U.S. Yachtsman Freed by Vietnam After 8 1/2 Months

American yachtsman Bill Mathers was released today by Vietnam, where he spent 8 1/2 months in solitary confinement on charges of espionage and violating territorial waters.

Mathers, 41, in Bangkok on his way home to Singapore, denied he was spying or that his schooner, the So Fong, was in Vietnamese waters when it was seized July 22.

Mathers had been sailing from Singapore to Hong Kong via the Thai resort island of Koh Samui. He said the 80-foot schooner was about 36 miles off the Vietnamese coast, well within international waters.

Looking fit and composed, Mathers said, “I was treated all right. I had plenty of food, and--a phrase they liked--I always had freedom of my own space.”

He was kept at times in a 10-by-10-foot room and could not speak with anyone but his interrogators, he said. No mail or news of the outside world was allowed, he said, and his only reading material was the novel “Shogun,” which he read three times.

Mathers, who grew up in Oyster Bay, N.Y., but has lived in Singapore since 1970, hesitated when asked by a reporter if he had been mistreated or how he felt about his experience, saying he first would speak with Thai and U.S. officials to clarify his situation.

“Right now my opinions are somewhat biased,” he said.

Mathers worked for a marine construction company.

His crew, four French citizens and one Australian, was released earlier, after fines were paid. Mathers’ case was hampered by the lack of diplomatic relations between the United States and Vietnam.

A U.S. Embassy spokesman in Bangkok said Mathers’ parents in New York paid the $10,000 fine the Vietnamese demanded for his release. Mathers said the Vietnamese held onto his schooner “in trust.”

Mathers said he was interrogated on four occasions, each lasting “quite a number of days.” He said he was accused of several crimes, including espionage. He declined to go into detail.

“I’ll be very happy to meet with you later,” he said. “Right now I’m going to go back, and I think maybe I’m going to have a shave, and also enjoy the fact that I can talk to people.”

Mathers said he first learned of his coming release on Sunday, when his captors read a final indictment.

He said he planned to return to Singapore in the next few days to settle his affairs and then return to the United States to see his family.