(2 of 2)
Fish. A drizzly rain fell over New York harbor at dusk one day last month. A trim little 30-foot cabin sportabout nosed out of the Kill van Kull, turned north across the Upper Bay. Aboard were Manhattan Broker Stuyvesant Fish, owner; Mrs. Fish; their two sons, and Captain A. Phillip Larsen. Mr. Fish was bringing his new yacht, the Restless, up from its builders, American Car and Foundry Co. at Wilmington, Del. From the Brooklyn shore a U. S. patrol boat slid out in pursuit of the Restless. Hard by the Statue of Liberty, the U. S. craft fired twice on the Fish boat. Capt. Larsen hove to. From the patrol boat to the Restless stepped a U. S. agent (No. 979). He had a gun. Others on the U. S. boat exhibited firearms. "Why the hell didn't you stop when we fired?" asked the agent. He inspected the Restless' papers, spent a half-hour up turning cushions, feeling in lockers for liquor. None was found. Mr. Fish was angry. He spoke his mind. From the U. S. boat came a voice: "You're damned lucky we didn't turn the machine gun on you." Later Mr. Fish learned that the patrol boat was part of the U. S. Customs Enforcement Service (not Coast Guard). Mr. Fish filed a protest at Washington against the boarding, the swaggering display of firearms, the "threatening and profane" language before Mrs. Fish and the boys. With yachtsmen fuming, pleasure-boat builders professed belief that the Government was threatening their business. President William Hartman Woodin of American Car and Foundry Co. — a Wet Republican who supported Alfred Emanuel Smith for President — called for united protest, thus: "Certainly the sport of boating cannot be safe if the lives and property of boat owners are subject to such perils. . . . Our Government should be asked to curtail the activities of Coast Guard boats. . . . Boat manufacturers with large invested capital are concerned about the future of the pleasure boat industry unless public confidence can be restored." To still the troubled waters of yachting, Commandant Billard, a determined officer with a "sense of duty," last week addressed a public communication to: "All Yachtsmen and Amateur Motor Boat Men." This message, issued a few hours before the Miami River episode, said:
"In the performance of duty . . . the Coast Guard must stop, board and examine vessels. Because yachtsmen and amateur motorboat men . . . are law-abiding citizens, yachts and motorboats used solely for pleasure . . . will not ordinarily be stopped . . . unless suspicious circumstances warrant such action. . . . No person is safe to be entrusted with the navigation of any vessel who does not occasionally take a glance around the horizon. Such a proper lookout will disclose . . . any Coast Guard boat . . . signaling you to stop. The Coast Guard boat will use her whistle or horn or a megaphone or visual signals ... to attract your attention. ... It may be necessary for the Coast Guard craft to fire a blank warning shot. If these fail to produce any result, the Coast Guard vessel is then justified in firing warning shots well clear of the fleeing craft and in assuming that she is endeavoring to escape. . . .
"Remember that, should your boat need assistance, the entire available resources of the Coast Guard are yours for the asking."