South Korea.) 13 He also thought the communists might have mistaken his ship for a South Korean vessel and would leave as soon as they realized she was American. This explanation, however, was undercut by Bucher’s earlier statement that he had hoisted the U.S. colors shortly after the gunboats arrived.

The bottom line, the captain testified, was that he didn’t want his men slaughtered in a futile effort to defend their ship. In response to a question from his lawyer, he declared flatly that he lacked the power to resist at the time he halted his boat. The admirals, though, seemed unconvinced. For generations, a banner has hung at the U.S. Naval Academy as an inspiration to midshipmen. It bears the last words of a mortally wounded commander, JamesLawrence, during an 1813 battle off Boston Harbor: “Don’t give up the ship.” In the minds of many naval officers, that brave exhortation carried the gravity and immutability of sacred writ. The Navy is a war-fighting organization, and loss of life is the inevitable byproduct of war. If Navy officers surrendered whenever they felt boxed in by an enemy, the service couldn’t function. It would fall to pieces.

Although one member of the court of inquiry thought Bucher should get a medal for his leadership of his men in prison, the five admirals unanimously recommended in April 1969 that he face a court-martial on five counts, including permitting his ship to be seized while he still had power to resist and failing to destroy his classified materials. 14

A Sympathetic