U.S. combat jets or ships to protect her. To defend herself, she had only two jam-prone .50-caliber machine guns. She was crewed by 81 officers and enlisted men plus two civilian oceanographers whose presence was intended to reinforce the ship’s cover story that she was engaged in peaceful scientific research. 2 Though packed with advanced eavesdropping gear, code machines, and classified documents, the Pueblo lacked a rapid-destruction system. Instead, her sailors had only fire axes, sledgehammers, two slow paper shredders, and a small incinerator to use in an emergency.

As the Pueblo snooped in international waters near the port of Wonsan on 23 January 1968, North Korean combat vessels rushed to the scene. Soon Bucher faced two Soviet-built SO-1–class submarine chasers, armed with 57-mm cannon, and four torpedo boatsmounted with machine guns and loaded torpedo tubes. Two MiG fighters zoomed overhead.

The Navy had repeatedly assured Bucher that a communist attack on his ship was highly unlikely. He also had been told that if he did come under fire, he was on his own. Shortly before the Pueblo ’s departure from Yokosuka, Japan, Rear Admiral Frank L. Johnson, who supervised spy-ship expeditions in the region, warned Bucher not to “start a war” by provoking the always touchy North Koreans. 3

The communist flotilla quickly surrounded the Pueblo as she lay dead in the water more than 15 miles off Wonsan. When the North Koreans moved to board the ship, Bucher tried to flee. But the antiquated spy boat—a converted Army freighter with a poky top speed of 13