Sail On

Millimeter by millimeter, like a small bug on a windowpane, the Finnish tanker Aruba crawled along the charted sea lanes. The world paid little attention as she made her way down from the Rumanian port of Constanta to the Mediterranean and eastward toward Port Said. Then, three weeks ago, like hundreds of other vessels that pass through the Suez Canal, the 10,000-ton Aruba was forced to declare her cargo and destination. It proved to be 13,000 tons of high-grade kerosene consigned to Red China, enough jet plane fuel to carry Communist airmen on an estimated 5,000 jet missions. The world became suddenly interested in the buglike progress of the Aruba.

A U.S. State Department spokesman warned Finland that the Aruba's mission "could not fail to evoke the disapproval of the free world." The Finnish government insisted that the Aruba was a privately owned ship under charter to a firm in Hong Kong--the principal Hong Kong company used by the Chinese Reds. Chiang Kai-shek vowed to seize the ship as soon as she came within range of his guns or planes. A detachment of five U.S. warships, including the aircraft carrier Kearsarge, steamed into the Singapore roadstead on what was in fact a routine visit; whereupon the Red Chinese radio began to crackle with warnings against any attempted "American piracy." Meanwhile, on steamed the Aruba, southward through the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, eastward across the Indian Ocean.

Early last week, as the Aruba passed under the tip of India, the Finnish crew grumbled a strike threat if the ship continued to sail on into "dangerous waters." They demanded that she put in at Ceylon. Gunnar Damstroem, manager of the Re-Be Shipping Co.. which owns the vessel, replied with a Columbus-like "Sail on!" At least, he instructed the Aruba's captain by radio to keep the ship on the open ocean and out of harm's way as long as the crew would permit. Leaving Ceylon behind without putting in to port, the Aruba sailed on.

At week's end, the Aruba's 42-man crew issued a new deadline: they would not man the ship beyond the Nicobar Islands at the entrance to the Malacca Strait. Sadly, the Re-Be Co. sent a message to Peking through its Hong Kong agents. The Far East Enterprising Co. (HK) Ltd. Its gist: the Aruba could go no farther; if the Reds want their jet fuel, they will have to come and get it.

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