SS Columbia Eagle incident

The SS Columbia Eagle incident refers to a mutiny that occurred aboard the U.S. flagged merchant vessel Columbia Eagle in March 1970 when two crewmembers seized the vessel with the threat of a bomb and handgun, and forced the master to sail to Cambodia. The ship was under contract with the Military Sea Transportation Service to carry napalm bombs to be used by the U.S. Air Force during the Vietnam War and was originally bound for Sattahip, Thailand. During the mutiny, 24 of the crew were forced into two lifeboats and set adrift in the Gulf of Thailand while the remainder of the crew were forced to take the ship to a bay near Sihanoukville, Cambodia. The two mutineers requested political asylum from the Cambodian government which was initially granted but they were later arrested and jailed. Columbia Eagle was returned to U.S. control in April 1970. This is the only mutiny of a United States Ship in recent history. Background Columbia Eagle The Columbia Eagle was a Victory-type cargo ship constructed by Oregon Shipbuilding Corporation of Portland, Oregon in 1945 for the U.S. Navy and originally christened . She was designed to carry all types of dry supplies and munitions to Pacific theaters during World War II. SS Pierre Victory survived three separate kamikaze attacks by the Japanese in 1945. After World War II the Pierre Victory was converted to a livestock ship, also called a Seagoing cowboys ship. Pierre Victory made 6 trips with 780 horses on each trip to war-torn Poland and Greece. SS Pierre Victory served as merchant marine ship supplying goods for the Korean War. Like most of the ships of the Victory-type, Pierre Victory was decommissioned after the war and then sold to a commercial shipping company. In 1968, she was purchased by the Columbia Steamship Company, renamed Columbia Eagle and contracted out to the Military Sea Transportation Service for the purpose of hauling supplies and ammunition to Southeast Asian ports in South Vietnam and Thailand during the Vietnam War. Because Columbia Eagle was a U.S. flagged ship, she was a part of the Merchant Marine fleet and therefore eligible under government contracting rules to haul military supplies to the war zone.