The Columbia Eagle was a Victory-class VC2-S-AP3 vessel built in large numbers during World War II under the Emergency Shipbuilding Program. Built in just 98 days at the Oregon Shipbuilding Corporation in Portland, Oregon, under the name SS Pierre Victory (SS stands for steamship), the vessel was delivered to the United States Maritime Commission on February 5, 1945, and transferred to a private operator, United States Lines.
During the war, the Pierre Victory transported military supplies in the Pacific theater, suffering three kamikaze attacks while loaded with ammunition. After the war, the ship was converted to transport livestock, becoming one of the so-called “Seagoing Cowboys Ships.” In 1946–1947, the Pierre Victory made six voyages from the United States to war-torn Europe, delivering 780 horses and chickens to Poland and Greece on each voyage.
In 1948, the ship was put into mothballs—decommissioned as part of the National Defense Reserve Fleet . The Korean War (1950–1953) brought the ship back to active service, during which the US Merchant Marine delivered over 90% of all necessary supplies and 75% of the troops to the Korean Peninsula. In 1952, the ship was again placed into reserve.
In 1967, the vessel was sold to the private Columbia Steamship Company (Wilmington, Delaware), where it was renamed Columbia Eagle. From 1968 onward, it sailed under charter with the Military Sea Transportation Service, delivering supplies to South Vietnam and Thailand for American forces fighting in Southeast Asia.
On February 19, 1970, the Columbia Eagle departed Long Beach, California, bound for Sattahip, Thailand, carrying munitions, including napalm bombs. These included 3,500 500-pound BLU-11/B bombs and 1,225 750-pound BLM-1/B bombs (the author believes this is the type of bomb) loaded with Napalm B. The cargo also included small arms , rocket-propelled grenades, anti-aircraft missiles , depth charges, and other weapons.
Napalm bombs were used by B-52 bombers based in Thailand to carry out scorched earth attacks on both sides of Vietnam—that is, to carry out massive, concentrated strikes by large groups of aircraft to completely destroy troops (in fact, mostly civilians), structures, and vegetation over large areas. A total of 500,000 tons of napalm were dropped on Vietnam, accounting for approximately 40% of all bombs dropped on the Democratic Republic of Vietnam. Napalm killed or injured hundreds of thousands of civilians in both parts of Vietnam and destroyed vast tracts of food crops. President Johnson sought to “bomb Vietnam back to the Stone Age.” In total, the Americans dropped 6,727,084 tons of bombs of various types during the war—2.5 times more than they dropped on Germany during World War II.
As American involvement in the Vietnam War escalated, US military casualties mounted, and news of their crimes against civilians spread, an anti-war movement gained momentum in American society, including within the armed forces.
The Vietnam War had a significant impact on the worldview of Americans. A new movement, the hippie movement, emerged from youth protesting the war. Numerous rallies in support of the struggling Vietnam took place throughout the United States. In October 1967, a massive demonstration took place in Washington, D.C., attended by over 150,000 people representing 47 U.S. states. It culminated in the so-called “March on the Pentagon” on October 21, 1967, with approximately 200,000 participants. The march was initiated and organized by the National Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam. Among the mass demonstrations, the “March on Washington for Moratorium” on October 15, 1969, stood out, with 250,000 people gathering in front of the Capitol.
On May 4, 1970, an anti-war demonstration by students at Kent State University in Ohio was opened fire by the National Guard, killing four and wounding nine.
It was at this same time that an underground press emerged within the anti-war movement as an alternative to the official press. Underground newspapers were published in colleges and schools, as well as on military bases. More than 500 regular publications were published, with readerships ranging from several hundred to 500,000. The conscientious objector movement grew rapidly. Young men burned their draft cards at demonstrations. Thousands of those unwilling to serve in the military found refuge in Canada.
In Vietnam itself, many soldiers wore black armbands in solidarity with anti-war demonstrations back home. Discipline in the troop deteriorated sharply, with soldiers refusing to follow orders or only pretending to. Moreover, disobedience often took on a collective nature, even within small and even large units. In 1969, the American army first encountered the phenomenon of officers being murdered or assaulted by their subordinates. Very quickly, this phenomenon became widespread—during 1971, it occurred on average once a week.
In 1969 alone, 73,000 men deserted from the US Army, and this figure grew exponentially thereafter. While in 1966 it was 14.7 per thousand, in 1968—26.2 per thousand, by 1970 it had risen to 52.3. From January 1967 to January 1972, a total of 354,112 GIs deserted their units without permission, and by the time the Vietnam War ended, 98,324 men were still listed as deserters.
The Navy became a major center of anti-war resistance, primarily the crews of attack carriers, which were directly involved in airstrikes in Vietnam.
