 海上争鸣

[Maritime Schools of Thought Contending], 

当代海军 [Modern Navy] (November 2009), 

pp. 56–58. See also 姚子宝 [Yao Zibao], 

余晶俊 [Yu Jingjun], and 张庆宝 [Zhang 

Qingbao], “和平蓝盾—2009透视: 中俄护

航编队联合军演” [Perspective: “Peace Blue 

Shield–2009” Sino-Russian Escort Task Forces 

Joint Military Exercises], 海天看点 [Maritime 

Points], 当代海军 [Modern Navy] (April 

2010), pp. 28–33.

43. 王智涛 [Wang Zhitao] and 侯瑞 [Hou Rui], 

“海军举行 ‘蓝盾11突击-2011A’ 演练: 旨在

为日后营救我被海盗劫持商船奠定基础” 

[Navy Holds “Blue Shield Assault—2011A”: 

Exercise to Lay Foundation for Future Rescue 

of Our Merchant Ships Hijacked by Pirates], 

人民海军 [People’s Navy], 11 May 2011, p. 1.
44. 张庆宝 [Zhang Qingbao], 梁庆松 [Liang 

Qingsong], and 钱宏 [Qian Hong], “演习科

目精彩纷呈 演习取得重要成果 中俄联演海

上实兵演习捷报频传” [The Exercise Subjects 

Are Splendid and Varied, the Exercise Has 

Produced Important Results: News of Success 

Keeps Pouring In during the Maritime ActualTroop Exercise of the China-Russia Joint 

Exercise], 人民海军 [People’s Navy], 27 April 

2012, p. 1; “‘Maritime Cooperation–2012’ 

Sino-Russian Military Exercise: Main Highlights,” 军事报道 [Military Report], CCTV-7

(Mandarin), 1130 GMT, 23 April 2012.

45. 蔡年迟 [Cai Nianchi], “远洋突击, 我们历练

了什么, 人民海军执行护航任务两周军回

眸〈二〉[Far Oceans Sudden Attacks, What 

Have We Experienced and Practiced? A Military Retrospective on the Last Two Weeks of 

the Chinese Navy’s Escort Mission (Part 2)], 

人民海军 [People’s Navy], 22 December 2010, 

p. 1.

46. Cao Jinping and Mo Xiaoliang, “Review of 

Chinese Navy’s Escort Missions.”

47. “China, Pakistan Navy Conduct First Joint 

Anti-piracy Drill off Somali Coast,” Naval 

Today, 2 May 2011, navaltoday.com/.

48. “‘Peace-11’ Multinational Joint Maritime 

Military Exercise Begins,” 军事报道 [Military 

Report], CCTV-7 (Mandarin), 8 March 2011.

49. “Chinese Naval Escort Task Force Berths at 

Port of Karachi for Supply and Rest,” Liberation Army Daily, 10 September 2012, eng.mod

.gov.cn/.

50. “Chinese Navy and Royal Australian Navy 

Share Counter-piracy Lessons,” Australian 

Government Department of Defence, 20 December 2012, news.defence.gov.au/.

51. “China’s Anti-pirate Fleet Returns from 

Somali Waters,” Xinhua, 23 January 2014, 

news.xinhuanet.com/.

52. Cao Jinping and Mo Xiaoliang, “Review of 

Chinese Navy’s Escort Missions.”

53. “African Officials Study Maritime Law 

Enforcement in China,” People’s Daily, 11 May 

2012, english.people.com.cn/.

54. “PLA Navy Sends Forces to Somalia to Fight 

Piracy in Gulf of Aden,” CCTV News (English), 1223 GMT, 27 February 2012.

55. Wang Yizhou, Creative Involvement: The Evolution of China’s Global Role (Beijing: Peking 

Univ. Press, August 2013), English excerpt 

in China 3.0, ed. Mark Leonard ([London]: 

European Council on Foreign Relations, 

November 2012), ecfr.eu/.

56. For Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, “17th Chinese Naval Escort Taskforce Departs,” China 

Military Online, 25 March 2014, eng.mod.gov

.cn/. For Syrian chemicals, “Foreign Ministry 

Spokesperson Qin Gang’s Regular Press Conference on April 25, 2014,” Ministry of Foreign 

Affairs of the People’s Republic of China, 25 

April 2014, www.fmprc.gov.cn/.

57. “UK Commentary Sees ‘Commercial Impulses’ behind China’s ‘Empire’ of Foreign 

Ports,” Economist.com, in English, 8 June 

2013.

58. 钟婷婷 [Zhong Tingting] and 王学军 [Wang 

Xuejun], “论中国对非洲的软实力外交” [On 

China’s Soft-Power Diplomacy toward Africa], 

浙江师范大学学报 (社会科学版) [Journal of 

Zhejiang Normal University (Social Sciences)] 

35, no. 4 (2010), waas.cass.cn/.

59. Dean Cheng, “Countering China’s A2/AD 

Challenge,” National Interest, 20 September 

2013.

60. “Warships to Set Off on Friday for Somalia 

Pirates,” China Radio International, 23 December 2008, english.cri.cn/.

61. Bai Ruixue and Zhu Hongliang, “Commander 

of the Chinese Flotilla for Escort Missions 

Says: At Present, the Flotilla Does Not Have a 

Disembarkation Plan,” Xinhua, 26 December 

2008.

62. “Commander of Chinese Naval Escort Task 

Force Visits U.S. Guided-Missile Cruiser 

Chosin,” Liberation Army Daily, 23 November 2009, eng.mod.gov.cn/; “美国151特混

编队指挥官访问 ‘舟山’ 舰” [U.S. CTF 151 

Commander Visits “Zhoushan”], Xinhua, 2 

November 2009, news.xinhuanet.com/.

63. 李发新 [Li Faxin], “第四章: 中国海军护航交

流与合作” [Chapter 4: Chinese Naval Escort 

Exchanges and Cooperation], in 中国海军与

海上护航行动 [China’s Navy and Maritime 

Escort Operations] (Beijing: 五洲传播出版

社 [China Intercontinental Press], 2013), pp. 

87–110.

64. “Indian, Chinese Navies Unite to Tackle Piracy,” Times of India, 2 February 2012, articles

.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/. Japan and 

China initially agreed to coordinate escorts 

in March 2009; “Japan, China to Coordinate 

Moves on Antipiracy Missions off Somalia,” 

People’s Daily Online, 12 May 2011, english

.people.com.cn/.
meyers$:___WIP from C 032812:_Newport Papers:_NP_42 Elleman-Paine:_InDesign:NP_42 09 Ch9EricksonStrange.indd June 24, 2015 7:50 AM

65. 冯春梅 [Feng Chunmei] and 孝金波 [Xiao 

Jinbo], “国防部举行例行记者会, 回答海军

护航、航母平台、网络黑客攻击等问题: 

中印日护航形成统一有序班期” [Ministry 

of National Defense Holds Routine Press 

Conference, Answers Questions on Naval Escorts, Carrier Platforms, and Network Hacker 

Attacks: China, India and Japan Escorts Have 

Formed Unified Coordinated Schedules], 

人民日报 [People’s Daily], 30 March 2012, 

news.163.com/.

66. David Alexander, “China Navy Chief Says Operational Aircraft Carrier a Few Years Away,” 

Reuters, 12 September 2013, www.reuters

.com/.

67. Joseph Nye, “Soft Power,” Foreign Policy, no. 

80 (Autumn 1990), pp. 153–71; Trefor Moss, 

“Soft Power? China Has Plenty,” Diplomat, 4 

June 2013, thediplomat.com/.

Conclusions

Breaking the Mold

BRUCE A. ELLEMAN AND S. C. M. PAINE

Navies are most commonly thought of in terms of warfare, when the primary naval 

objective is closing the commons to the enemy while keeping it open to friends. In 

peacetime, the main objective is keeping the commons open to lawful use by everyone. 

Nonmilitary missions tend to occur in peacetime, and many indirectly concern the 

protection of the maritime commons through the enforcement of “good order at sea.”1

Such missions include halting the movement of banned cargoes, preventing interference 

with the movement of legal traffic, and protecting the environment. Many navies and 

coast guards cooperate with those of other countries to conduct these missions because 

all nations share a common interest in safe transit and healthy fisheries.

After the end of the Cold War, many military missions no longer fit the standard 

war-fighting paradigm. A new term, “military operations other than war,” or MOOTW, 

was coined to describe them. Many officers did not like this shift, since it seemed to 

diminish the military’s role. Gen. John Shalikashvili characterized this widely held (and 

in his mind erroneous) sentiment as the attitude that “real men don’t do mootw.”2 But of 

course, while the term might be new, the missions are not. A RAND study identified no 

fewer than 846 military operations other than war between 1916 and 1996 in which just 

the U.S. Air Force, or its Army predecessor, played a role.3

As the nine historical case studies in this volume have shown, for well over a century 

and a half the U.S. Navy has engaged in many nonmilitary missions, dating back to the 

antislavery patrols of the 1840s. Navies can play a major role in diplomacy, economics, 

fisheries, humanitarian relief, scientific research, and disaster relief, to name just a few 

fields. During these historical missions the Navy did not necessarily focus on aiding 

American citizens but often on assisting allies or simply those in need. These missions 

affected numerous audiences, ranging from individuals through interest groups to 

entire nations. Thus, it is important to consider both the targets of these missions and 
the wide range of audiences observing from the sidelines and to consider how direct and 

indirect effects impact all stakeholders.

Targets of Nonmilitary Operations

Whereas during wartime the target of a naval force is typically either an enemy or an 

ally of the enemy, in nonmilitary operations the “target” is quite often one’s own citizens 

or friends; also the goal is rarely destruction, more often being assistance (see table 1). 

Examples of such missions include freeing slaves, feeding noncombatants in wartime, shutting down one’s own commerce by embargo, protecting marine life through 

research and pollutant containment, and defending shipping from piracy. If these 

activities occurred on land, they would be considered matters of law enforcement, not 

military action, but on the high seas professional navies are often tasked to carry them 

out; in littoral waters coast guards generally assume these responsibilities.

Counterintuitively, the indirect, secondary target is often more important than the 

direct target—for example, domestic voters, who can determine whether politicians 

remain in office, and the press, which often interprets news items and influences voters. Thus, voters and the press are often the indirect targets of operations to protect the 

TABLE 1

Targets of Nonmilitary Operations (in order of importance)

CASE

STUDY

DIRECT

TARGET

INDIRECT

TARGET

COLLATERAL

DAMAGE

Slave Trade slaves (cargo) abolitionist voters, 

slave owners, 

international press

Venezuela

Deterrence

no target—only 

audiences

Starvation

Blockade

noncombatants in 

occupied territory

U.S. voters, 

Entente voters

ê collateral damage of 

blockade

Oil

Embargo

commerce Japanese decision 

makers

ê U.S. commerce

Vietnamese

Refugees

refugees North Vietnamese

government and navy

Artificial

Reefs

ship disposal sportfishing, tourism, 

scuba diving

Sonar and

Whales

whales environmentalists, 

voters

Gulf

Oil Spill

BP workers, oil 

cleanup

press, voters, 

shoreline, fisheries, 

tourists

PLAN

Antipiracy

pirates image building at 

home and abroad, 

naval training, 

naval espionage 
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environment and help refugees. After an oil spill, the initial environmental cleanup is 

the direct target, but press and voter perceptions of the cleanup are often secondary 

targets. In the case of Britain’s “starvation blockade” against Germany in World War I, 

the strategy might have become unsustainable if it had alienated American and British 

voters by causing the mass starvation of innocent noncombatants in Belgium and occupied France. Herbert Hoover’s humanitarian mission to provide food to those caught 

in the midst of war avoided this dilemma.

Likewise, if the U.S. Navy can show—by conducting research on sonar and whales—that 

its activities do not damage marine life, or better yet, if it can improve marine life—by 

building artificial reefs—voters might view the Navy in an ever more positive light. Although the immediate target of Coast Guard operations following the BP Gulf of Mexico 

oil spill was the rescue of workers and pressing BP to cap the well, the secondary target of 

preventing the infiltration of oil into marshlands, which would have outraged conservationists, the fishing industry, and tourists, was even more important for the recovery 

of the ecosystem. In the case of the Chinese navy’s recent antipiracy efforts, the primary 

target might be the pirates, but the maritime proficiency and intelligence it is gaining, 

in combination with the pride that Chinese citizens derive from these new powerprojection capabilities, are arguably far more important to the Chinese government.

In contrast to these successful operations, it is possible to reach the intended target but 

in unanticipated and undesired ways. American attempts to pressure Japan to withdraw 

from China in the 1930s failed; Washington’s public ultimatums hardened rather than 

softened Japanese attitudes. When the United States attempted to deter Japan from further escalation in China, it imposed a succession of sanctions, with great fanfare in the 

press. Sanctions broadly targeted the Japanese government and people, on the assumption that finance was a central consideration of Tokyo’s decision making. Apparently the 

sanctions did in fact convince Japan’s finance minister that war with the United States 

was untenable; he, at least, received the intended message loud and clear. But Japan’s 

naval and, particularly, army leaders did not wish to accept such a conclusion. They became desperate instead to deter the United States and concluded that attacks across the 

Pacific constituted their best, albeit remote, hope. So the American strategy backfired 

with regard to Japan’s military leaders and delivered an outcome opposite to what was 

intended. In this case, the U.S. government correctly gauged Japan’s civilian leaders but 

failed to anticipate the adverse reaction of its military.

