Foreign News: Free Passage?

I hope foreigners will realize, said one Israeli spokesman with an angry gesture toward the steamer lying at anchor in Haifa harbor, “that what Nasser did to the Panaghia today, he can do to British and American ships tomorrow.” To the people of Israel at least, the 550-ton Greek freighter was floating proof that Egypt’s Nasser, as master of the Suez Canal, could not be counted on to keep his promise not to interfere with the free passage of shipping. The Panaghia itself was not the only vessel to find its way barred as it tried to pass through the canal—for eight years the Egyptians have barred all Israeli ships and have halted eight ships of other flags on the way to or from Haifa with Israeli cargoes, in defiance of the Constantinople Convention of 1888 and a specific U.N. Security Council ruling. But the log of the steamer Panaghia had the grimmest story to tell. Laden with 520 tons of cement for Eilat, the Greek ship under charter to Israel sailed from Haifa on May 24, commanded by brawny Veteran Skipper Kosta Koutales, and manned by a crew of ten. Next day, in routine order, it dropped anchor in Port Said to await permission to pass through the canal. Far from being granted permission, Captain Koutales was not even allowed ashore to ask for it. Almost two weeks later the shipping company’s local agent managed to get the required permit, but it was canceled almost immediately. The agent was told that he could no longer act for the ship in any capacity, and the Panaghia was ordered to a remote section of the harbor, where an Egyptian patrol launch was set to watch it night and day. Meanwhile, Captain Koutales’ supplies of food and water were running out fast, and the Egyptians refused to allow him to replenish either.

For 3½ months, the eleven men lived in filth and boredom, their bodies nourished only by a meager ration of moldy bread that the Egyptians allowed aboard and the brackish water left in their original supply. Their spirits shriveled in a never-ending monotony of card playing (“The one deck we had got shredded”), and they were continually insulted, often spat upon, by the Egyptian guards.

When at last a doctor was permitted on board, he sent two crewmen back to Greece on the verge of mental collapse. Meanwhile, the Greek captain was hauled off to Alexandria for grilling by the Egyptian War Ministry. Soon after his return to his ship, he got his orders to sail—not onward, but back to Haifa.

Last week the “forgotten ship” Panaghia dropped anchor in the Israeli harbor. “In all my years afloat,” said Captain Koutales, “I have never experienced such treatment before.”