The most serious incident occurred aboard the USS Coral Sea in the fall of 1971. A group of crew members began circulating the following petition on board (translated by the author): “We, the people, must lead the government and not let the government lead us! The Coral Sea is scheduled to deploy to Vietnam in November. This must not happen. The ship’s active participation in the conflict can be prevented if we, by a majority vote, express our distrust of the Vietnam War. If you believe the Coral Sea should not go to Vietnam, express your opinion by signing this petition.”
More than 1,000 of the 4,500 crew members signed the petition, and the SOS (“Stop Our Ship”) organization was formed on board. On November 6, more than 300 of the carrier’s crew members led an anti-war demonstration in San Francisco. The attempt to prevent the ship’s deployment was unsuccessful, so a number of sailors deserted before the carrier’s departure. However, SOS activities spread to other aircraft carriers, such as the USS Hancock and USS Ranger. A sit-in strike was held aboard the USS Constellation while at sea, and the commander, fearing he was losing control of the ship, decided to return to San Diego.
Ships preparing for deployment off the coast of Vietnam suffered repeated acts of sabotage. For example, on May 26, 1970, the main turbine gearbox of the USS Anderson was disabled—bolts, nuts, and chains were found inside upon opening. Costly repairs took several weeks. In June 1972, saboteurs temporarily disabled the aircraft carrier USS Ranger, and in October, arson attacks occurred on the USS Kittyhawk and USS Hassayampa. In July of that year, the aircraft carriers USS Forestall (arson, $7 million in damage, repairs took over two months) and USS Ranger (damage to one of the main gearboxes, approximately $1 million in damage, repairs took three and a half months) were disabled for several months.
On March 14, 1970, in the Gulf of Thailand, 700 miles off the coast of Cambodia, the American steamship Rappahanock spotted two lifeboats containing 24 crew members from the ammunition transport Columbia Eagle. The rescued sailors claimed that Captain Donald O. Swann ordered them to abandon ship, claiming there was a bomb in the holds. They waited for the remaining 15 crew members to join them, but the steamship, emitting a cloud of smoke, set off and departed. This was the first time US authorities learned of the hijacking of the vessel by two armed rebels.
They were Clyde W. McKay Jr. (25) and Alvin L. Glatkowski (21). The author of this article was unable to determine their precise positions on board the ship. Various sources refer to the former as either an “electrician” or a “fireman-water tender,” while the latter was referred to as an “engine room wiper” (equivalent to our 2nd class engineer) or a “bedroom steward.” Both were supporters of the left-wing Students for a Democratic Society movement.
After graduating from the Seafarers Harry Lundeberg School of Seamanship, they made several voyages to Vietnam on American merchant ships. There, the young sailors learned a great deal about the war crimes committed by the Americans and their allies against civilians. Later, in an interview with the New York Times, Clyde McKay said:
We sympathized with the Asian people, and although I am not an authority on the Vietnam War, I respect the opinion of authorities like Bertrand Russell and Jean-Paul Sartre, who said that the war in Asia was genocide.
He continued:
I felt like a German sailor during World War II, and based on what the Nuremberg trials had shown, I would have considered myself guilty if I had simply obeyed and become part of a threat to the people of Asia. I thought it was better to threaten those few crew members with force than to allow myself to become part of a much larger threat to the people of Asia by delivering those thousands of napalm bombs.
He understood that they would be found guilty of mutiny and piracy, but he considered this a “lesser evil” than participating in “outright murder by delivered napalm bombs.”
For his part, Alvin L. Gladkowski stated:
I feel like an American revolutionary, not a criminal. Morally, I feel 100 percent right.
Clyde W. McKay and Alvin L. Glatkowski met in the lobby of the Seafarers International Union (SIU), where they signed their employment contracts just two days before their ship’s departure. Most of the sailors gathered there clearly expressed their support for U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War, so the future “mutineers” quickly found common ground.
During the voyage to Thailand, they devised a plan to seize the ship and hijack it to a country with anti-American policies. Initially, North Vietnam or China were considered but fearing interception by American warships during the voyage there, they chose neutral Cambodia, whose government, led by Prince Norodom Sihanouk, sympathized with the Vietnamese people’s struggle. While in the United States, Clyde McKay acquired a P38 Walter pistol, and during the ship’s bunkering in the Philippines, he also acquired a revolver.
On March 14, “after lunch, he (Alvin L. Glatkowski) and I approached the first mate and, at gunpoint, took him into the captain’s office and explained the situation to the captain, holding both of us at gunpoint. I demanded that the captain call the bridge from his office and give the order to abandon ship. I explained to him who was to remain on board and who was to leave, and that he was to inform the officer of the watch on the bridge that there was a bomb on board and that this was the reason for abandoning ship” (from an interview with Clyde W. McKay in the New York Times).