Primary targets are often individuals in distress. As various chapters have shown, nonmilitary operations can assist victims of slavery or disaster survivors or help refugees 

flee a war zone. The number of individuals included can be small or in the tens of thousands, if not more. For example, the Navy’s Operation Frequent Wind helped thirty 

thousand refugees flee Vietnam for the Philippines, and melded later into Operation 
New Life, which moved them to Guam for processing before permanent resettlement 

in the United States and other nations. An important secondary target was the victorious North Vietnamese government, which was denied the ships of the South Vietnamese navy, as well as its officers and their families. Sometimes the secondary targets are 

audiences—people who witness events and whose subsequent actions may be influenced 

by the nonmilitary operation.

Audiences of Nonmilitary Operations

In a world connected by instantaneous mass communication, onlookers are far more 

numerous than participants. Observers can be subdivided into specific audiences with 

differentiating interests and agendas (see table 2). In the past, the professional press 

provided the lens through which viewers interpreted events; now, with bloggers and the 

social media, isolated individuals can unexpectedly attract mass followings. Audiences 

include voters and political parties at home and in allied and enemy nations, the press at 

home and abroad, nonstate actors, foreign governments or foreign militaries or foreign 

intelligence agencies, and also a range of foreign and domestic nongovernmental interest groups, such as environmentalists. In fact, audiences can include any group that has 

an interest in maritime affairs. The problem for naval strategists becomes reaching the 

targeted audience without alienating other, unintended audiences.

Publicity is not necessarily an effective method of exerting pressure, particularly in 

societies concerned with preserving “face,” so a navy’s ability to stay out of the headlines 

is valuable. Because naval forces operate far out to sea, their actions generally remain 

invisible and become public only when a government decides to make them public. The 

ability to limit the number of audiences is one of the greatest strengths of this “secret 

service.” As Adm. Joseph Prueher, Jr., U.S. ambassador in China during the 2001 EP-3 

negotiations, later explained in connection with the success of his efforts to get the 

aircraft’s crew home, negotiating with China often requires building “ladders for the 

Chinese to climb down” from untenable diplomatic positions.4

 Naval deployments in 

proximity to the shore but far enough away to be out of the public eye can provide leverage during diplomatic talks without subjecting leaders to public humiliation, let alone to 

the domestic backlash that such humiliation would entail.

During the Venezuelan crisis, President Theodore Roosevelt’s fleet-in-being had no immediate target; rather, its primary audience comprised the highest levels of the German 

and British governments, whom Roosevelt sought to deter from naval action against 

Venezuela. A secondary but critical audience was that of South American leaders, 

whom Roosevelt did not wish to alienate lest they seek outside assistance to counterbalance the United States. In 1906, after forcing Germany to back down, Roosevelt sent 

Secretary of State Elihu Root on a “goodwill tour” to South America to make it clear that 
meyers$:___WIP from C 032812:_Newport Papers:_NP_42 Elleman-Paine:_InDesign:NP_42 vv Conclusion.indd June 25, 2015 1:20 PM CASE STUDY HOME GOVT. HOME VOTERS ALLIED GOVTS. ALLIED VOTERS ENEMY GOVTS. ENEMY VOTERS INTL. PRESS INTENDED AUDIENCES UNINTENDED AUDIENCES Slave Trade mixed abolitionists and slave owners positive positive N/A N/A positive abolitionists slave owners Venezuela Deterrence positive N/A (secret) N/A (secret) N/A (secret) effective N/A (secret) N/A (secret) UK and German governments South American states Starvation Blockade positive positive positive positive N/A N/A positive home/allied voters, refugee governments German and UK voters and press Oil Embargo mixed positive positive positive boomerang boomerang positive Japanese government and businessmen Japanese nationalistic press Vietnamese Refugees positive positive Philippines unhappy N/A angry N/A positive U.S. voters Filipinos Artificial Reefs positive mixed N/A N/A N/A N/A mixed U.S. voters and press environ- mentalists Sonar and Whales positive positive positive positive N/A N/A positive U.S. voters and press environ- mentalists Gulf Oil Spill positive positive N/A N/A N/A N/A positive U.S. voters, U.S. press, Congress fishermen, sportsmen, tourists PLAN Antipiracy positive N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A positive pirates, foreigners, Chinese people N/A  TABLE 2 Audiences of Nonmilitary Operations and Their Reactions
the United States desired only to guarantee the independence and sovereignty of the 

Latin American republics.5

But there were other audiences, audiences that Roosevelt wanted to keep in ignorance. 

He did not wish American voters or the Democratic Party to stir up an anti-British or 

anti-German crusade that might have strengthened British and German determination 

to send military forces to the Caribbean. A fourth potential audience was the international press. The mobilization of the entire U.S. fleet was secret to everyone but the 

American, British, and German governments; it never reached the attention of the press. 

In the absence of an evident crisis, the American and European press never became an 

important audience, a fact that avoided unwanted public pressure. Thus, secrecy allowed 

Roosevelt to reach just the intended audiences without setting off the others.

Even nonhumans can be the targets of naval operations and navy-funded research, 

with humans the intended audience. In particular, environmentalists are a major, and 

quickly growing, audience for such issues as marine mammals subjected to intense 

sound from naval sonar. Navy-sponsored research programs have greatly expanded 

fundamental knowledge about marine-mammal hearing and have produced innovations in underwater acoustic propagation models, tags for monitoring animals at depth, 

and increasingly sophisticated operational aids for detecting and predicting movements 

of individual animals at sea. Such information assists not only the Navy but also a wide 

range of other audiences in the fields of shipping, fisheries, marine biology, and research 

to reduce bycatch and ship strikes and to monitor migration patterns, essential behaviors, and population trends.

There is a wide array of audiences associated with environmental disasters. The U.S. 

Coast Guard, for instance, acted quickly after the Deepwater Horizon explosion. The 

initial target was the rescue of the missing crew members on the oil rig. But the more 

important audiences of this operation were American voters and Congress, the former 

wishing to assess the damage and determine which political party to praise or blame, 

and the latter, in combination with U.S. courts, determining appropriate punishment 

for BP, with extensive follow-on effects for oil exploration and exploitation in U.S. territorial waters. Restoration of fisheries and coastal economies depended on the efficacy 

of the environmental cleanup, which affected a number of other audiences, including 

fishermen, sportsmen, and tourists, to name just a few. Indeed, in the long term, these 

tertiary audiences may well be the most important politically and restoration of the 

coastal environment the most important issue economically.

Not all audiences are sympathetic to naval missions conducted during peacetime. For 

example, most Secretaries of the Navy who served during the antislavery squadron’s existence hailed from southern states. Because a primary unintended audience comprised 
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southern plantation owners, who depended on the slave economy, the secretaries were 

not inclined to suppress the trade. For virtually the entire history of the squadron, 

the Secretary of the Navy instructed commanders to prioritize the protection of legal 

American commerce over the suppression of the slave trade. Only when a northerner, 

Isaac Toucey (1857–61), assumed the post did the primary audience shift to northern 

abolitionists and the patrols start aggressively targeting the slave trade.

Positive and Negative Objectives and Their Direct and Indirect Effects

The objectives of naval missions can be positive or negative (see table 3). Positive objectives make something happen and so are usually obvious to everyone. These can include 

facilitating the movement of people or cargo, convoying ships through pirate-infested 

waters, or promoting research and development to study specific problems. Early in the 

history of the U.S. Navy, the U.S. Naval Observatory was tasked to become the world’s 

timekeeper and principal authority for navigational astronomical data—a useful, positive objective. A nonmilitary humanitarian-aid mission, such as the Belgian relief effort 

in aid of noncombatants during World War I, can also contribute to a military operation, 

in such ways as strengthening the impact of a starvation blockade against the enemy.

CASE STUDY POSITIVE OBJECTIVES NEGATIVE OBJECTIVES

Slave Trade free slaves (means); 

catch slave traders (means);

halt slave trade (ends)

deter further slave trade (means); 

prevent movement of banned cargo 

(ends)

Venezuela

Deterrence

deter UK and German intervention 

in Americas (ends)

Starvation

Blockade

feed starving (ends/means); 

make blockade palatable to voters 

(ends/means)

prevent collateral damage from 

blockade (means)

Oil

Embargo

force Japan to de-escalate (ends) prevent cargo movement (means); 

deter Japan from further escalation 

(ends)

Vietnamese

Refugees

save refugees (means) prevent NV from taking SV navy 

(ends)

Artificial

Reefs

create new reefs (means); 

dispose of ships economically (ends)

Sonar and

Whales

research on sonar and whales 

(means)

avoid hurting whales (ends);

avoid alienating environmentalists 

(ends)

Gulf

Oil Spill

rescue BP workers (ends); 

plug well (ends/means);

clean up oil (ends)

prevent spread of oil (means)

PLAN

Antipiracy

convoy ships (means); 

catch pirates (ends)

deter piracy (ends)

NV: North Vietnam

SV: South Vietnamese

TABLE 3

Positive and Negative Objectives
While positive objectives are usually easy to document, negative objectives are more 

difficult to discern, because they seek to prevent undesired actions or situations. Who 

can prove that anything was prevented or that any attempt was even made? Such “nonevents” are virtually impossible to measure and so are often difficult to notice, let alone 

document. President Roosevelt’s “whisper diplomacy,” which deterred German and 

British military intervention in Venezuela, is a rare, well-documented instance of the 

achievement of a negative objective. His fleet-in-being had a direct effect of deterring 

European military intervention in the Americas—a very high-value national security 

objective for the United States.

An equally important indirect effect in that case was the British prime minister’s 

reaction to the crisis (see table 4). Afterward, he chose to cultivate close ties with 

Washington, an approach that promoted the creation of the Anglo-American “special 

relationship.” While this indirect result was not necessarily sought by Roosevelt at the 

outset of the crisis, it helped set up the framework of the Anglo-American cooperation 

that coalesced in World War I, continued through World War II and the Cold War, 

and arguably remains at the center of American and British foreign policies to this 

day. Therefore, counterintuitively, indirect effects of negative objectives can be just as 

CASE STUDY DIRECT INDIRECT

Slave Trade slaves; slave owners press; southern and northern voters

Venezuela

Deterrence

British and German governments British desire to create “special 

relationship”

Starvation

Blockade

hungry noncombatants; 

UK and German blockade force

U.S., Entente, and Central Powers 

press and voters; make starvation 

blockade politically feasible

Oil

Embargo

Japanese economy;

Japanese people; 

U.S. businesses

U.S. press and voters;

Japanese military

Vietnamese

Refugees

refugees; North Vietnam’s loss of 

South Vietnamese navy

morale of U.S. Navy, participants;

U.S.-Philippine relations

Artificial

Reefs

economical ship disposal; reef 

creation

environmentalists; recreationists; 

voters

Sonar and

Whales

whales; sonar improvement environmentalists; voters; pure 

research

Gulf

Oil Spill

rescue BP personnel; oil removal; 

save fisheries and shoreline

data for lawsuit vs. BP; improvement 

in U.S. interagency coordination

PLAN

Antipiracy

reduce piracy reduce insurance rates; improve 

PLAN proficiency; enhance 

international cooperation

Note: Indirect effects include all audiences influenced.

TABLE 4

Direct and Indirect Effects 
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important as, if not more important in the long run than, the direct effects from the 

positive objectives that catch people’s attention.

Antipiracy missions too concern the negative objective of deterrence. Faced with a growing piracy threat off the coast of Somalia, China’s People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) 

began to conduct convoys to achieve the negative objective of deterring Somali pirates 

from attack. While the primary audience was the commercial shipping, which was directly affected by the success of the convoys, an indirect audience—especially once nonChinese-flagged ships joined the convoys—was the rest of the world. The international 

press praised Chinese naval contributions to fighting piracy and China’s international 

image benefited. Increasingly, the PLAN’s antipiracy mandate has focused on broad 

international security objectives to maximize this indirect effect (see table 5).

Deterrence is not always feasible, however. In the early 1940s, an American oil embargo 

backed up by a fleet-in-being based at Pearl Harbor did not, as had been intended, result 

in a Japanese withdrawal from China. Rather, it prompted a massive escalation on 7 December 1941—Japan’s bombing of Pearl Harbor—along with attacks on British and Dutch 

interests throughout the Pacific. As one scholar reflects, “It is interesting to speculate 

whether continuing the oil shipments would have kept Japan out of the war long enough 

for the deterrent force in the Philippines and in the British Far Eastern Fleet to become 

completely effective, or whether Japan would have reacted regardless of the oil policy.”6

Securing the Maritime Commons

One of the Navy’s primary missions entails the negative objective of preventing disruption of the global economic order by stopping interference with oceanic transportation. 

