"Playing Chicken" with A Russian Ship in The South China Sea

Our enemy is very deceitful.  But if we will hold our course by obeying our King, all will be fine.  (Matthew 7:24-25)

It was in the early Fall of 1967 in the South China Sea.  I never expected to be involved in a game of "chicken" with a Russian ship!

I was in the U.S. Navy serving on board the USS Markab (AR 23).  We had been in Yokosuka Japan, and we were steaming toward Vung Tau, Vietnam.  When we left Japan, a First Class Electronic Technician and myself were assigned to Combat Information Central (CIC) to work as CIC watch supervisors.  Normally, this position would be manned by a Radarman , but the only Radarman on board at that time who was qualified to be watch Supervisor was a Chief Radarman.  So he stood one of the 3 watches and the other ET and myself stood the other 2 watches - 8 hours on and 16 hours off every day.

The responsibility of CIC on our ship was pretty straight forward.  Maintain a constant RADAR watch in every direction around the ship as far out from the ship as our RADAR could reach, which was about 65 miles or so.  We were to track the course of anything we picked up on the RADAR and keep the Bridge (Officer of the Deck) informed.

AR 23 with 5 other ships alongside for repairs (4 to the port & 1 to our starboard).

As I was saying, we were steaming across the South China Sea toward the mouth of the Saigon River.  It was early in the morning when we picked up a blip on the RADAR that turned out to be a ship.  We began to plot it's course and report it to the Bridge.  It soon became apparent that this other ship was on a deliberate head-on collision course with us.  In navigational terms, it was on a constant bearing with a decreasing range that indicated it was moving through the water directly toward us at about the same speed we were traveling.

As sunlight increased and the other ship got closer, our lookouts identified it as a Russian trawler (i.e. a Russian spy ship pretending to be a fishing vessel).  The trawler did not show any signs of changing course, but seemed intent on "playing chicken" with us.

To follow what happened next, let me explain the normal procedure for two ships in this position:  Each ship would move to its right (starboard), and each Captain would expect the other ship to do this so that the two ships would safely pass by each other with the other ship on its left (port) side as they passed.

Another rule of the sea (as I understand it) is that if two ships collide, and your ship is dead in the water (i.e. propeller not turning and rudder amidships - straight ahead), then you are not at fault.

Well – It appeared likely that this Russian Captain wanted to create an international incident, and use our ship to do it.

As we monitored the trawler on the RADAR and the lookouts watched it as well, our Captain forewarned the engine room that he might be calling down an order to immediately stop the engine, and that he wanted the screw (propeller) to stop turning immediately when they received that order.  The Captain also told the helmsman that he was to keep the rudder amidships no matter what happened.

The ships were closing in on each other – bow to bow.  In CIC we were watching the RADAR very closely as the blip on our RADAR screen moved steadily closer to the center of the scope (which represented the location of our ship).  The Captain ordered that the ship be immediately prepared for a collision, and to make the ship water tight.

It was obvious that the Russian captain was hoping that we would move, as expected, to our starboard, according to the rules of the road, to avoid a collision.  But our Captain did not flinch.  At the last minute, the Russian ship moved – but not to his right as required.  He moved to his left, which would have put him directly in our path if we had followed the correct procedure.

Because we did not move, the trawler passed harmlessly (although dangerously close) down our starboard side.  As he went by, I leaned out of CIC to look through the door in the Navigator's chart room.  I could see several Russian sailors standing at the rail of their ship smiling at us.  They were so close I could almost have reached over and shook their hand.

Our Captain understood the situation and new exactly how to handle it.  He issued the orders, the crew obeyed, and all was fine.

___________________

Matthew 7:24-25

"Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and acts on them may be compared to a wise man who built his house on the rock.  And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and yet it did not fall, for it had been founded on the rock."