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A tiny passenger ferry was unwittingly caught up in a war games exercise when a US warship threatened to blow unidentified vessels out of the water.
The skipper of the 70-year-old MV Kenilworth received a sinister message broadcast on Channel 16, which is used for routine communications, as the ferry crossed the River Clyde in Scotland.
The warship had already spoken to the ferry and requested it kept a 1,000-yard clearance. But the US radio operator then failed to switch back to the frequency designated for a NATO exercise.
As a result, the ferry heard the operator say: "Unidentified vessel approaching on my starboard side, please identify yourself. If you fail to do so, we will open fire on you with live ammunition".
The message was intended for Royal Marines who were "attacking" the warship in inflatable boats.
A source in Gourock, the ferry's home port, said the skipper radioed back saying "he was just a wee ferry".
It was not clear whether the USS Roosevelt, a destroyer bristling with surface-to-air missiles and anti-submarine torpedoes, or the USS Samuel B Roberts, a guided missile frigate, had issued the message.
A Navy spokesman said: "There was no live ammunition involved and there was absolutely no danger of a ferry being blown out of the water. But I think the skipper has his after-dinner story sorted for the rest of his life."
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/mai...FOAVCBQUIV0?xml=/news/2006/10/25/nferry25.xml
maximus otter
The skipper of the 70-year-old MV Kenilworth received a sinister message broadcast on Channel 16, which is used for routine communications, as the ferry crossed the River Clyde in Scotland.
The warship had already spoken to the ferry and requested it kept a 1,000-yard clearance. But the US radio operator then failed to switch back to the frequency designated for a NATO exercise.
As a result, the ferry heard the operator say: "Unidentified vessel approaching on my starboard side, please identify yourself. If you fail to do so, we will open fire on you with live ammunition".
The message was intended for Royal Marines who were "attacking" the warship in inflatable boats.
A source in Gourock, the ferry's home port, said the skipper radioed back saying "he was just a wee ferry".
It was not clear whether the USS Roosevelt, a destroyer bristling with surface-to-air missiles and anti-submarine torpedoes, or the USS Samuel B Roberts, a guided missile frigate, had issued the message.
A Navy spokesman said: "There was no live ammunition involved and there was absolutely no danger of a ferry being blown out of the water. But I think the skipper has his after-dinner story sorted for the rest of his life."
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/mai...FOAVCBQUIV0?xml=/news/2006/10/25/nferry25.xml
maximus otter