Given that 90 percent of world trade travels by sea, this mission underlies economic 

prosperity globally. The global commons is often kept open to legal traffic by such nonmilitary missions as elimination of piracy, interdiction of human trafficking, seizure of 

DIRECT EFFECTS INDIRECT EFFECTS

Positive 

Objective

deliver food to Belgians; 

rescue refugees (Vietnam); 

rescue workers, cap well (oil spill);

convoy to aid cargo movement 

(antipiracy); fund R&D (whales)

attract voters (humanitarian or 

environmental relief); cultivate allies 

(UK in Belgian relief)

Negative 

Objective

prevent cargo movement (sanctions); 

prevent North Vietnam from taking 

South Vietnamese navy; prevent 

pollution spread (oil spill)

UK wants “special relationship” with 

U.S. (Venezuela); prevent environmental 

damage (oil spill); prevent piracy

R&D: research and development

TABLE 5

Correlation of Positive/Negative Objectives with Direct/Indirect Effects
banned cargoes, prevention of dumping or leaking of pollutants, and research on the 

maritime environment and other issues.

Focusing on global problems is not new; for the U.S. Navy it dates back to the early 

nineteenth century. Initiatives by Matthew Fontaine Maury, appointed in 1842 the first 

superintendent of the Naval Observatory, transformed that institution from a repository 

for navigational gear and charts to a center for astronomical and oceanographic observation and for data mining of charts and logbooks on currents, winds, and climate. 

Much of the U.S. Navy’s early research, in such areas as hull design, navigational aids, 

and weaponry, was specific to its missions, but modern-day research and development 

encompass communications, climate, modeling, deep-sea mapping, visualization of 

battle spaces, creation of virtual training environments, and physical and cyberspace 

probes. Many of these research projects provide advantages well beyond war fighting, 

indeed well beyond the maritime world writ large, to benefit the civilian economy.

Oil spills of the magnitude of Deepwater Horizon threaten, if not contained expeditiously, negative environmental effects for decades to come. According to the World 

Health Organization, dependence on marine resources doubled in a period of about 

forty years in the twentieth century: “The average apparent per capita fish consumption 

increased from about 9 kg per year in the early 1960s to 16 kg in 1997.”7

 With the oceans 

already under pressure from overfishing and overuse, the maritime environment may 

be already damaged beyond repair by permanent ecological changes. Therefore, the 

protection of the seas from further pollution is not a trivial mission.

The sinking of Navy ships provides for recreational diving an alternative to natural reefs, 

which diving can damage. Environmental groups such as the Sierra Club and Base Action 

Network are concerned, however, that the use of the ships for artificial reefs might injure 

the ecosystem by introducing pollutants and spurring the migration of fish from natural 

to artificial reefs. But surveys conducted on Spiegel Grove off Key Largo, Florida, and anecdotal information from such longer-established artificial reefs as the ex–Coast Guard cutters 

Duane and Bibb off Key Largo indicate that the vessels have not diminished marine life on 

existing reef systems. In fact, artificial reefs can relieve the pressure on the surrounding 

natural reefs from recreational use and stimulate new populations of reef fish.8

In the waters off Somalia, Chinese commanding officers and sailors have worked closely 

with other navies to secure the maritime commons, through frequent bilateral exchanges 

as well as multi-stakeholder settings. The PLAN has carefully crafted its antipiracy missions to portray abroad its blue-water operations positively. Initially, China’s navy escorted only Chinese-flagged ships through the Gulf of Aden, but recently approximately 

70 percent of ships in a given Chinese escort flotilla have been foreign flagged. PLAN 

antipiracy task forces have called in dozens of foreign ports for a variety of purposes, 
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from core needs, such as replenishment, to diplomatic and friendly initiatives ranging 

from military parades in Seychelles to the opening of warships for public visits in Malta. 

Thus, nonmilitary missions can become win-win scenarios for all parties involved.

Win-Win, Lose-Lose, and Mixed-Outcome Operations

Most of the nonmilitary missions discussed in this collection benefited not only the 

particular nations carrying them out but also many other stakeholders supporting the 

peaceful use of the global maritime commons. Thus, they were win-win operations for 

all parties adhering to international law (see table 6). Humanitarian relief, fundamental 

research, and antipiracy missions all fall into this category.

One of the most important humanitarian missions conducted by the U.S. Navy was the 

post-tsunami Operation Unified Assistance in Southeast Asia of 2004–2005, in 

which over thirteen thousand service members on twenty-five U.S. Navy ships delivered essential food, water, and medicine to tens of thousands of desperate survivors.9

On a much smaller scale, in June 2013 the PLAN deployed hospital ship Peace Ark

from Zhejiang Province’s Zhoushan Port on Harmonious Mission 2013, in which 

the vessel visited Brunei, Maldives, Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Indonesia, 

and Cambodia over four months. This ship also participated in a combined medical 

tour with naval ships from Indonesia and Singapore in Labuan Bajo, Indonesia, on 12 

September 2013.10

Marine research is another win-win. To date, the Navy’s Office of Naval Research has 

supported research for fifty-nine Nobel Prize winners, spanning the fields of chemistry, economics, medicine, and physics (see table 7). Among the first winners were Felix 

Bloch (physics, 1952), for measurement of magnetic resonance imaging and atomic 

nuclei, and Georg von Békésy (medicine, 1961), for the biomechanics of hearing, studies 

CASE STUDY PROTAGONIST OPPONENT GLOBAL AUDIENCE

Slave Trade win lose win

Venezuela Deterrence win lose N/A

Starvation Blockade win covert lose win

Oil Embargo lose lose lose

Vietnamese Refugees win lose win

Artificial Reefs win win win

Sonar and Whales win win win

Gulf Oil Spill win win win

PLAN Antipiracy win lose win

TABLE 6

Win-Win, Win-Lose, and Mixed-Outcome Operations
seminal to unraveling underwater sound impacts. The Office of Naval Research assisted 

the Trieste deep-sea dives and the development of the deep-diving submersible Alvin and 

experimental underwater habitat Sea Lab, and it funded the remotely operated seafloor 

vehicle Jason and the hunt for Titanic. Finally, it has a growing program in unmanned 

undersea and aerial vehicles deployed for basic research, as well as military uses.

TABLE 7

Office of Naval Research–Supported Nobel Prize Winners, 1952–2010

Felix Bloch Physics 1952 magnetic measurement in atomic nuclei

Linus Pauling Chemistry 1954 chemical bond’s application to the 

elucidation of the structure of complex 

substances

Severo Ochoa Medicine 1959 synthesis of ribonucleic acid

Donald Glaser Physics 1960 invention of the bubble chamber

Georg von Békésy Medicine 1961 explanation of the physical events that 

take place within the human ear during 

hearing

Melvin Calvin Chemistry 1961 explanation of the second stage of 

photosynthesis

Robert Hofstadter Physics 1961 electron scattering in atomic nuclei 

Charles H. Townes Physics 1964 invention of the maser and the laser

George Wald Medicine 1967 identification of visual pigments and their 

chemical precursors

Haldan Hartline Medicine 1967 impulse coding in the visual receptors

Hans Bethe Physics 1967 nuclear reactions, especially energy 

production in stars

Har Gobind Khorana Medicine 1968 synthesis of well-defined nucleic acids

Christian Anfinsen Chemistry 1972 ribonuclease, connection between the 

amino acid sequence and the biologically 

active conformation

Robert Schrieffer

Leon Cooper

Physics 1972 theory of superconductivity

Gerald Edelman Medicine 1972 chemical structure of antibodies

Kenneth Arrow Economics 1972 general economic equilibrium theory and 

welfare theory

Paul J. Flory Chemistry 1974 physical chemistry of macromolecules

William Lipscomb Chemistry 1976 structure of boranes

Herbert Simon Economics 1978 decision-making process within economic 

organizations

Peter Mitchell Chemistry 1978 biological energy transfer through the 

formulation of the chemiosmotic theory

Herbert C. Brown Chemistry 1979 use of boron-containing compounds in 

the organic synthesis

David H. Hubel Medicine 1981 discoveries concerning the “visual 

system”

Roald Hoffmann Chemistry 1981 course of chemical reactions
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Nicolaas Bloembergen

Arthur Schawlow

Physics 1981 development of laser spectroscopy

Kenneth Wilson Physics 1982 critical phenomena in connection with 

phase transitions

William A. Fowler Physics 1983 nuclear reactions in the formation of the 

chemical elements in the universe

Herbert A. Hauptman

Jerome Karle

Chemistry 1985 direct methods for the determination of 

crystal structures

John C. Polanyi

Yuan T. Lee

Dudley Herschbach

Chemistry 1986 dynamics of chemical elementary 

processes

Norman F. Ramsey Physics 1989 atomic precision spectroscopy

Hans Dehmelt Physics 1989 development of atomic precision 

spectroscopy

Rudolph A. Marcus Chemistry 1992 theory of electron transfer reactions in 

chemical systems

George Olah Chemistry 1994 carbocation chemistry

Richard E. Smalley Chemistry 1996 carbon atoms bound in the form of a ball

William D. Phillips Physics 1997 cooling and trapping of atoms with laser 

light

Daniel C. Tsui

Horst L. Störmer

Physics 1998 quantum fluid with fractionally charged 

excitations

Walter Kohn Chemistry 1998 density-functional theory

Ahmed Zewail Chemistry 1999 transition states of chemical reactions 

using femtosecond spectroscopy

Eric Kandel Medicine 2000 signal transduction in the nervous system

Hideki Shirakawa

Alan G. MacDiarmid

Alan J. Heeger

Chemistry 2000 discovery and development of conductive 

polymers

Herbert Kroemer Physics 2000 heterostructures in high-speed electronics 

and optoelectronics

Wolfgang Ketterle

Carl Wieman

Eric Cornell

Physics 2001 Bose-Einstein condensation in dilute gases 

of alkali atoms

John Fenn Chemistry 2002 identification/structure analyses of 

biological macromolecules

Paul Lauterbur Medicine 2003 magnetic resonance imaging

John L. Hall

Theodor W. Hänsch

Physics 2005 laser-based precision spectroscopy

Robert H. Grubbs

Richard R. Schrock

Chemistry 2005 metathesis method in organic synthesis

Andre Geim

Konstantin Novoselov

Physics 2010 two-dimensional material graphene

Source: Darlene R. Ketten, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, Massachusetts.

TABLE 7

Office of Naval Research–Supported Nobel Prize Winners, 1952–2010, continued
Antipiracy patrols are a win-win both for those conducting the mission and for shipping 

companies globally—although they are, of course, a “lose” for the pirates. The Liberation Army Daily, the PLA’s mouthpiece, has described the PLAN as having created by 

cooperation in the Gulf of Aden an “effective information network with over 50 warships from more than 20 countries and organizations through information resource 

sharing in the Gulf of Aden and the waters off the Somali coast.”11 There are both realist 

and idealist reasons behind China’s antipiracy operations. The former include the “desire to protect Chinese shipping, expand China’s influence, and to provide opportunities 

for realistic training that will enhance the PLAN’s capabilities in military operations 

other than war.” But the latter involve China’s desire to contribute meaningfully to 

regional security.12

Economic win-win scenarios include using naval vessels to create reefs, thereby disposing of old ships cheaply while promoting marine life and recreation. There can be socioeconomic benefits from tourism for communities that host artificial reefs. For example, 

with the Vandenberg and the Spiegel Grove sinkings, the U.S. Navy, the Maritime Administration, state and local governments, local business organizations (e.g., chambers 

of commerce and tourism boards), and advocacy groups were all involved. The Spiegel 

Grove project has recovered most of its costs significantly ahead of schedule, owing in 

large part to increased tourism from the new diving destination.

Not all win-win scenarios are perceived as such at the time, particularly if there are 

competing audiences. For example, during the early nineteenth century the U.S. Navy 

and Royal Navy shared the goal of eliminating the oceanic transport of slaves. The Royal 

Navy had an active and well-established West Africa Squadron. But the U.S. government, because of political sensitivities from British searches in the lead-up to the War of 

1812, would not allow the British to search American-flagged vessels. Commo. William 

Edmonstone of the Royal Navy West African Squadron noted, “As vessels engaged in 

the Slave Trade almost invariably fly the American flag, and our cruisers are prohibited 

from in any way interfering with them, of course we are to a very serious extent powerless in putting a check on the trade.”13 Thus, American political sensitivity about ship 

searches undermined what would otherwise have been a clear win for both countries.

Some operations produce public win-win scenarios that are in fact, behind the scenes, 

win-lose in nature. Herbert Hoover used the fact that his humanitarian relief efforts 

covertly assisted the blockade of the Central Powers to leverage British support for his 

efforts, including the free use of British shipping. He also convinced the Germans that 

if they did not let him feed the noncombatants, Germany would be required by international law to do so itself. Thus, Hoover presented the humanitarian aid for Belgium and 

northern France as a win for both parties. However, his private papers show quite clearly 

that the humanitarian aid allowed Britain to fine-tune its blockade against the Central 
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Powers so as to affect just their populations, without starving the civilians of occupied 

countries. The so-called starvation blockade by the Royal Navy proved highly effective: 

“By the end of World War I there is no question that the German and Austrian populations were suffering as a result of the blockade.”14 In reality, the Belgian relief effort was 

really a win-lose scenario, in that it assisted the blockaders to defeat the Central Powers.

