Mothers Day Protest at Sun Bay, Vieques

On Mother's Day, May 11, 1997, Sun Bay was packed with local families. Then into this idyllic scene of picnicking, barbeques and kids swimming and playing on the beach, four warships from Holland and Belgium sailed into the bay and dropped anchor right off the public beach.

The ships were there to participate in maneuvers along with the US Navy, a privilege for which they had paid a hefty sum of money.

The Viequenses were outraged.

The situation with the navy and the bombing was bad enough, but this had never happened before. Within minutes, a delegation of four fishing boats motored over to one of the ships. Using a bullhorn, one of the fishermen who spoke English, called to the commanders of the ships, beseeching them to leave the area.

In response, the Dutch sailors dispersed the small boats using high pressure fire hoses. The fishermen returned to the beach. They then enlisted other Viequenses and, armed with bottles of paint and rocks, returned to confront the mighty warships.

The fire hoses were again brought into play. Fortunately for the fishermen, the fire hoses could not be aimed directly downward, but rather outward and down. The resulting arc was the zone of protection for the fishermen, and the savvy captains immediately took advantage of the situation passing under the torrent and approached the ships.

Now with the fishing boats close to the hulls of the ships, the battle began in earnest. The protesters launched bottles of paint defiling the clean shiny metal hulls of the warships.

The protesters had learned that the numbers on the ships were of great importance to someone in the navy hierarchy who cared about such matters. If the numbers were somehow obscured, this would mean that the ship had to sail back to Roosevelt Roads, remove the splashed paint from the hull and repaint the numbers. This could take a day or more; a day when that ship would not be bombing Vieques.

In response to the Viequense attack, the sailors hurled beer cans, debris, tools and whatever else they could find at the fishermen.

One protestor, describing the scene, reported that he was struck in the head by a beer can, which, luckily for him was half empty. More ominously, seconds later, a heavy iron monkey wrench crashed into the cover of the outboard engine and cracked the cowling. Undaunted by what was becoming a very dangerous situation, the fishermen continued their harassment of the battleships.

After an almost two-hour confrontation in which a Dutch sailor lost an eye to a Viequense slingshot, the admiral of the fleet gave the order to haul anchor and leave the area. Just as in biblical times, David had once again defeated Goliath at least for this battle if not for the war.