Doing My Job – part 2b

Doing My Job – part 2b

There are other aspects to the position of legal officer. I encountered one of them while serving as Operations Officer and Navigator in USS Nantahala, a fleet replenishment oiler. We were scheduled for a visit to the Italian port of Trieste. The city is located at the Northern end of the Adriatic, Venice is only a short distance away to the West. The approach to Trieste can be a bit awkward. Nantahala was carrying a full load of fuel and that meant her bottom was over 33 feet down from the water line. Most of the sea leading to Trieste is not that deep. The deep channel lay to the south, and was less than 12 miles from the coast of Yugoslavia. Twelve miles is what the then government of Yugoslavia claimed as their territorial waters. The United States, at that time, only recognized 3 miles as the extent of territorial ownership.
We had no problem going in. It was only after a short stay of a few days, when we were leaving, that we caused an official diplomatic incident. We departed the same way we had entered. But this time there was a Yugoslav patrol boat monitoring our progress. It obviously tracked us as being inside their waters. No signals were exchanged. But soon after we received a request from our chain of command asking where we had been. The Yugoslav ambassador in the US had lodged a complaint with the US Department of State about our crossing their border without permission. I had to prepare a response.
I had done the navy Military Justice course, but there was nothing I had learned there that could be applied to this situation. What was helpful was one of my personal library books, International Law for Seagoing Officers. The relevant facts included these; a merchant vessel entering a foreign port is subject to the laws of the host country, a naval ship is not. Any warship or naval auxiliary remains the sovereign property of own country, even when in a foreign port. It therefore follows that such a naval ship, even when simply exercising the right of innocent passage, should request permission to pass through another country’s territorial waters. I prepared a navigational copy of our track in and out of Trieste. It was sent with a cover letter noting that while we had passed less than 12 miles from Yugoslavian territory, we did so because of constraints of safe navigation for a deep draft ship. We further noted that at no time did we come within the 3 mile limit recognized by the United States. In the end, we had created a minor diplomatic incident, and the whole thing was quickly forgotten. But I had learned that there was more to being a legal officer than just dealing with shipboard discipline.