A win-lose scenario resulted from the rescue of refugees during the final days of the 

Vietnam War, when thirty-two South Vietnamese naval ships, some in barely seaworthy 

condition and carrying more than thirty thousand refugees, crossed the South China 

Sea to the Philippines. The naval escort not only saved the South Vietnamese naval 

officers and their families from possible persecution but prevented the remaining naval 

vessels from falling into the hands of the conquering North Vietnamese forces, a clear 

strategic win for the United States and loss for North Vietnam. For the Philippines 

it was a win as well: to obtain permission for the ships to land, Ambassador William 

Sullivan convinced a reluctant President Ferdinand Marcos to give the refugees safe 

haven in return for the transfer of many of the South Vietnamese naval ships to the 

Philippine navy.

There is only one lose-lose case study in this collection—the American oil embargo 

against Japan. Rather than de-escalate the war in China or deter war against the West, 

the embargo precipitated the escalation of regional wars in Europe and China into a 

global war. The costs were catastrophic for all sides and produced an outcome antithetical to both American and Japanese interests. By war’s end the Japanese had eviscerated 

the Nationalist forces in China, positioning the communists to win the long Chinese 

civil war. If there is a lesson to be learned concerning deterrent measures, it would be 

the requirement for a careful calculation of the value of the undesired behavior to the 

opponent. Rightly or wrongly, the Japanese government considered prosecution of the 

war in China to be a matter of regime survival and so felt that it was on “death ground” 

in late 1941.

Dual-Use Naval Equipment and Cost Efficiency

Given that navies can serve wartime and peacetime missions, the ability to do both promotes cost efficiency (see table 8). The naval capabilities associated with embargo enforcement, reduction of collateral damage from blockades, mitigation of environmental 

disasters, and fleet-level deterrence enable cost-effective strategies for the United States. 

Beyond the economies associated with dual use with respect to wartime and peacetime 

missions, its war-fighting capabilities and nonmilitary missions allow the U.S. Navy 

to put a combined hard-power and soft-power squeeze on potential enemies, either to 

predispose to or to deter action.
Naval ships are particularly well suited to nonmilitary operations by virtue of these 

dual-use capabilities. The same naval equipment that can support a war can also support humanitarian missions, patrol operations, or search and rescue. A proficient navy 

represents a spectrum of capabilities that can be applied in both war and peace. For 

instance, following the Deepwater Horizon disaster the shortage of booms to retain the 

drifting oil was so severe that military aircraft flew in extra booms from Alaska. In 

recent years, policy and planning work at the federal level has made an important leap 

from scenario-based planning for each potential type of event (resulting in reams of 

planning documents for particular scenarios ranging from pandemics to terrorism) to 

capabilities-based planning, wherein capabilities are examined and refined to deliver 

what is needed as circumstances arise. Capabilities-based planning has resulted in the 

more economical integration of much-needed Department of Defense capabilities into 

the existing domestic response structure, all the while observing the legal limitations on 

domestic use of the military.

Many nonmilitary missions involve saving lives and so are extremely time sensitive. 

Either people are reached in time and saved, or they perish. Such missions involve 

refugees at sea, people blown overboard from oil rigs, hungry noncombatants, and 

innocents threatened by pirates. Such problems are solved either quickly or not at all, 

so speed can be essential. The early-nineteenth-century antislavery patrols were such 

a mission; they constituted law enforcement, not war fighting, but warships conducted 

them quite effectively, especially as steam-driven units became available. Similarly, off 

the coast of Somalia today, Qingdao, a Type 052 Luhu-class destroyer commissioned in 

1996, served as the PLAN’s eleventh successive escort task force’s command ship.

High-tech vessels can be assigned relatively easily to nonmilitary missions, thus allowing governments to get the most effective and efficient use out of modern navies. If 

TABLE 8

Soft- and Hard-Power Capabilities

CASE STUDY SOFT POWER HARD POWER

Slave Trade humanitarian relief naval task force

Venezuela Deterrence fleet-in-being

Starvation Blockade humanitarian relief focused blockade effects

Oil Embargo economic sanction fleet-in-being

Vietnamese Refugees humanitarian relief naval escort

Artificial Reefs environmental protection

Sonar and Whales basic research

Gulf Oil Spill environmental protection; 

rescue of workers; disaster 

relief

use of military planes to fly in 

extra booms to contain oil spill

PLAN Antipiracy image building naval task force
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wartime is supposed to be the exception and peacetime the rule, nonmilitary uses of 

navies might actually be the most frequently called-for missions and therefore deserving 

of budgeting attention. Even more importantly, having overpowering naval force on call 

in times of state-to-state tension can provide sea powers enormous diplomatic leverage 

to de-escalate crises, even while remaining largely outside public view. Both of these 

points argue for retaining a large navy composed of many capable ships rather than 

downsizing or building ships with lesser capabilities. Given the cost of warfare, the ability to avoid war is worth an expensive military force structure. World War II made clear 

the false economy of failing to maintain military forces in Europe and Asia sufficient to 

deter expansionist ambitions.

The military use of navies remains their primary purpose, because of the horrendous 

stakes involved in wars, which one enters with the navy one has, not with the navy one 

wishes one had. As a former Chief of Naval Operations, Adm. Gary Roughead, has 

made clear, “I am also a firm believer that the hard power can soften up, but the soft 

power normally cannot harden up.”15 In wartime, naval coalitions will fail if they lack 

the naval capabilities to get soldiers and supplies into the theater, to protect overseas 

trade, or to shut down the commons for enemy use. In peacetime, these naval assets can 

inspect ships for contraband, act as fleets-in-being to dissuade attack, and conduct a 

wide range of humanitarian missions.

Many nonmilitary operations involving naval task forces or fleets-in-being can help 

keep ships in readiness for war. Even while performing useful missions of a nonmilitary 

nature, crews continue to train for duties essential to warfare. If these humanitarian 

missions can supplement training exercises, and in particular if some activities turn 

out to be even more useful than training exercises, they will be viewed in a different 

financial light—that is, as maximizing tax dollars by incorporating dual-use missions 

and training.

While the term “MOOTW” dates only to the 1990s, the U.S. Navy has a nearly twohundred-year history of sponsoring nonmilitary missions that affect many aspects of 

our lives. After the Cold War ended, the U.S. military developed the “3/1” strategy, in 

which a big circle called “major combat operations” encompassed several smaller inner 

circles—stability operations, the global war on terrorism, and homeland defense. This 

framework was an important first step in the creation of a new maritime strategy. These 

smaller circles also included counterterrorism, peacekeeping, antipiracy operations, and 

even humanitarian assistance and disaster relief.16

The Navy’s March 2015 maritime strategy, A Cooperative Strategy for 21st Century 

Seapower, provides for humanitarian missions: “Naval power projection capabilities also 
facilitate other elements of ‘smart power’ missions in the form of humanitarian assistance and disaster response. . . . Positioned to respond rapidly to disasters in key regions, 

forward naval forces working with allies and partners are ready to save lives, provide 

immediate relief, and set the conditions for effective civilian response without relying 

on damaged or inaccessible ports or airfields ashore. This function supports the naval 

missions of defending the homeland, responding to crises, deterring conflict, defeating 

aggression, and providing humanitarian assistance and disaster response.”17 Working 

with allies and coalition partners is key for success. As Ray Mabus, Secretary of the 

Navy, points out in his preface to the maritime strategy, one of the primary missions of 

America’s sea services is “supporting an ally with humanitarian assistance or disaster 

relief.”18

Modern navies should be envisioned not as comprising either military or nonmilitary 

capabilities but rather as being extraordinarily flexible “hard power” platforms with an 

infinite array of “hard” and “soft” extension packages at their disposal. While in the 

past the U.S. Navy has taken the lead in many soft-power missions, in recent years other 

global navies, such as China’s, have performed a wide range of nonmilitary operations 

as well, such as patrolling sea-lanes against pirates, searching for missing airliners, or 

conducting a noncombatant evacuation operation in Yemen. These activities break the 

traditional mold of what most people think of as primary missions. In fact, navies can 

be important providers of soft-power solutions across a spectrum of natural and manmade threat scenarios ranging from environmental disasters to the outbreak of war.

Notes

The thoughts and opinions expressed in this essay 

are those of the authors and are not necessarily 

those of the U.S. government, the U.S. Navy Department, or the Naval War College.

1. Geoffrey Till, Seapower: A Guide for the 

Twenty-First Century, 3rd ed. (London: Routledge, 2013), chap. 12.

2. John T. Fishel and Edwin G. Corr, “Thinking and Writing about COIN,” Small Wars 

Journal, 17 July 2013, smallwarsjournal.com/.

3.Alan Vick et al., “USAF MOOTW Operations, 1916–1996,” appendix A in Preparing 

the U.S. Air Force for Operations Other than 

War (Santa Monica, Calif.: RAND, 1997), pp. 

79–162, available at www.rand.org/.

4. See John B. Hattendorf and Bruce A. Elleman, 

eds., Nineteen-Gun Salute: Case Studies of 

Operational, Strategic, and Diplomatic Naval 

Leadership during the 20th and Early 21st 

Centuries (Newport, R.I.: Naval War College 

Press / U.S. Government Printing Office, 

2010).

5. James R. Holmes, Theodore Roosevelt and the 

World Order (Washington, D.C.: Potomac 

Books, 2007), pp. 190–91.

6. James H. Herzog, Closing the Open Door: 

American-Japanese Diplomatic Negotiations, 

1936–1941 (Annapolis, Md.: Naval Institute 

Press, 1973), p. 238.

7.“Global and Regional Food Consumption Patterns and Trends: Availability and Consumption of Fish,” World Health Organization,

www.who.int/.

8. V. R. Leeworthy, T. Maher, and E. A. Stone, 

“Can Artificial Reefs Reduce or Alter User 
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Pressure on Adjacent Natural Reefs?,” Bulletin 

of Marine Science 78, no. 1 (2006), pp. 29–37.

9. See Bruce A. Elleman, Waves of Hope: The U.S. 

Navy’s Response to the Tsunami in Northern 

Indonesia, Newport Paper 28 (Newport, R.I.: 

Naval War College Press, 2007).

10.“‘Peace Ark’ Hospital Ship Participates in Joint 

Medical Tour in Indonesia,” China Military 

Online, 12 September 2013, eng.mod.gov.cn/.

11. Cao Jinping and Wu Dengfeng, “PLA Navy 

Deepens Cooperation with Naval Escort 

Forces of Various Countries,” Liberation Army 

Daily, 26 December 2012, www.chnarmy

.com/.

12. Erik Lin-Greenberg, “Dragon Boats: Assessing 

China’s Anti-piracy Operations in the Gulf of 

Aden,” Defense and Security Analysis 6, no. 26 

(2010), pp. 213–30.

13. Quoted in Christopher Lloyd, The Navy and 

the Slave Trade: The Suppression of the African 

Slave Trade in the Nineteenth Century (London: Frank Cass, 1968), p. 179.

14. Paul Halpern, “World War I: The Blockade,” 

in Naval Blockades and Seapower: Strategies 

and Counter-strategies, 1805–2005, ed. Bruce 

A. Elleman and S. C. M. Paine (London: Routledge, 2006), p. 103.

15. Gary Roughead, telephone interview, 14 

December 2012.

16. John Morgan, telephone interview, 28 November 2012.

17. Joseph F. Dunford, Jr., Jonathan W. Greenert, 

and Paul F. Zukunft, “A Cooperative Strategy 

for 21st Century Seapower,” March 2015, 

pp. 24–26, available at www.navy.mil/.

18. Ibid., p. i.

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About the Contributors

Bruce A. Elleman: William V. Pratt Professor of International History and Research 

Professor, Maritime History Department, U.S. Naval War College, with a BA (1982) 

from the University of California Berkeley; an MA (1984) and PhD (1993) from the 

History Department, Columbia University; an MS (1985) in international history, 

London School of Economics; and an MA in national security and strategic studies, 

with distinction (2004), Naval War College. His twenty-two books include Modern 

Chinese Warfare, 1795–1989 (Routledge, 2001); Naval Mutinies of the Twentieth Century: 

An International Perspective, edited, with Christopher Bell (Frank Cass, 2003); Naval 

Blockades and Seapower: Strategies and Counter-strategies, 1805–2005, edited, with S. 

