14-30 JUNE 1985

                                         HIJACKING OF TWA 847

At 1000 on Friday June 14^th, TWA Flight 847 began rolling down the runway at Athens, Greece.  The Boeing 727 was bound for Rome on a flight that had originated in Cairo and was ultimately bound for New York.  All 145 seats were filled with the usual complement of businessmen, Holy Land tourists, and with six US Navy Seabees.  The six, all in civilian clothes, were divers returning from repairing an undersea water main in Greece.  Senior among them was Chief Petty Officer (select) Stuart Dahl, who had been the Navy’s Sailor of the Year in 1984.

But as the “Fasten Seat Belt” sign blinked off, two Arabic men rushed forward, kicking Uli Derickson, the TWA purser, to the floor.  A tall one, brandishing a chrome-plated .45 in one hand and a bag of grenades over his shoulder, pounded on the cockpit door while a shorter terrorist, who was obviously the leader, fumbled with the pin of a hand grenade.  They shouted instructions in German to Ms. Derickson, punctuated in broken English with “Americans die!”  There were 37 Americans on board.

The terrorists collected passports and ID from the passengers and herded them into the rear of the plane, two to a seat in a head-down crouch.  The pilot, Capt. John Testrake, announced that the terrorists were diverting the plane to Beirut.  Through Ms. Derickson, a demand was made that any American with ties to his government come forth.  Two passengers stood up, MAJ Kurt Carlson, an Army Reservist who had been on temporary duty in Cairo, and one of the divers, SW2 Robert D. Stetham.

To reinforce threats that “One American must die!,” Stetham was hauled forward and brutally beaten.  Lebanese officials refused to negotiate however, and the frustrated terrorists then ordered the plane to Algeria.  Here Carlson was similarly beaten.  Again, the terrorists failed to convince Algerian officials to entertain demands for the release of 766 Palestinians then held by Israel.  Once again the plane departed for Beirut.

This time Lebanese authorities blocked the runway with vehicles.  While Testrake appealed that his 727 was completely out of fuel, the angry terrorists screamed their threats anew.  At the height of this panic shots rang out.  When the plane did finally roll to a stop, Stetham’s body was unceremoniously dumped onto the tarmac.  The five remaining Seabees were taken to an apartment in Beirut where they were held for the next 12 days.  Their release was negotiated by Amal, a less militant Shiite faction.  The highjackers were lionized by fellow Hezbullah Shiites and were never identified to western authorities.  Stetham is remembered today in the naming of the Arleigh Burke destroyer, DDG-63.

Watch for more “Today in Naval History”  18 JUN 23

CAPT James Bloom, Ret.

Carlson, Kurt.  One American Must Die:  A Hostage’s Personal Account of the Hijacking of Flight 847.  New York, NY: Congdon & Weed, Inc., 1986.

Sweetman, Jack.  American Naval History: An Illustrated Chronology of the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps, 1775-Present, 2^nd ed.  Annapolis, MD: USNI Press, 1991, p. 278.

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                                     ST. NICHOLAS HIGHJACKING

At 1600 on Friday, June 28^th, the civilian steam packet St. Nicholas left Baltimore on her regular run to three stops in the District of Columbia.  She carried her usual fare of freight as well a several passengers bound for Washington and Georgetown.  But at 0100 this night, she was observed by the steamer Diamond State, to leave her usual midnight stop at Point Lookout, Maryland, in great haste–curiously headed south!

Earlier on June 19^th the newly commissioned CDR George N. Hollis, CSN, had met the Confederate Secretary of the Navy, Stephen R. Mallory in Richmond.  He received a draft of $1000 and was introduced to a “Colonel Thomas,” who also traveled under the alias “Zarvona.”  Thomas was a Maryland resident who sympathized with the South and had made arms purchases in the North to be smuggled to Rebel forces.  Col. Thomas agreed to purchase arms for Hollis and meet him at Point Lookout, where Hollis planned to capture St. Nicholas.  He would then use her to capture the Union Navy gunboat PAWNEE, from whose decks CDR James H. Ward commanded the newly formed Potomac River squadron.

When St. Nicholas called at Point Lookout on the night of 28-29 May, several innocent-appearing passengers boarded.  One woman brought several large millinery trunks.  The passengers were actually Hollis’ party dressed in civilian clothes; the woman was Col. Thomas himself, dressed as a woman; and the trunks bore arms.  A few minutes after St. Nicholas cast off, the trunks were thrown open, Hollis grabbed a Sharps rifle and two pistols, and ran to the wheelhouse.  Here the captain refused to pilot the packet into the Coan River, but the task was accomplished, nonetheless.  Meanwhile, Hollis learned from Baltimore newspapers on board to his dismay that CDR Ward had been killed in a raid on Mathias Point.  Worse, all the Union gunboats on the Potomac had been withdrawn to Washington for Ward’s funeral.

Undaunted, Hollis landed his legitimate passengers and headed into the Chesapeake.  Here he captured the brig Monticello, bound for Baltimore with a load of Brazilian coffee.  The coffee was diverted to the Rebel Army while Hollis next captured the schooners Margaret and Mary Pierce, one of whom carried ice from Boston.  This was diverted to the Confederate hospitals in Fredricksburg, but not before the profit-minded Yankee skipper shocked Hollis by proposing that he be “freed,” obtain another schooner in Boston, be “captured” again by Hollis, and the two split the proceeds!

St. Nicholas was purchased by the Confederate Navy and placed in service as the gunboat CSS RAPPAHANNOCK.  However, the gunboat served only a year, being burned to prevent capture in April 1862.

Watch for more “Today in Naval History”  5-6 JUL 22

CAPT James Bloom, Ret.

“Capture of the Steamer St. Nicholas, June 29, 1861.”  IN: Woods, Robert H.  Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies in the War of the Rebellion, Series I, Vol 4, Operations in the Gulf of Mexico from November 15, 1860, to June 7, 1861; Operations on the Atlantic Coast from January 1 to May 13, 1861; Operations on the Potomac and Rappahannock Rivers from January 5 to December 7, 1861.  Washington, DC: GPO, 1896, pp. 549-55.

Department of the Navy, Naval History Division.  Civil War Naval Chronology 1861-1865.  Washington, DC: GPO, 1961, p. I-18.

Silverstone, Paul H.  Warships of the Civil War Navies.  Annapolis, MD: USNI Press, 1989, p. 243.

ADDITIONAL NOTES:  The Confederate Navy paid Hollis and his men $45,000 for St. Nicholas and her cargo.  Unlike today, profits from the sale of captured vessels went to the captain and crew of the capturing ship, rather than solely to the Confederate government.

James Harmon Ward was a prescient officer whose loss was keenly felt.  He had, on his own initiative, sought the approval of Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles for the creation of a “flying squadron” of shallow draft gunboats that could police the movement of men and matériel across the Potomac to the Confederacy.  He was hit in the abdomen with a mini-ball on 27 June while aiming a deck gun at Mathias Point and died an hour later.  He had been in command of his Potomac Squadron only seven days.  He is the namesake of WARD (DD-139), the destroyer that sank a Japanese mini-sub at the entrance to Pearl Harbor early on the morning of 7 December 1941 (as well as Fort Ward in Alexandria).

The District of Columbia was originally plotted as a square.  In fairness to its border states, it was drawn to encompass both a Maryland city (Georgetown) and a Virginia city (Alexandria) as well as the land that would become the city of Washington.  However in 1846, the citizens of Alexandria petitioned to be returned to the State of Virginia, creating the notch in DC’s southwest corner that is still evident today.

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