MARIEL BOATLIFT

The Cuban economy took a nosedive in the 1970s.  Housing shortages and joblessness fueled popular dissent, yet Fidel Castro’s harsh restrictions on emigration appeared to condemn Cubans to a life of struggle.  Faced with possible civil unrest in the late 1970s, Castro loosened his grip.  In January 1979 he released several political prisoners and allowed Cuban exiles in foreign lands to visit relatives in Cuba.  Then in April 1980, Castro declared the port of Mariel 25 miles west of Havana to be “open.”

Overnight, hundreds of local watercraft, many unseaworthy, began shipping aboard refugees.  Hundreds more boats departed Miami bound for Mariel as a boatlift of those fleeing Communist Cuba developed.  US Coast Guard District 7 was quickly overwhelmed as scores of overloaded and questionably sound boats ran out of fuel or broke down in the seas between the island and Florida.  President Jimmy Carter called up 900 Coast Guard Reservists, but even these, coupled with re-deployed Guardsmen from other Atlantic areas, could not keep up with the struggles at sea.  Typical was the ocean-going tug Dr. Daniels, intercepted on this day by USCG CAPE GULL (WPB-95304).  She had been chartered by Cuban-Americans to transport relatives, but at Mariel, Cuban authorities ordered her (over)loaded with 447 of those immediately available.  Dr. Daniels had lifesaving equipment for about 150.

The US Navy responded as well on 5 May.  USS SAIPAN (LHA-2) and BOULDER (LST-1190), augmented by P-3 Orion patrol aircraft from NAS Jacksonville, joined the rescue now dubbed Operation “Freedom Flotilla.”  When civilian aircraft interfered with operation, the FAA declared a flight restriction over southern Florida, with F-4 Phantoms from VMFA-312 at MCAS Beaufort flying enforcement.  The 1^st Battalion, 8^th Marines, 2^nd MarDiv went ashore at Key West to help process the refugees.  The Orange Bowl stadium and decommissioned Cold War missile defense sites were converted to hold refugees.

Among the 125,000 Cubans and detained Canadians who reached Florida were Pulitzer Prize winning writer Mirta Ojito, opera singer Elizabeth Caballero and TV actor Rene Lavan.  Then Castro, seeing an opportunity, began emptying Havana’s jails and mental hospitals.  This now ramped up a requirement for intensified screening–complicating an already chaotic scene.  An estimated 1000+ violent criminals entered Florida, including arsonist and mass-murder Julio Gonzalez and convicted murderer and gang leader Luis Felipe.  The exodus lasted until Castro re-closed Mariel that autumn.  In a testament to American seapower, only 27 refugees died at sea from the more than 1700 boats of the Mariel Boatlift.

Watch for more “Today in Naval History”  9 MAY 25

CAPT James Bloom, Ret.

Lazelere, Alex.  The 1980 Cuban Boatlift.  Washington, DC: National Defense Univ. Press, 1988.

“Mariel Boatlift”  Global Security website.  AT: http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/ops/mariel-boatlift.htm, retrieved 16 October 2015.

“Mariel Boatlift.” US Nook Website.  AT: http://usnook.com/ english/politics/history/diplomacy/2013/0924/61491.html, retrieved 16 October 2015.

“Mariel Boatlift, 1980.”  USCG History Center.  AT: http:// www.uscg.mil/history/articles/uscg_mariel_history_1980.asp, retrieved 16 October 2015.

ADDITIONAL NOTES:  This was one in a series of humanitarian operations in the Caribbean and Central America in the latter 20^th century in which the Navy and Marine Corps participated.  VMFA-312 and the 8^th Marines received the Humanitarian Service Medal for their actions in this operation.

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                                                 THE RUM WAR

On 16 January 1920, the 18^th Amendment enacting Prohibition became the law of the land.  But the US Coast Guard, tasked with seaborne anti-smuggling duties, found herself unprepared.  She could muster only 30 sea-going cutters at the outset and a fleet of smaller surfboats and harbor craft primarily dedicated to navigation assistance and lifesaving.  As a result, throughout the first four years of Prohibition only a tiny fraction of the flood of smuggled alcohol could be stemmed.

Illegal liquor entered this country via two main routes, overland across the Canadian border and from the sea along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts.  In this latter enterprise, rum runners from New England to the Virginia Capes developed an efficient and profitable system of smuggling.  Large ships laden with thousands of cases of contraband liquor would anchor just beyond US territorial waters.  At the time we recognized only a three-mile limit, making but a short run from shore to “Rum Row,” as this anchorage of mother ships became known.  Smaller boats (on calm days even rowboats) would venture out to purchase booze then duck back to the many coves and inlets of the Atlantic seaboard.

Our Navy was reluctant to become entangled in this unpopular and practically impossible enforcement task, nevertheless, US Navy assets did prove integral to that success the Coast Guard did achieve in this “Rum War.”  On 15 April 1924, after four years of pitiable Coast Guard shortfalls, working parties at the Philadelphia Navy Yard began opening boilers, lifting turbine casings, disassembling pumps and removing condenser heads from idle destroyers leftover from WWI.  CDR John Q. Walton, USCG, led an inspection team tasked with selecting 20 destroyers for transfer to the Coast Guard.  All had seen hard use in convoy duty and would require extensive overhaul of hulls, machinery and living spaces.  Torpedo tubes and depth charge Y-guns would have to be replaced with newer rapid-firing deck guns.  JOUETT (DD-41) was the first to be transferred on this day followed by CASSIN (DD-43), BEALE (DD-40), DOWNES (DD-45) and PATTERSON (DD-36) in the next week.  The first destroyer to enter service against the “rummies” was HENLEY (DD-39) late in 1924.

Though useless inshore, the destroyers were invaluable in picketing the mother ships by continuous slow circling that prevented small boats from lightering their cargoes.  Helpfully, on May 22^nd Congress increased the territorial limit to 12 miles, pushing the mother ships beyond the vision of anyone on the beach.  After the repeal of Prohibition in 1934 all twenty destroyers were returned to the Navy, now as veterans of our sister sea-service.

Watch for more “Today in Naval History”  29 APR 22

CAPT James Bloom, Ret.

Department of the Navy, Naval History Division.  Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, Vol 3 “G-K”.  Washington, DC: GPO, 1977, pp. 299, 569.

Willoughby, Malcolm F.  Rum War at Sea. Washington, DC: GPO, 1964.

ADDITIONAL NOTES:  The 12-mile limit for our territorial sea, an outgrowth of Prohibition, remains with us today.  The previous 3-mile limit had been in force for decades until then–three miles being the range of 19^th century coastal defense guns.

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