C. M. Paine (Routledge, 2006); Waves of Hope: The U.S. Navy’s Response to the Tsunami 

in Northern Indonesia, Newport Paper 28 (Naval War College Press, 2007); and Naval

Coalition Warfare: From the Napoleonic War to Operation Iraqi Freedom, edited, with 

S. C. M. Paine (Routledge, 2008).

Andrew S. Erickson: Associate professor in the China Maritime Studies Institute 

(CMSI), Strategic Research Department, U.S. Naval War College; associate in research 

at the John King Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies, Harvard University; and a term 

member of the Council on Foreign Relations. He is author of the Jamestown Foundation monograph Chinese Anti-ship Ballistic Missile Development (2013), coauthor of the 

CMSI monographs No Substitute for Experience: Chinese Antipiracy Operations in the 

Gulf of Aden (2013) and Chinese Mine Warfare (2009), and coeditor of A Low-Visibility 

Force Multiplier: Assessing China’s Cruise Missile Ambitions (National Defense University Press, 2014) and of Rebalancing U.S. Forces: Basing and Forward Presence in the 

Asia-Pacific (Naval Institute Press, 2014). He also serves as an expert contributor to the 

Wall Street Journal’s “China Real Time Report.” In 2012 the National Bureau of Asian 

Research awarded him the inaugural Ellis Joffe Prize for PLA Studies.

Henry J. Hendrix: Captain, U.S. Navy; doctor of philosophy in war studies, King’s 

College London; MA in extension studies in diplomatic history, Harvard University; 

MA in national security affairs, Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, California; 

and BA, political science, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana. His publications include Theodore Roosevelt’s Naval Diplomacy: The United States Navy and the 

Birth of the American Century (Naval Institute Press, 2009), and book chapters in 

Leadership Embodied, edited by Joseph J. Thomas (Naval Institute Press, 2005), and 
Theodore Roosevelt, the U.S. Navy, and the Spanish-American War, edited by Edward 

Marolda (Palgrave Press, 2001).

Jan Kenneth Herman: Chief Historian of the Navy Medical Department from 1979 to 

2012 and also curator of the Old Naval Observatory, in the Foggy Bottom district of 

Washington, D.C. He was the editor in chief of Navy Medicine, the journal of the Navy 

Medical Department, for thirty years. Since 2000 he has written and produced documentaries for the U.S. Navy, highlighting its medical service during World War II, the 

Korean War, and the Vietnam War. The Lucky Few: The Story of USS Kirk, a documentary about the closing days of the Vietnam War, provided the stimulus for a companion 

book of the same name (Naval Institute Press, 2013). He has authored more than fifty 

articles and monographs and has presented lectures to audiences across the United 

States on military medicine, nineteenth-century astronomy and oceanography, and the 

medical history of World War II in the Pacific. 

Darlene R. Ketten: Chief Scientist, WHOI CT Facility, Biology Department, Woods 

Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, Massachusetts; and Assistant Clinical Professor, Department of Otology & Laryngology, Harvard Medical School. She 

received her PhD from the Johns Hopkins University, MS from the Massachusetts 

Institute of Technology, and BA from Washington University, Saint Louis, Missouri. 

She is the author of over a hundred publications on hearing abilities and hearing loss in 

marine mammals, including possible impacts from human activities in the ocean, such 

as sonar, explosives, construction, shipping, and ship shock trials. Recent publications 

include a feature article in Acoustics Today on sonar and beaked-whale strandings and 

three coauthored articles in a special edition on sonar stranding correlations for Aquatic 

Mammals: “Correlating Whale Strandings with Navy Exercises off Southern California,” “Correlating Military Sonar Use with Beaked Whale Mass Strandings: What Do 

These Historical Data Show?,” and “Beaked Whale Strandings and Naval Activities.”

Mary E. Landry: Rear admiral, retired, in the U.S. Coast Guard and former commander 

of the Eighth Coast Guard District and of Task Force 189.8, headquartered in New 

Orleans, Louisiana. She has held various assignments on the East Coast, West Coast, 

Gulf Coast, and Hawaii. Most notably Rear Admiral Landry served as the federal onscene coordinator for the Deepwater Horizon incident in the Gulf of Mexico. Ms. Mary 

Landry is the current Director of Incident Management and Preparedness at Coast 

Guard Headquarters. She has a master’s in management from Webster University and 

a master’s in marine affairs from the University of Rhode Island; also, she is a National 

Security Fellow at Harvard University. 

S. C. M. Paine: William S. Sims Professor in the Strategy and Policy Department, 

U.S. Naval War College, with a PhD (1993) in Russian and Chinese history, Columbia 
University, and MIA (1984) from the School for International and Public Affairs, 

Columbia University. She is the author of The Wars for Asia, 1911–1949 (Cambridge 

University Press, 2012), winner of the Leopold Prize and a PROSE award; The SinoJapanese War of 1894–1895: Perceptions, Power, and Primacy (Cambridge University 

Press, 2003); and Imperial Rivals: China, Russia, and Their Disputed Frontier, 1858–1924

(M. E. Sharpe, 1996), winner of the Jelavich Prize; editor of Nation Building, State Building, and Economic Development: Case Studies and Comparisons (M. E. Sharpe, 2010); 

and coauthor with Bruce A. Elleman of Modern China: Continuity and Change 1644 to 

the Present (Prentice Hall, 2010).

John Pentangelo: Managing director of the Naval War College Museum and previously 

chief curator at Historic Ships in Baltimore, Maryland (formerly the USS Constellation Museum). During his tenure in Baltimore he spearheaded several initiatives to 

commemorate the 2008 bicentennial of the abolition of the transatlantic slave trade in 

the United States. The capstone of these efforts was the passage of two congressional 

resolutions honoring Constellation for its role in fighting the slave trade. He holds an 

MA in history museum studies from the Cooperstown Graduate Program and a BA in 

American history from Manhattanville College. 

Austin M. Strange: Research associate at the Institute for the Theory and Practice of 

International Relations at the College of William and Mary. He was a research associate 

from 2011 to 2014 in the China Maritime Studies Institute, Strategic Research Department, U.S. Naval War College. He received a BA in economics and Chinese language 

and literature from the College of William and Mary. Currently, he is a PhD student in 

Harvard University’s Department of Government studying international relations and 

comparative politics, with a focus on Chinese politics and foreign relations.

Thomas Williams: PhD in public policy and administration, urban studies, and planning, with a concentration in environmental policy, Virginia Commonwealth University; master’s in public administration, with a concentration in human resource 

management, Virginia Commonwealth University; and BA from Indiana University. 

The title of his 2006 PhD dissertation was “Sinking Poor Decision Making with Best 

Practices: A Case Study of Artificial Reef Decision-Making in the Florida Keys.” Currently, he is Director of Planning and Community Development for the Ketchikan 

Gateway Borough, Ketchikan, Alaska.

Index

A

A-bomb See atomic bomb

Acoustic Thermometry of Ocean Climate 140

Acropora cervicornis 123

Acropora palmate 123

Act to Expedite the Strengthening of National 

Defense See Export Control Act 

Adams, John Quincy 23

Addicott, Ray 95, 102

Aden, Gulf of 5, 164–75, 190, 194

Aden Harbor 166

Africa 1–2, 7–17, 18n27, 47, 71, 168, 172, 173, 

194

Africa Squadron 2, 7, 8–13, 16, 17, 194

aircraft carrier 4, 95, 97, 109, 112, 115, 121

aircraft equipment 73, 75, 76

air emboli 136

Air Force Eastern Test Range 118

Akka 111

Alaska 152, 156, 196

Aleutian Islands 71

Algeria 172

Allen, Thad 153, 156

Alpha scenario vii

aluminum 73

Alvin 192

America 112

American Colonization Society 15

American Legion 106

American Racer 93

Anadarko 147

Anderson, Jason 147

Anglo-Dutch War, Second (1665–67) 110

Ann D. Richardson 8

Antarctica 140

antimony 73

Antwerp 49

Aristotle 128, 130

Arizona 111

Armitage, Richard 3, 98–100, 106

Army Corps of Engineers 116, 152

Army of the Republic of Vietnam 3, 92, 93, 95, 

96, 98

artificial reef 2, 4, 109–24, 182, 183, 185, 187, 

188, 190, 194, 196

Artificial Reef Program 114, 122

Artificial Reef Society 122

asbestos 73, 112, 122

Ascension Island 12

Asia 69, 70, 71, 72, 80, 81, 86, 197

Aswan High Dam 111

Atlantic Fleet 2, 21, 28, 33, 34, 37, 41

Atlantic Ocean 17, 33, 35, 42, 47, 72, 83, 121, 

122

Atlantic Squadron 74

Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission 

113

atomic bomb 85

Australian Fleet 169

Australian Institute of Marine Science 123

automotive equipment 73

aviation gasoline 75, 81

Axis powers 75
B

B-52 92

Bab el Mandeb 164

bacon 48, 50

Baden 110

Bahama Islands 127, 139

Bahrain 174

Balfour, Arthur 31, 39, 42

Barbour County 104

Basel Action Network 112

Bassa Cove 15

Bates, Lindon 50, 51

Battle Fleet 21, 83

battle of Jutland 111

Battle of Manila Bay 25, 31

battleship 24, 27, 33, 34, 37, 38, 115

beans 48, 50, 59, 62

Beaumont 114

Beaumont Reserve Fleet 114

Behavioral Response Study 137

Békésy, Georg von 191–92

Belgian Congo 81

Belgium 3, 47–64, 67n108, 110, 183, 194

Bell, Charles H. 8

Bell UH-1 See Huey

bends 136

Benicia 114

Berlin 35, 39, 40, 51, 52, 55, 57, 58

Bertholf, Ellsworth Price 150

Bethmann-Hollweg, Theobald von 52

Bibb 190

biodiversity 117, 122

biomass 113, 117

black smoker 130

Bloch, Felix 191

blockade v, 1, 3, 21, 25, 31, 32, 33, 47–64, 71, 

82, 182, 183, 185, 187, 188, 191, 194–95, 196

blockship 4, 109–12, 113

blowout 145, 146, 147, 159

blowout preventer 145, 147

Blue Ridge 98, 99

blue-water 5, 131, 163, 164, 165, 166, 190

boat charter 57, 61, 62, 124

Bolivia 22

Bongaard, James 100, 102

boomerang 69, 84–85, 86, 185

boom wars 155–57, 160, 196

Boston 9

Bottle of Beer 10

Bowen, Herbert 32

boycott 58, 70

BP 145–60, 182, 183, 186, 187, 188

Brabant 49

Brazil 8, 9, 17, 23

Brazil Squadron 8, 9, 17

Bremerton 121

British Admiralty 42, 56

British Colonial Office 42

British Columbia 122

British India See India

British Petroleum See BP

Brooklyn Navy Yard 15

Brooks Brothers 16

Broward/Miami-Dade County 121

Browner, Carol 154

Bruce, Henry 8

Bruges-Zeebrugge 110

Brussels 49, 59

Bunz, Karl 36

Bureau of Medicine and Surgery 26

Bureau of Navigation 25, 29–30
Burkeen, Aaron Dale 147

Burma 80

Burma Road 78

Burwinkel, Stephen 101–104

Bush, George W. 4, 109, 149

Butler, Smedley D. 30

bycatch 129, 140, 186

C

C-130 103

Cai Weidong 172

Cambodia 104, 106, 191

Cameroon 172

Cam Ranh Bay 92

Canada 116, 119

Canadian Forces Maritime Command 119

Canary Islands 8, 127, 128, 135, 136

Canton See Guangzhou

Cape Palmas 15

Cape Verde Islands 11

Captain Keith Tibbetts 120

cardiac arrhythmia 136

Careysburg 15

Caribbean 2, 3, 21, 23, 25, 26, 27, 29, 33, 34, 35, 

41, 42, 116, 186

Castro, Cipriano 22, 23, 25, 26, 32

Catholic Church 22

Cayman Islands 120

Cecil, Robert 52

cement 147, 160 

Central America 32

Central China 70

Central Intelligence Agency 92

centralizer 147 

Central Powers 188, 194–95

CH-46 95

CH-53 95

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff 154

Chan, Harris 168

charity 47, 48, 62, 63, 67n129

Charleston 12

Charleville 49

Charybdis 38

Chatsworth 9

chemicals 73, 121, 129, 158, 172

chemical weapons 172

Chiang Kai-shek 70, 84, 85, 89n80, 111

Chief of Naval Operations 29, 70, 71, 80, 83, 99, 

100, 140, 197

China 3, 4, 5, 25, 47, 69, 70, 71, 72, 73, 74, 75, 

78, 79, 80, 81, 82, 84, 85, 86, 111, 163–75, 183, 

184, 189, 190, 194, 195, 198

China Arms Control and Disarmament 

Association 167

China Daily 165

China Incident See Pacific War

China Shipowners’ Association 167

Chinese Council for Economic Research 72

Chipman, Kent 100

chromium 73

Chulai 92

Churchill, Winston 51

Cincinnati (Ohio) 101

Cincinnati (USS) 34, 37

City of Dortmund 57

Civil Service Commission 31

Civil War 7, 16, 17, 23, 30, 45n72

Clark, Donald 147

Clark Air Force Base 103

Clean Water Act 160

coffee 48

Coghlan, Joseph 30, 34

Cold War v, vii, 181, 188, 197

Colombia 22
Colonial Defense Committee 42

Combat Information Center (CIC) 94, 96

Combined Task Force (CTF) 151 168

commerce raiding v, 1

Commercial Exchange Department 49

Commission for Relief in Belgium (CRB) 3, 

47–64, 187, 189, 195

communism 85

Congoes 15

Congo River 9, 12, 13, 15

Congress 7, 8, 24, 71, 72, 74, 78, 114, 149, 152, 

153, 155, 159, 185, 186

conjunctivitis 103

conservation 123, 140

Con Son Island 98–99

Constellation 2, 7–17, 18n27

controlled burns 157, 159

Convoy Coordination Working Group 174

Cook 95, 101, 102, 103, 104

Cooperative Strategy for 21st Century Seapower, 

A v, vii, 197–98

copper 12, 13, 71, 72

Cora 2, 8, 13–14, 15–16, 18n27, 120, 123, 125

coral 120, 123

Corexit 158, 159

corn 58, 59

cotton 71

Council on Foreign Relations 79

Cousteau, Jean-Michel 155

Cox, Donald 97, 105, 106

Craigie, Robert L. 60, 79

Crimea 111

Crosby, Bing 95

Crowninshield, A. S. 34

cruiser 16, 24, 27, 33, 34, 37, 110, 111, 115, 194

Cuba 13, 17, 25, 110

Culebra Island 26, 30, 33, 34, 35, 38, 41

Cumberland 10

Curtis, Stephen Ray 147

Curzon, George 63

Cuvier’s beaked whale 127, 132

Cyane 7

D

Dajian 164

Daly, Daniel 93

Danang 92, 93

Dana Point Harbor 115

Davis, John A. 8

decibel 130, 141n12

decompression sickness 136

Deep Water Economic Zone 119

Deepwater Horizon 1, 4, 145–60, 186, 190, 196

Defense Coordinating Elements (DCEs) 151

Defense Coordinating Officers (DCOs) 151

defense support of civil authorities (DSCA) 

