Evening star., 1961-03-04
BY WILLIAM DUKE
Star Staff Writer

OLdL OIdLA "AlbcA
I'VE did our best deed in
sure the pirates realized
the passengers wouldn't 60
ashore unless the. crew was
released with U.s."
The speaker was Henry A.
Bates, a retired Washington
real estate salesman, and he
was talking about something
he and his wife will never for
get: The time five weeks ago
when he and two other Amer
leans formed a committee to
tell the captors of the Portu-
guese liner Santa Maria that
the passengers were concerned
about the safety Of the crew.
Mr.. and Mrs. Bates, of 37ll
Alabama avenue Sc, were
among the 600 passengers or
the Santa Maria when the ship
was taken over by armed
Portuguese revolutionarieS or
the high seas January %.
The incident, which cen.
tered world attention on at
tempts to discredit the Portu-
guese dictator, Antonio Sala-
zar, delayed the BateseS q
month in what was to have
been a four month trip to
Europe.
It also cast Mr.. Bates -
slender, mild-mannered man
in the role Of arbiter between
the passengers and crew or
one hand, and the revolution
aries who controlled the ship
with force Of arms on the other
Complaints Centralized
"At first, three Of us decided
to ask (Capt. Henrique) Gal
vac (the rebel commander) tc
get somebody to clean up the
ship. The idea caught on, and
after a while both the pas
sengers and the crew were
telling us their complaints
and we were forwarding them
to the rebels"
Mr.. Bates and his committee
never actually dealt with Mr.
Galvao. They had their deal
ings with a rebel lieutenant
whom they knew only as "the
professor" The professor, a!
his name implies, was an un'
likely pirate, according to Mr.
Bates.
"I gave him the nickname oi
Ell Greco because he looked
as If he had Just stepped out
Of a painting by Ell Greco. HI
was tall and angular, and ter.
ribly eloquent. He even man.
aged to calm the crew aftel
one of his animated speeches.
But the Bates committee
must have been eloquent. too
The rebels tried to clean W
the ship, and they did let th'
$50 loyal Santa Maria crev
members go ashore when th'
ship docked at Recife, Brazil
on February 8.
AimlesS Cruise
But not before the Wash
ington couple and the otheI
passengers were given an aim
less 12-day cruise in the At
lantic, while the rebels waited
for some indication that thei'
revolution had spread to a
least one part Of the Portu
guese empire. They waited IL
vain.
"They must have kiddec
themselves a lot to take ovel
the ship in the first place." Mr.
Bates said, "And once the!
took over we wandered arount
the ocean aimlessly."
Mr.. Bates said the rebels
treated the passengers we'll
but that the uncertainty o.
what was ahead caused ten.
sions that continued to builc
UP. He said passengers were
asleep when the rebels tool
over on January %, two day.
before the scheduled stop al
Miami. The next morning
armed men with khaki uni
forms controlled the ship. anc
the word heard most often
among the passengers wa;
fantastic"
The first few days weren't
too bad, Mr., Bates said, But
after five or six days under
rebel control, some passengers
gave up hope. The rebels then
started to tell the passengers
they would be put ashore ANY
day now"
There were no big incidents