The 24 crew members quickly boarded two lifeboats and stood away from the ship, waiting for those remaining on board to join them, but the captain, through the helmsman, ordered them to proceed to the coast of South Vietnam, 109 miles away. The ship soon departed, sending an SOS signal. The following entry was made in the ship’s log:
At 1:15 p.m., the ship was seized by Clyde W. McKay and Alvin L. Glatkowski, who held the captain and his first mate hostage in the captain’s quarters, threatening to detonate a bomb if the captain and first mate, held at gunpoint, did not comply with their demands.
A Lockheed P-3B Orion patrol aircraft from Patrol Squadron One (VP-1), based at U-Tapao Air Base in Thailand, soon arrived in the area of the incident , along with the US Coast Guard ship USCGC Mellon, as well as Navy ships—the destroyer USS Turner Joy and the landing dock ship USS Denver.
However, after a 36-hour voyage, on the evening of March 15, the Columbia Eagle anchored 5 miles off the Cambodian port of Sihanoukville. The following day, at 9:51 a.m., the Denver anchored 13.5 miles off the coast (i.e., outside the 12-mile territorial waters), and the Mellon soon joined it.
After anchoring, the mutineers were able to sleep for the first time, taking turns on the ship’s poop deck, where pallets of detonators were stored. If they attempted to attack, they threatened to blow up the ship.
Only 24 hours later, two Cambodian Navy boats approached the Columbia Eagle. Clyde W. McKay and Alvin L. Glatkowski were disarmed and, along with the captain, sent ashore for questioning, while the ship and crew were placed under guard. After questioning the Americans, they were instructed to move the ship closer to shore, with control entrusted to the mutinous crew members, for which purpose their weapons were returned.
Clyde W. McKay and Alvin L. Glatkowski petitioned the Cambodian government for political asylum, arguing that they were revolutionaries opposed to the Vietnam War. Their petition was granted.
In their interviews, Clyde W. McKay and Alvin L. Glatkowski said:
Many of the remaining crew members, especially the first mate, were constantly looking for an opportunity to disarm us, so we had to be constantly on our feet, and to stay awake, we took amphetamine pills (which later led many to accuse them of drug addiction – author). … We maintained radio silence for two and a half days. And only after we were absolutely certain we were indeed in Cambodian waters did we allow the radio operator to make contact.
Captain Donald O. Swann claimed that several crew members attempted to resist the mutineers. For example, the second engineer began fashioning a miniature gun from a piece of steel pipe and a fire extinguisher, and on the first evening after the ship’s capture, one of the sailors appeared on the bridge with a crowbar and attempted to attack the mutineers. But MacKay, firing over his head, quickly cooled the “hero’s” ardor. As a result, the captain forbade any attempts to oppose the two hijackers, especially since he believed that at least three crew members were assisting them, running various errands and providing information on the situation on board.
American authorities considered a plan to recapture the ship by force, but later abandoned the idea, and on March 17, the Denver departed for Singapore. The Mellon and Turner Joy continued cruising near the edge of Cambodian territorial waters.
The mutineers’ attack came from a different direction. On March 18, 1970, the Royal Council and National Assembly, under pressure from military and right-wing leaders led by General Lon Nol and Prince Sirik Matak, announced Sihanouk’s removal from power. Media outlets in many countries pointed to the involvement of the US Central Intelligence Agency in these events in Phnom Penh. With exceptional haste, on March 19, the US State Department announced its recognition of the new authorities in Phnom Penh.
This prompted numerous media outlets, most notably the French newspaper Le Monde, as well as Prince Norodom Sihanouk in his book, My War with the CIA, to accuse the CIA of orchestrating a fake mutiny on the Columbia Eagle to deliver weapons to Lon Nol’s conspirators. Clyde W. MacKay and Alwyn L. Glatkowsky angrily denied this.
In his book, Norodom Sihanouk wrote:
Several French teachers from a secondary school in Sihanoukville photographed the “hijacked” vessel as it arrived and departed. They noted that it sat deep in the water upon arrival and high in the water upon departure. After the Columbia Eagle anchored and darkness fell, the Sihanoukville-Phnom Penh highway was closed to civilian traffic, something that had never happened before, and convoys of army trucks continued to move from the port of Sihanoukville to Phnom Penh until the early hours of the morning. On the day of the coup, Western journalists observed that troops assembled at the National Assembly were armed with brand-new M-16s, a weapon our army did not possess.