149, 150, 151, 153, 154

dehydration 102

Delaware 121, 122

Delaware Bay 122

Delicia 12

Delight 164

Del-Jersey-Land Inshore Reef 121

Deloitte, Plender, Griffiths, & Company 49

Democratic Party 186

Democratic Republic of Vietnam 92

See also Vietnam

Denmark 110 

Department of Commerce 153

Department of Defense (DoD) 4, 106, 148, 151, 

152, 153, 155, 158, 159, 196

Department of Homeland Security 151, 154

Department of Justice 160

Department of State 70, 71, 78, 83

Department of the Interior 153, 157, 158
Department of the Navy 17, 26, 27, 38, 74

Department of Transportation 114

destroyer 94, 96, 98, 101, 102, 105, 116, 119, 

121, 122, 167, 169, 196

deterrence v, 69–86, 168, 182, 185, 187, 188, 

189, 191, 195, 196

Dewey, George 2, 21–42

Dewey, George, Jr. 40

Dewey, Mildred 31

diarrhea 102, 103

Diet (Japan) 78

diplomacy 2, 24–26, 29, 31, 33, 41, 82, 163–75, 

181, 188

Directeur des Services du Ravitaillement 61

disaster relief v, vii, 1, 4, 94, 145, 148, 149, 150, 

151, 154, 157, 159, 181, 183, 186, 195, 196, 197, 

198

Disaster Relief Act of 1970 148–49

dissection 129

Division of Far Eastern Affairs 70, 83

Do, Kiem 99, 105

dolphin (mammal) 130, 132

Dolphin (USS) 29

Donuzlav Lake 111

Dowgate 55

Doyle, Hugh 96, 98, 101–102

dreadnought 110

Duane 190

Du Jingcheng 174

Dutch See Netherlands

Dutch East Indies 74, 79, 80, 81, 83, 84

dyes 73

E

Earth Day 148

earthquake 130, 150

East Asia 80

East China Sea 175

East Flanders 49

East Grand Terre 159

East India Squadron 17

Eastman, Thomas H. 15, 18n27

East River 13, 16

echo-ranging device 131

Echo scenario vii

ecology 127

economics 3, 4, 23, 69, 70, 71, 72, 74, 75, 79, 80, 

81, 82, 83, 84, 86, 109, 111, 115, 118, 119, 120, 

124, 148, 159, 163, 164, 165, 173, 181, 186, 187, 

188, 189, 191, 192, 194, 196

economic sanctions 3, 69–86, 182, 185, 187, 

188, 189, 191, 195, 196

Edison, Thomas 127

E. D. Morgan & Co. 13

Egypt 81, 111

Eighth Coast Guard District 4, 145, 151, 153

Elfland 57

Elisabeth 55

embargo See economic sanctions; oil embargo

Emden 110

Endangered Species Act (ESA) 139

Endangered Species List 123

Energy and Environmental Readiness Division 

140

English Channel 53–54, 62, 110

Ensenada Honda 38

environment 1, 109, 114, 121, 122, 123, 129, 

130, 131, 134, 136, 137, 138, 140, 146, 152, 154, 

155, 158, 159, 160, 181, 182, 183, 184, 186, 187, 

188, 189, 190, 195, 196, 198

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) 112, 

121, 154, 158

Environment Canada 122

Erie 13

Escambia County 115, 121

European Squadron 17, 33, 34
European Union Naval Force (EU NAVFOR) 

168, 173

“Europe first” strategy 86

Evans, Robley D. 24

Export Control Act 74–76

extension packages 198

Exxon Valdez 146, 151–52

F

face 85, 92, 184

Faeroe Islands 130

Fairfax, Donald M. 14

Falkenberg, Mark 102

Falmouth 52

fascism 69

Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) 155

Federal Emergency Management Agency 

(FEMA) 149, 154

Federal Emergency Management Agency 

Region 151

Federal On Scene Coordinator (FOSC) 153

Federal Response Plan 149, 150

Finland 61

fishermen 98, 116, 119, 185, 186

fishing 2, 4, 92, 94, 98, 100, 101, 109, 113, 114, 

116, 117, 119, 120, 121, 123, 124, 128, 129, 130, 

131, 135, 140, 153, 158, 159, 164, 165, 181, 182, 

183, 185, 186, 188, 190

fleet-in-being 3, 72, 74, 82–84, 86, 184, 188, 

189, 196, 197

Florida 4, 106, 109, 115, 116, 118, 121, 123, 152, 

157, 190

Florida Keys 116, 118, 123

Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary 116, 

118

Florida State University 116

fluorspar 73

Foggo, James, III vii

Ford, Gerald 106

Fort Eustis 114, 120

forward basing vii, 69, 72, 83, 84, 86, 198

Fox, Gustavus 17

France 3, 17, 24, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 53, 58, 59, 

61, 62, 66n108, 67n117, 71, 72, 75, 78, 80, 84, 

91, 111, 169, 183, 194

Frankfurt 110

Fredericks, Morgan 15, 16, 18n27

Freetown 10

Frequent Wind, Operation 95–98, 183

Fresh Water 10

frigate 9, 115, 120, 167, 168, 169

G

Gabon 172

Gagliano, Jesse 147

General Board of the Navy 24, 25, 27

General Harry Taylor 118

General Hoyt S. Vandenberg 115, 116, 117, 118, 

194

Geneva convention 91

George, James 12

Georgia 7, 121

Georgia Strait Alliance 122

Gerard, James 51, 52, 57, 58

Germany 2, 3, 21–41, 47–64, 70, 71, 75, 79, 80, 

82, 110, 183, 184, 185, 186, 187, 188, 194, 195

Ghost Fleet 120

Glamorgan 9

Gleaves, Albert 38

Global Atmospheric Research Experiment 118

global climate change vii

global commons 189, 191

Global Times 166

global war on terrorism 197

good order at sea 181

Gordon, Nathaniel 17
Great Britain 3, 7, 23, 25, 28, 31, 32, 33, 39–40, 

42, 47, 50, 51, 60, 63, 79, 80, 128, 152

See also United Kingdom

Great Depression 86

Greater East Asia Co-prosperity Sphere 81

Great Harbor 26, 35

Great Powers 25

Greek v, 113, 127, 128, 132, 135

Green Forest 93

Green Port 93, 98

Greenville Victory 93

Green Wave 93

Grew, Joseph C. 74, 78, 79, 81, 85

Grey, Edward 51

Griggs, Ray 169

Guam 105, 113, 184

Guangzhou 73

Guiana 22, 26

Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill and Ecosystem Science 

Conference 158

gunnery exercise 4, 35, 109, 112

H

Hague, The 53, 54, 56

Hague Peace Conference, The 32

Hainault 49

Haiphong 78, 91

Halifax 52

Hall, Wilburn 13–14

Halliburton 147, 160

Hamilton, Maxwell M. 83

Hampshire 111

Hampton Roads 34, 112

Hancock 95, 97

Harmonious Mission Operation 191

Harpalyce 54, 56, 57, 58

Harriet Lane 16

Hawaii 72, 74, 80, 81, 83, 84, 88, 112, 113, 127, 

128, 132, 133

Hay, John 21, 23, 25, 31, 32

Heard Island 140

hemorrhage 136, 137

Herbert, Michael 32, 39

Higginson, Francis J. 30, 34, 35

histopathology 129

Historic Naval Ships Association 111

Holland 51

See also Netherlands

homeland defense 197–98

Homeland Security Presidential Directive 5 149

Hong Kong 71, 164

Hoover, Herbert C. 3, 47–64, 67n129, 70, 71, 

183, 194

Horinouchi Kensuke 73, 78

Hormuz, Strait of 164

Hornbeck, Stanley K. 83

House Insular Affairs Committee 28

Houston 145, 147

Huang Xueping 164

Hudson, Randy 95, 97, 98

Hue 92

Huey 96

Hull, Cordell 3, 74, 78, 80, 82, 83

Hull Note 82

humanitarian aid mission v, vii, 1, 3, 47, 48, 50, 

51, 53, 55, 59, 60, 63, 91, 92, 93, 94, 97, 100, 106, 

181, 187, 189, 191, 194, 196, 197, 198

hurricane 1, 26, 150, 152

hyperbaric chamber 136

hypertensive hemorrhage 136

hyperthermia 136

hypoxia 136

Hyundai Heavy Industries 146
I

Imperial German Navy 54 

Imperial Japanese Army 69, 70, 81, 82

Imperial Japanese Navy 78, 81, 84, 111

imperial powers 24, 27

Inactive Ships Program 109, 114, 124

Incident Command System (ICS) 4, 146, 

148–50, 151, 152

Independence 8–9

India 17, 73, 80, 113, 170, 173, 174, 191

Indian Ocean 164, 169

Indochina See Vietnam

Inman, William 10, 12, 15, 16

Integrative Oceanography Division of the 

University of California 119

international law 28, 32, 123, 167, 191

International Military Tribunal 83

international press 182, 189

international security 163, 164, 175, 189

International Settlement in Shanghai 79

International Symposium on Counter-Piracy 

and Escort Cooperation 172

intravascular air bubbles 136

Intrepid 110

Iphigenia 110

Iran 173

Ireland 8, 80

Iron Duke 110

iron ore 73

Italy 23, 77, 80, 82, 132 

J

Jack Half Dollar 10

Jackson, Lisa 154

Jacobs, Paul 94, 96, 98, 99, 100, 101, 103, 104

Jagow, Gottlieb von 51

James River Reserve Fleet 114, 120

Japan 3, 24, 26, 47, 69–86, 111, 121, 130, 169, 

173, 174, 182, 183, 185, 187, 188, 189, 195

Jason 192

Jim Bobstay 10

Jindal, Bobby 154

Johnson, Chris 112, 113

Joint Operation Planning and Execution System 

(JOPES) 151

Jones, Gordon 147

Ju Chengzhi 165

Junk River 15

K

Kaopectate 103

Karachi 169

Kauai 112

Kawishiwi 115

Kaya Okinori 85

Kelp Enhancement Zone 119

Kemp, Roy Wyatt 147

Kenya 169

Key Largo 116, 117, 190

Key West 115

Khyber 169

Kirk 4, 94–106

Kitchener, Herbert 51, 111

Kitchener Memorial 111

Kittiwake 116, 120

Kleppinger, Karl, Jr. 147

Kondō Nobutake 83, 84 

Kroomen 10–12

Krupp arms factories 33

Kyparissiakos Gulf 127

L

labyrinthitis ossificans 135

La Guayra 38

La Jolla 119, 120
Landrieu, Mary 153

Landry, Mary 4, 145–60

Lansdowne, Henry 32, 39, 42

Lansing, Robert 51

Laos 104, 106

lard 48, 50, 60

La Spezia 132

Latham, John 13, 16

Latin America 22, 186

lead 73, 79

League of Nations Covenant 70

Leahy, William D. 71

Lee, Arthur 29

Lemke, Robert 94, 97, 103, 104, 105

Lend-Lease 79, 85

Leonard, William Ambrose 10, 14

Level A Data 128, 137

Lexington 111

Liberation Army Daily 167

Liberia 8, 10, 11, 12, 14, 15

Liberty Ship Act 113

Liege 49

Li Faxin 174

Life-Saving Service 150

Light Airborne Multipurpose System (LAMPS) 

helicopter 96, 105

Lille 49

Limburg 49

Lincluden 55

Lincoln, Abraham 16, 17

lindane 97

Liverpool 9

Living Marine Resources Program 140

Lloyd George, David 51, 61

Lomotil 103

London 35, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 58, 59, 71

London Naval Conference of 1930 71, 72

Long, John D. 27, 28

Long Island 27

Longwy 49

Louisiana 4, 145, 146, 151, 152, 153, 154, 156, 

157, 159

Lower Keys 118

low-frequency (LFA) sonar 127, 131

Luftwaffe 110

Luxemburg 49

M

Mabus, Ray 198

MacArthur, Douglas 80

machine tools 73, 79

Macondo Prospect 146

Madagascar 127, 128, 132

Madeira Island 10, 12, 127

magnesiate 73

maize 48, 50

major combat operations 197

Malacca, Strait of 164

maladaptive dive response 136

Malaya 83

Malaysia 173

Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 172–73

“Management of Domestic Incidents” 149

Manchukuo 3

Manchuria 3, 69, 70, 82, 85

manganese 73

Manuel, Keith Blair 147

Marcos, Ferdinand 104, 195

margarine 48

Margarita 22

Marietta 38

Marine Mammal Health and Stranding 

Response Program 128
Marine Mammal Program 140

Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA) 138

marine mammals 2, 112, 127, 129, 130, 132, 

133, 134, 135, 136, 137, 138, 139, 140, 141, 186

Marine Protection, Research and Sanctuaries 

Act (MPRSA) 112

Maritime Administration (MARAD) 113, 114, 

115, 124

maritime commons 163, 174, 175, 181, 189–91, 

197

maritime shipping power 165

Markell, Jack 122

Marshall, George C. 80

marshland 157, 158, 159, 183

Martha 9

Martin, Graham A. 95

Marwick Head 111

Maryland 121, 122

mass stranding 127, 128, 133

Master Plan for Habitat Enhancement (MPHE) 

