Sea Brotherhood: U.S. Ship Warns Soviet Vessel of Danger of Mines

Three hours after the supertanker Bridgeton struck a mine Friday, the convoy in which it was traveling encountered a Soviet Natya-class minesweeper escorting two Soviet merchant ships heading south.

Officers of the U.S. warships escorting the Bridgeton and another reflagged Kuwaiti tanker, the Gas Prince, decided to warn the Soviet ships about the possible presence of more mines.

“He’s got to go through the same channel; it’s only common courtesy,” Cmdr. Daniel J. Murphy Jr., captain of the destroyer Kidd, explained to a pool of Pentagon reporters allowed aboard his ship as it steams up the Persian Gulf.

The Kidd tried to call the Soviet minesweeper, but the warship did not respond. Instead, the captain of one of the Soviet merchant ships answered the Kidd’s call, speaking in heavily accented English.

“I want to report to you the location of a known mine,” Murphy told the Soviet captain. He then read the longitude and latitude of the site where the Bridgeton was hit.

“Thank you, American warship,” the Soviet captain answered.

“I think that he would have warned us,” Murphy said later. “My experience in 17 years at sea is that we share a lot more in common, captain to captain, than we do things that keep us apart.”