These accusations likely played a tragic role in the fate of the mutineers: their requests for political asylum at the Chinese and Soviet embassies were rejected. A request to the Swedish Honorary Consul in Phnom Penh was answered by Stockholm that their physical presence in Sweden was required for asylum.
It is interesting to note that Clyde W. MacKay was fluent in Spanish, French, and German, had previously served in the French Foreign Legion, and his stepfather was a lieutenant colonel in Army intelligence at the Pentagon.
On March 28, under pressure from the United States, the new Cambodian authorities decided to return the ship and its cargo, and on April 8, the Columbia Eagle, under the command of its former captain, Donald O. Swann, left local waters. Awaiting him at sea was the US Coast Guard ship USCGC Chase, carrying a US Navy explosive ordnance disposal team, as well as investigators from the Coast Guard, Naval Intelligence, and other intelligence agencies. After checking the Columbia Eagle for explosive devices and ferrying the remaining crew from South Vietnam, he, accompanied by the Chase, headed for the US Naval Base in Subic Bay, Philippines, arriving on April 12. After unloading on April 16, the ship departed for San Francisco.
The ship’s route after liberation was strange: instead of delivering its cargo to a port in Thailand or even South Vietnam, it proceeded to Subic Bay.
From Subic Bay, three crew members were flown to the United States for further investigation. According to the captain and several other sailors, they had passively supported the pair of mutineers, but no formal charges were ever brought against them. Moreover, one of the suspects soon joined the Air Force and served in a highly classified unit tasked with testing, tracking, and controlling military satellites.
The new authorities sent the mutineers to a floating prison at a naval base on the Mekong River, where they were held alongside Cambodian political prisoners, including a relative of Norodom Sihanouk, and the American corporal and deserter Larry Humphrey. On August 30, Clyde W. McKay and Alvin L. Glatkowski made an unsuccessful escape attempt by jumping overboard and then went on repeated hunger strikes.
Glatkowski’s condition was at its worst—his mental state had deteriorated, and after drinking his own urine and eating his own feces, he was placed in a psychiatric hospital, where he twice attempted suicide.
In late November, Glatkowski was transferred from the hospital to a secure government hotel, and on December 15, he reported to the American embassy and declared his voluntary surrender. On
March 2, 1971, Alvin L. Glatkowski appeared in court in Los Angeles, following a lawsuit filed by the U.S. Coast Guard. The court found him guilty of mutiny (sentenced to 10 years) and assaulting a captain (5 years). However, he was released in September 1977.
On October 1, 1970, Clyde W. McKay and Larry Humphrey were transferred from a floating prison to the Palais du Government (the official government hotel) in Phnom Penh. On October 28, they eluded guards and escaped in a stolen press attaché’s car. According to several publications, an American journalist assisted them in their escape, providing them with money to bribe their guards. In early December, the US Ambassador to Cambodia, Emory Swank, reported to Washington that, after speaking with the Minister of Foreign Affairs, he was firmly convinced that the Cambodian authorities had facilitated the escape of Clyde W. McKay and Larry Humphrey.
The fugitives headed to Kampong Cham Province, intending to join the communist guerrillas (the Khmer Rouge) operating there, and their trail was lost for a long time.
In an article by John Clark Hanna, “Mystery of the SS Columbia Eagle Hijacking,” published in February 2001 in the American magazine Vietnam, he writes:
Documents obtained from the CIA and the Defense Intelligence Agency provide fragmentary details of the movements of Clyde W. McKay and Larry Humphrey up until 1973. Both appeared content to collaborate with communist guerrillas in Cambodia. One report indicated that Clyde W. McKay and Larry Humphrey were to be sent to Hanoi for “training.” However, in July 1973, they were seen working in a field at a prison camp southeast of Kampong Sre.
They were later likely executed by the Khmer Rouge. After the fall of Pol Pot’s regime, Cambodian authorities handed over human remains to the United States, and DNA testing at a Navy lab conclusively confirmed their identity as Clyde W. MacKay.
Sources
1. Samuel Lipsman, Edward Doyle. Fighting the Time 1968-1970. Boston, 1983
2. Richard Linnett, Roberto Loiederman. The Eagle Mutiny. Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, Maryland, 2001
3. Fred Emery Dispatch. Two Who Say They Support SDS Tell How They Hijacked Ship. The New York Times, March 26, 1970
4. 2 American Ship Hijackers Want to Quit Cambodia. The New York Times, July 4, 1970
5. Salvatore R. Mercogliano. Fourth Arm of Defense. Sealift and Maritime Logistics in the Vietnam War. United States Navy Naval History and Heritage Command, 2017
6. John Clark Hanna. Mystery of the SS Columbia Eagle Hijacking. Vietnam, February 2001, Vol. 13, Issue 5