LEBANESE FREIGHTER STOPPED & SEARCHED AT BLOCKADE LINE
Washington, D.C. (JFK+50) On October 26, 1962, Marucia, a Lebanese freighter chartered by the USSR, became the first ship to be stopped and searched at the blockade line by the United States Navy.
Although having declared only a cargo of paper, sulfur and spare truck parts, the USS Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr. stopped and searched the Soviet leased vessel which was manned primarily by a Greek crew.
White House Press Secretary Pierre Salinger issued a statement saying the Soviets were "rapidly continuing their construction of missile support and launch facilities."
Michael Dobbs writes that JFK said on October 25...
"We've got to prove sooner or later that the blockade works."
SOURCES
"'Let Us Begin Anew', An Oral History of the Kennedy Presidency, " by Gerald S. and Deborah H. Strober, Harper Collins Publishers, New York, 1993.
"One Minute to Midnight: Kennedy, Khrushchev and Castro on the Brink of Nuclear War," Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 2008.
USAF Photo (1962)