119

Maury, Matthew Fontaine 190

Maxwell, J. Byers 60

Mayflower 29, 33, 36, 38, 39, 40

McDevitt, Michael 168

McKinley, William 23, 25, 28

McMurry, Jerry 102

Mead, Jonathan 169

Mediterranean v, 172

Medway River 110

Mekong Delta 99

melon-headed whale 132–33

mercury 73, 112

Mexico, Gulf of 4, 114, 121, 145–60, 182, 183, 

185, 187, 188, 191, 196

mica 73

midfrequency (MFA) sonar 127, 131, 132

Midway 111

Mighty O, The 121

See also Oriskany

migration 137, 140, 186, 190

military operations other than war (MOOTW) 

1, 5, 181, 197

Military Sealift Command 95, 105

Minerals Management Service 145

Ministry of Transport 165

Misenum v

Mission Beach 119

Mississippi 152, 157

Mississippi River 157

Missouri 111

M-I SWACO 147

Mobile 120

Mohican 13

Mona Passage 35

Monroe, James 23

Monroe County 115, 116, 117, 118

Monroe Doctrine 21, 23, 24, 25, 28, 31, 32, 39, 

40, 42

Monrovia 10, 15, 18

Moody, William H. 41, 42, 44

Morocco 101

Morris, Edmund 36, 40

Mote Laboratories 118

mothball fleet 115, 121

Munitions Control Board 73

mutiny v

N

Namur 49

Nanjing 71, 172

Napolitano, Janet 154

National Academy of Sciences 130

National Commission on the BP Deepwater 

Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling 145

National Defense Authorization Act 109, 114, 121
National Defense Reserve Fleet (NDRF) 114

National Defense University 165

National Guard 148, 154, 156

National Incident Management System (NIMS) 

149

Nationalist government 70, 72, 84, 111, 195

National Marine Fisheries Service 128

National Oceanic and Atmospheric 

Administration (NOAA) 116, 128, 158

National Oil and Hazardous Substances 

Pollution Contingency Plan (NCP) 152

National Research Council (NRC) 137, 140

National Response Framework (NRF) 150

National Response Plan 150

National Security Staff 154

Native Americans 148

natural disasters v, 1, 4, 145, 148, 149, 150, 198

natural resources 26, 69, 79, 82, 153, 159

naval coalitions v, 197

Naval General Staff 82

Naval Marine Academy 174

naval museums 4

Naval Research Laboratory 127

Naval Retirement Fund 14

Naval Sea Systems Command 112, 114

Naval Vessel Register 120

Navy Military Studies Research Institute 172

necropsy 129, 137

negative objectives 187–89

negative space 2

Netherlands 47, 48, 52, 79, 80, 83, 84, 89n80

See also Holland

netizens 165

Neutrality Act 71

New Jersey 122

New Life, Operation 183–84

New Orleans 4, 145, 152

Newport vii, 29

New World 23

New York 13, 15, 16, 36, 40, 50, 63

New York Times 36, 138

Nhatrang 92

Nicaragua 23

Nicholas, John S. 9, 12

Nicholas II 32

nickel 73

Nightingale 12

9/11 149, 150, 153

nitrates 73

nitroglycerine 60

Nobel Prize winners 191–93

noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL) 133, 134, 

135

Nomura Kichisaburō 78, 80, 82

noncombatant evacuation operations (NEO) 1, 

95, 198

nonrecognition policy 3, 69, 70, 72

Norfolk 12, 15, 30

North Africa 71

North America 10, 17, 25, 28

North Atlantic Squadron 30, 33, 34

North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) 

127, 131, 132, 168, 169, 173

North Carolina 146

North China 70

Northern Hemisphere 129, 131

North German Lloyd 61

North Vietnam See Vietnam

Nova Scotia 52

Nürnberg 110

O

Obama, Barack 146, 153, 154

Occupational Safety and Health Administration 

133
ocean dumping 112, 123

Oceania 129

Ocean Studies Board 130, 131

odontocetes 134

Office of Naval Research 127, 140, 191–93

offshore oil rig 4, 145–60, 186, 196

oil 1, 2, 3, 71, 72, 73, 74, 79, 81, 83, 84, 85, 92, 

122, 130, 131, 145–55, 165, 176n7, 182, 183, 

185, 187, 188, 189, 190, 191, 195, 196

oil embargo 81, 82–86, 182, 185, 187, 188, 189, 

191, 195, 196

See also economic sanctions

Oil Pollution Act of 1990 146, 152, 159

oil slick 156

oil spill 1, 2, 4, 145–60, 182, 183, 185, 187, 188, 

189, 190, 191, 196

Olsen, Hans 15, 16

Open Shield, Operation 168, 173

orangutan 66n108

Oriskany 4, 109, 115–16, 121

Oyster Bay 40

P

Pacific Ocean 3, 24, 72, 78, 81, 82, 83, 183, 189

Pacific War 81, 83, 84, 183, 189

Page, W. H. 51, 55, 57

Pakistan 169, 170, 191

Panama 26, 30, 80

Panama Canal 80

Panay 71

pandemic 150, 196

panthers 66n108

Paria, Gulf of 34

Paris Peace Accords 92

Paris Peace Conference 110

Passage to Freedom, Operation 91

Peace 11 169

Peace Ark 47, 191

Peace Blue Shield exercise 168

Peace Support Operations (PSO) 1, 5

Pearl Harbor 3, 69, 82, 85, 86, 189

Pensacola 4, 109, 115, 121

People’s Army of Vietnam 92

People’s Daily 165, 167, 168, 169

People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) 5, 163–

75, 182, 185, 187, 188, 189, 190, 191, 194, 196

People’s Navy 167

People’s Republic of China (PRC) 5

See also China

Percy, Eustace 51, 52, 61, 65n35

Permanent Court of Arbitration 32

permanent threshold shift (PTS) 134

Perry 8, 9

Perry, Matthew C. 8, 11, 26

Persia 113

petroleum See oil

Philippines 4, 79, 80, 99, 100, 103, 104, 105, 

183, 185, 189, 195

phosphates 73

pinkeye See conjunctivitis

pinnipeds 134

Pioneer Commander 93

Pioneer Contender 93

piracy v, vii, 1, 2, 5, 7, 9, 26, 113, 163–75, 182, 

183, 185, 187, 188, 189, 190, 191, 194, 196, 197, 

198

Plaquemines Parish 157

Pliny the Elder v

Poincaré, Raymond 59

Poland 62, 67n120

Poland, W. B. 59

polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) 112, 115, 121

polymerase chain-reaction study 129

Pompeii v

Pons 8, 14
Pontchartrain Lake 157

Pope, Percival C. 30, 38

Porto Cabello 32

Porto Praya 12, 16

Porto Rico See Puerto Rico

Portugal 9, 10, 17

positive objectives 187–89

posse comitatus 148

potash 73

power projection v, 169, 173, 183, 197–98

Prairie 30

Pratt, William V. 70

Preble 11

Presidential Policy Directive (PPD) 8, National 

Preparedness 150

Protection of Military Remains Act 110–11

Provisional Revolutionary Government See

Vietcong

Prueher, Joseph, Jr. 184

Puerto Rico 21, 26, 34, 35, 38, 39, 112

Punic War, First 113

Q

Qiandaohu 169

Qingdao 168, 196

Quinhon 92

R

R&B Falcon 146

Radford 116, 121–22

RAND 181

Reef Environmental Education Foundation 

(REEF) 117

refugees 1, 3, 4, 91–106, 182, 183, 185, 187, 188, 

189, 191, 195, 196

Reichsbank 52

Reid, Richard 154

Relief 16

Republic of Liberia 8, 10, 11, 12, 14, 15

Republic of Vietnam 92, 104

See also Vietnam

responsible party 148, 152, 153, 154, 159

responsible stakeholder 165

restoration 123, 186

Revenue Cutter Service 150

Revette, Dewey 147

rice 8, 13, 48, 58, 59, 62, 101, 102, 104

Richards, Lewis 48

RIMPAC 173, 175

Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and 

Emergency Assistance Act 149

Roosevelt, Franklin D. 71, 74–75, 79, 82

Roosevelt, Theodore 2, 3, 21–42, 184–85, 186, 

188

Root, Elihu 184–85

Roshto, Shane 147

Roskilde 109, 110

Roskilde Fjord 109

Rotterdam 47, 50, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 58, 59, 60, 

61, 62

Roughead, Gary 197

Roving Diver Technique (RDT) 117

Royal Canadian Navy 119

Royal Navy 7, 16, 17, 52, 60, 110, 194, 195

Royal Oak 110

rubber 73

Runciman, Walter 56

Russia 79, 80, 81, 82, 85, 111, 168, 173 

See also Soviet Union

S

Saigon 94, 95, 98, 99

Saigon River 99

Salazar, Ken 154

salvage 124, 136

San Diego 74, 119

San Diego Oceans Foundation (SDOF) 119
San Jacinto 13

San Juan 34, 37, 38

Saratoga 12

Sargent, Nathan 26, 29

satellite 156

Sautter, Rick 105

Scapa Flow 110, 120

scientific research 119, 127, 181

Scorpion 26, 29

Scotland 110, 120

scrap iron 71, 73, 75, 78, 79

Scripps Institution of Oceanography 119

scuba diving 2, 110, 113, 116, 118, 120, 124, 182

sea control v, 25–26

seafloor spreading 130

Sea Lab 192

sea mining 30, 35

Seattle 112

Secretary of Defense 3, 98, 99, 149, 154

Secretary of Homeland Security 154

Secretary of State 21, 23, 25, 31, 51, 70, 73, 74, 

78, 80, 81, 82, 83, 184

Secretary of the Army 149

Secretary of the Interior 154

Secretary of the Navy 9, 12, 17, 24, 27, 28, 29, 

30, 35, 37, 40, 187, 198

Self, Colby 112

Serbia 62, 67n120

Seven Mile Beach 120

Seychelles 173, 191

Seys, John 15, 18n27

Sgt. Andrew Miller 93

Sgt. Truman Kimbro 93

Shalikashvili, John 181

Shallow Water Economic Zone 119

Shanghai 79

Shared Awareness and Deconfliction (SHADE) 

