U.S. Flag Raised on 2 Kuwaiti Gulf Tankers

Two Kuwaiti petroleum tankers were reborn as American ships without fanfare Tuesday as three U.S. Navy vessels hovered protectively nearby to escort them through the Persian Gulf to Kuwait.

The American flag was hoisted in brief ceremonies aboard the 401,000-ton Al Rekkah, one of the world’s largest supertankers, which then formally became known as the Bridgeton, and the smaller Gas Minagish, which became the Gas Prince.

The two ships, which now call Philadelphia their home port, were the first of 11 Kuwaiti tankers to be re-registered as part of the Reagan Administration’s plan to provide U.S. naval escorts for Kuwaiti oil exports, ensuring safe passage past the Strait of Hormuz at the entrance to the Persian Gulf and the heavily fortified coastline of Iran.

Expected to Sail Today

The Bridgeton and the Gas Prince were anchored about 17 miles off the port of Khawr Fakkan in the United Arab Emirates, just outside the entrance to the gulf. The two ships were still at anchor by sunset but were expected to leave for Kuwait early today.

In Washington, Pentagon officials refused to divulge exactly when the reflagged tankers and their U.S. escorts will move into the gulf.

“When it goes, it will go,” chief spokesman Robert B. Sims said in response to questions. “I will not announce its commencement.”

Sims distributed copies of dispatches filed from two of the U.S. warships by a 10-member pool of journalists flown secretly from Washington to the scene during the weekend under a Pentagon system instituted after a controversy over journalists being barred from the 1983 U.S. invasion of Grenada.

The spokesman also turned aside questions on the specific orders under which the Navy ships are operating. “Our people have orders that will allow them to defend themselves.”

Defense Secretary Caspar W. Weinberger, in an interview with the Reuters news agency, said the United States is ready to respond to any Iranian attack on U.S. ships or Kuwaiti tankers. “We believe we have the capabilities to do that--both in the air and on the sea--and we will certainly exercise those capabilities to protect shipping,” he said.

Weinberger added that the United States is prepared to accept the risks involved. “It is not a risk-free operation and we cannot conduct ourselves as the kind of nation with the leadership responsibility that we have if all we are looking for is risk-free situations. There are none,” he said.

Two senior Navy officers at the scene said they don’t expect Iran to carry out its threats to attack the U.S. ships. Referring to Iran’s Chinese-made Silkworm missiles, Capt. David P. Yonkers told pool reporters: “I personally believe they will not be used. If they were to launch one, that would probably be the last one.”

On the 550-mile trip to Kuwait, the two tankers and accompanying warships will pass through the 24-mile-wide Strait of Hormuz, where Iran has built installations for its Silkworm anti-ship missiles, although diplomats believe the missiles themselves have not been deployed.

Capt. William Mathias agreed with Yonkers’ assessment but added: “I don’t know for sure. I have to take the threat extremely seriously.” Yonkers is in command of the three Navy ships assigned to escort the two reflagged tankers under the operation co-named “Ernest Will.”

The warships are the guided missile cruiser Fox, the destroyer Kidd and the guided missile frigate Commelin. Yonkers and Mathias spoke aboard the Fox which is skippered by Mathias. On board the Bridgeton is its new American master, Capt. Frank Seitz, and the Gas Prince is now skippered by Joseph Roach, according to a dispatch from the Pentagon pool of journalists.

Security was so tight at the reflagging that a U.S. helicopter was sent up to chase away an American television crew aboard a helicopter.

The start of the naval escorts was apparently timed to coincide with the adoption by the U.N. Security Council on Monday of a unanimous resolution demanding an immediate cease-fire in the almost seven-year-old conflict between Iran and Iraq.

While Iran did not accept the cease-fire call, it hinted that it would not attack any shipping unless its own oil tankers were hit by Iraqi aircraft. Iraq said it viewed the resolution positively. Western diplomats believe the convoys are safe from attack for at least two months.

The 2 1/2-day trip to Kuwait will take the American ships within range of a number of islands where Iran’s Revolutionary Guards have assembled a fleet of speedboats armed with rocket-propelled grenades and capable of carrying out hit-and-run attacks.

But news of the reflagging was swiftly followed by a sharp drop in oil futures prices on the New York Mercantile Exchange, which experienced heavy trading. Contracts for August delivery of West Texas Intermediate, the U.S. benchmark crude oil, tumbled to $21.70 a barrel (42 gallons), down 50 cents from Monday’s close.

Oil analysts attributed some of the price decline to technical market factors, but others suggested that it was a reflection of confidence that the U.S. naval escorts would make oil transportation in the gulf safer.

Shuttle Service

According to officials here, the Bridgeton will be used on a shuttle service to pick up oil from Kuwait and carry it to Khawr Fakkan, where the oil will be transferred to other vessels. The transit time in Kuwait is about five days.

In addition, four gas tankers will ferry liquefied petroleum gas to Japan, while six vessels will carry refined Kuwait oil products to Europe, where it is sold under the Q-8 brand.

After reaching Kuwaiti waters with the Bridgeton and Gas Prince, probably on Friday, the Navy vessels will return to patrol in the gulf.

There are also British, French and Soviet warships in the gulf. In France, where news reports Monday night said the government had told French vessels to stay out of the war zone because they could not be protected, there was a brief flurry of excitement when a senior official appeared to reverse that stance.

Ambroise Guellec, the secretary of state for the sea, said French warships would escort two French tankers expected to enter the Persian Gulf later this week. But later, spokesmen for the ministries of defense and external affairs said the two tankers would not be escorted.

Storm of Protest

The American decision to go it alone with a formal reflagging and escort operation has provoked a storm of protest in the U.S. Congress over concerns that the United States is allying itself with pro-Iraqi Kuwait and likely to become embroiled in a conflict with Iran.

But most diplomatic analysts believe that the action in the United Nations on Monday will effectively halt the so-called tanker war, which began in 1983 with Iraqi attacks on ships calling at Iranian oil ports. In the intervening years, more than 300 civilian vessels have been hit by Iran and Iraq.

Iranian forces were reported to have been in operation right up until the cease-fire call, with Tehran radio reporting the seizure of three small Kuwaiti vessels, which it called “spy boats,” on Tuesday. No details were relased.

The Iranian press agency also reported that nearly 1,000 Iraqi troops were killed or wounded in heavy fighting on the central and southern fronts. The agency said Iraq had launched offensives in both areas but had been turned back.

Iraq denied the allegations.

Times staff writer Gaylord Shaw, in Washington, also contributed to this article.