174

Shetland Islands 55

Shimada Shigetarō 83–84

Ship Disposal Program (SDP) 114

ship strike 4, 138, 139, 140, 186

Ships 2 Reefs 114

Shipwreck Alley 119, 120

Sicily 113

Sierra Club 112, 190

Sierra Leone 10

Singapore, Strait of 164

SINKEX 112

Sinoe 15

Sino-Japanese War, Second 70

Sixth Fleet 116

skimmers 157, 159

Skuldelev ship 109–10

slave deck 12, 13, 14

slaves v, vii, 1, 2, 7–17, 181, 182, 183, 185, 

186–87, 188, 194, 196

slave trade vii, 1, 2, 7–17, 181, 182, 185, 186–87, 

188, 191, 194, 196

Snepp, Frank 92, 107

soap 60

Socotra Island 166

soft power v, vii, 47, 163, 164, 166, 169, 172, 

173, 174, 175, 195, 196, 197, 198

soft-power diplomacy 170–71, 172, 174

Somalia 163, 164, 169, 174, 189, 190, 194, 196

sonar 2, 4, 127, 128, 130, 131, 132, 135, 137, 138, 

139, 140, 182, 183, 185, 186, 187, 188, 191, 196

South America 10, 21, 23, 25, 27, 28, 30, 31, 32, 

33, 41, 129, 184, 185

South Atlantic 33

South Atlantic Squadron 34

South Carolina 12, 113, 121

South China 70
South China Sea 4, 100, 101, 103, 105, 106, 164, 

175, 195

Southeast Asia v, vii, 47, 104, 191

South Korea 146, 165, 168

South Pacific 78

South Vietnam See Vietnam

Southward Advance policy 78, 81

Soviet Union 2, 70, 74, 79, 101, 111, 120

See also Russia

Spain 9, 27, 34, 45n72, 48

Spanish-American War 27, 34, 45n72, 48

special relationship 39, 42, 188, 189

Spiegel Grove 115, 116, 117, 118, 121, 190, 194

Spill of National Significance (SONS) 152

Spitfire 8

sportfishing 2, 116, 182

Spruance-class destroyer 121

Sri Lanka 169

stability operations 197

Stark, Harold R. 80, 83

Stars and Stripes 9

starvation blockade 3, 47–64, 67n120, 182, 183, 

185, 187, 188, 191, 195, 196

Status of Coral Reefs of the World 123

steel scrap 72, 73, 75, 78, 79

Stimson, Henry L. 70

Stimson Doctrine 70

Stolt Valor 164

Storm King 13

St. Paul de Loando 12, 16

St. Quentin 49

Strabo 113

stranding 4, 127, 128, 129, 131, 132, 133, 135, 

138, 139

Subic Bay 4, 102, 104, 105

submarine 3, 48, 51, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 59, 63, 

79, 96, 101, 110, 115, 120, 131

See also U-boat

Suez Canal 111

sugar 48

Suisun Bay Reserve Fleet 114, 115

Sullivan, William 104, 195

Sumner, George W. 34, 35

Susan 9

Sutton Hall 57

Sweden 61

swift boat 99, 102, 103

Sydney 169

T

Taiji drive 130

Tan Son Nhut Airport 95

Tanzania 169

Task Force 76 93–96, 106

Taylor, Alfred 12

Taylor, Henry Clay 25, 29, 31, 36, 38

temporary threshold shift (TTS) 134

Tenerife 8

terrorism 149, 150, 153, 196, 197

Texas 114, 121, 145, 152, 157

Thames River 110

Thayer, William R. 21, 41

Thetis 110

3/1 strategy 197

Thucydides v

Tianyu 8 164

Tigris River 113

Titanic 192

Today Show 153

Tōgō Shigenori 81

Tōjō Hideki 83

Tokyo 70, 183

Tomodachi, Operation 47

Tom Rattlin 10

Topaze 32
Torrey Canyon 152

Toucey, Isaac 12, 187

tourism 4, 109, 111, 115, 116, 118, 119, 120, 

122, 123, 124, 131, 154, 159, 182, 183, 185, 186, 

194

Toyoda Teijirō 82

Tran Nhat Duat 101

Transcolorado 93

Transocean Ltd. 146, 147, 160

Trans-Siberian Railway 79

trauma 133, 135, 136, 137

Treaty of Commerce and Navigation (1911; 

Japan–United States) 73

Treaty of Commerce and Navigation with the 

United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland 

(1911; Japan–United Kingdom) 80

Trieste 192

Tripartite Pact 82

Triton 12, 16

Truk Lagoon 120

tungsten 72, 76

Tuscaloosa 104

Two-Ocean Navy Act 72, 81

Tyndall Air Force Base 154

U

U-boat 2, 48

See also submarine

Ukraine 111

Ulsan 146

Unified Assistance, Operation v, vii, 47, 

191

United Arab Emirates (UAE) 170

United Kingdom 1, 80, 136

See also Great Britain

United Nations 163

United States 2, 3, 5, 7, 8, 9, 15, 16, 22, 23, 24, 

25, 26, 27, 28, 31, 32, 33, 39, 40, 42, 48, 49, 50, 

51, 52, 56, 57, 61, 69, 70, 71, 72, 73, 74, 75, 78, 

79, 80, 81, 82, 83, 84, 85, 86, 92, 94, 104, 105, 

106, 111, 113, 115, 122, 123, 133, 149, 152, 153, 

154, 159–60, 168, 169, 173, 174, 175, 183, 184, 

186, 188, 194, 195

unrestricted submarine warfare 3, 48, 53

unusual mortality event 128, 129

Upper Keys 117

U.S. Agent for Recaptured Africans 15

U.S. Air Force 103, 181

U.S. Army 1, 30, 71, 80, 118, 149, 181

U.S. Coast Guard 4, 145–60, 186

U.S. European Command vii

U.S. Export-Import Bank 72

U.S. Marines 3, 26, 30–32, 35, 38, 93, 95, 101

U.S. Naval Observatory 187, 190

U.S. Naval War College v, vi, vii, 25, 29

U.S. Navy v, vii, 2, 3, 4, 7–17, 21–42, 69–86, 

91–106, 109–24, 127–41, 168, 173, 181–98

U.S. Senate 36, 39

USSR See Soviet Union

V

Valenciennes 49

Van Dyke, Henry 53

Vanguard 110

Vega 104

Venezuelan crisis 2–3, 21–42, 182, 184, 185, 

187, 188, 189, 191, 196

Vervins 49

Vesuvius, Mount v

Veterans of Foreign Wars 106

Vicksburg 152

Vietcong 92, 96

Vietminh 91

Vietnam 3–4, 91–106, 166, 182, 183–84, 185, 

187, 188, 189, 191, 195, 196

Vikings 110–11

Viking Ship Museum 110

Vinson-Trammell Act 71–72
Vitter, David 153

volcano 130

von Holleben, Theodor 23, 27, 33, 36, 40, 41

von Marbod, Erich 106

von Metternich, Paul 31, 40

von Reuter, Ludwig 110

von Sternburg, Speck 31

Vung Tau 99

W

Wakasugi Kaname 80

Walker, John 26

Walsh, Mike 152

Wang Jingwei 82

Wang Yizhou 172

Wang Yongxiang 166

War Department 70

War of 1812 7, 194

War Office 42

War Plans Division 83

War Risk Insurance Scheme 56, 57

warship 7, 8, 12, 22, 101, 105, 110, 115, 121, 

122, 124, 166, 167, 168, 169, 170, 173, 174, 191, 

194, 196

Washington (state) 121

Washington, D.C. 28, 31, 33, 36, 112, 127, 154

Washington Evening Star 36

Washington Navy Yard 32

water column 113

Watson, Jim 159

Webster-Ashburton Treaty (1842) 2, 7, 8

Weise, Adam 147

Welles, Gideon 17

Welles, Sumner 81

wellhead 145, 147, 148, 156, 157, 158, 160

Wenz curve 130

Wenzhou 168, 169

West African Squadron 2, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 

16, 17, 194

Western Hemisphere 21, 23, 31, 78, 81

West Flanders 49

West Morning News 60

whales 4, 127–41, 182, 183, 185, 187, 188, 189, 

191, 196

wheat 48, 50

WHEC cutter 100

White, Henry 39

White, John 55, 56–57

“White Christmas” 95

Whitehall 51, 56

White House 24, 27, 31, 32, 33, 153, 154, 160

Whitlock, Brand 56, 57, 60

Whitmire, Donald 93, 98, 99

Wickes, Francis Cogswell 64

Wilhelm II 23, 27, 28, 30, 40, 41

Willamette 115

Wilson, John 15, 16

Wilson, Stephen B. 12

Wilson, Woodrow 61, 62

Wood, E. F. L. 80

Wood, Leonard 31

World Health Organization 190

X

X-ray 130

Y

yachting 2

Yangzi River 71, 111

Yankee 16, 27

yeast 50

Yemen 166, 198

Yiyang 167, 169

Yorktown 8

Yukon 116, 119–20, 121
Z

Zhai Dequan 167

Zhejiang Province 172, 191

Zhenhua 4 164

Zhoushan 191

Zhou Xuming 169

zinc 73

zone of influence 33
The Newport Papers

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(no. 39, January 2013).

High Seas Buffer: The Taiwan Patrol Force, 1950–1979, by Bruce A. Elleman (no. 38, 

April 2012).

Innovation in Carrier Aviation, by Thomas C. Hone, Norman Friedman, and Mark D. 

Mandeles (no. 37, August 2011).

Defeating the U-boat: Inventing Antisubmarine Warfare, by Jan S. Breemer (no. 36, 

August 2010).

Piracy and Maritime Crime: Historical and Modern Case Studies, edited by Bruce A. 

Elleman, Andrew Forbes, and David Rosenberg (no. 35, January 2010).

Somalia . . . From the Sea, by Gary Ohls (no. 34, July 2009).

U.S. Naval Strategy in the 1980s: Selected Documents, edited by John B. Hattendorf and 

Peter M. Swartz (no. 33, December 2008).

Major Naval Operations, by Milan Vego (no. 32, September 2008).

Perspectives on Maritime Strategy: Essays from the Americas, edited by Paul D. Taylor 

(no. 31, August 2008).

U.S. Naval Strategy in the 1970s: Selected Documents, edited by John B. Hattendorf (no. 

30, September 2007).

Shaping the Security Environment, edited by Derek S. Reveron (no. 29, September 2007).

Waves of Hope: The U.S. Navy’s Response to the Tsunami in Northern Indonesia, by 

Bruce A. Elleman (no. 28, February 2007).

U.S. Naval Strategy in the 1990s: Selected Documents, edited by John B. Hattendorf (no. 

27, September 2006).
Reposturing the Force: U.S. Overseas Presence in the Twenty-first Century, edited by 

Carnes Lord (no. 26, February 2006).

The Regulation of International Coercion: Legal Authorities and Political Constraints, by 

James P. Terry (no. 25, October 2005).

Naval Power in the Twenty-first Century: A Naval War College Review Reader, edited by 

Peter Dombrowski (no. 24, July 2005).

The Atlantic Crises: Britain, Europe, and Parting from the United States, by William 

Hopkinson (no. 23, May 2005).

China’s Nuclear Force Modernization, edited by Lyle J. Goldstein with Andrew S. 

Erickson (no. 22, April 2005).

Latin American Security Challenges: A Collaborative Inquiry from North and South,

edited by Paul D. Taylor (no. 21, 2004).

Global War Game: Second Series, 1984–1988, by Robert Gile (no. 20, 2004).

The Evolution of the U.S. Navy’s Maritime Strategy, 1977–1986, by John Hattendorf (no. 

19, 2004).

Military Transformation and the Defense Industry after Next: The Defense Industrial 

Implications of Network-Centric Warfare, by Peter J. Dombrowski, Eugene Gholz, and 

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The Limits of Transformation: Officer Attitudes toward the Revolution in Military Affairs, 

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The Third Battle: Innovation in the U.S. Navy’s Silent Cold War Struggle with Soviet 

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International Law and Naval War: The Effect of Marine Safety and Pollution Conventions during International Armed Conflict, by Dr. Sonja Ann Jozef Boelaert-Suominen 

(no. 15, December 2000).

Theater Ballistic Missile Defense from the Sea: Issues for the Maritime Component 

Commander, by Commander Charles C. Swicker, U.S. Navy (no. 14, August 1998).

Sailing New Seas, by Admiral J. Paul Reason, U.S. Navy, with David G. Freymann 

(no. 13, March 1998).

What Color Helmet? Reforming Security Council Peacekeeping Mandates, by Myron H. 

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The International Legal Ramifications of United States Counter-Proliferation Strategy: 

Problems and Prospects, by Frank Gibson Goldman (no. 11, April 1997).
Chaos Theory: The Essentials for Military Applications, by Major Glenn E. James, U.S. 

Air Force (no. 10, October 1996).

A Doctrine Reader: The Navies of the United States, Great Britain, France, Italy, and 

Spain, by James J. Tritten and Vice Admiral Luigi Donolo, Italian Navy (Retired) (no. 9, 

December 1995).

Physics and Metaphysics of Deterrence: The British Approach, by Myron A. Greenberg 

(no. 8, December 1994).

Mission in the East: The Building of an Army in a Democracy in the New German States,

by Colonel Mark E. Victorson, U.S. Army (no. 7, June 1994).

The Burden of Trafalgar: Decisive Battle and Naval Strategic Expectations on the Eve of 

the First World War, by Jan S. Breemer (no. 6, October 1993).

Beyond Mahan: A Proposal for a U.S. Naval Strategy in the Twenty-First Century, by 

Colonel Gary W. Anderson, U.S. Marine Corps (no. 5, August 1993).

Global War Game: The First Five Years, by Bud Hay and Bob Gile (no. 4, June 1993).

The “New” Law of the Sea and the Law of Armed Conflict at Sea, by Horace B. 

Robertson, Jr. (no. 3, October 1992).

Toward a Pax Universalis: A Historical Critique of the National Military Strategy for the 

1990s, by Lieutenant Colonel Gary W. Anderson, U.S. Marine Corps (no. 2, April 1992).

“Are We Beasts?” Churchill and the Moral Question of World War II “Area Bombing,” by 

Christopher C. Harmon (no. 1, December 1991). 

Newport Papers are available online (Acrobat required) at www.usnwc.edu/press/.

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