Oct. 26, 1962 - The Navy stopped, boarded, and searched a Soviet-chartered freighter, the Marucia, on the way to Cuba today after trailing her through the night. This was reported by the Pentagon today with the added announcement that the boarding party, finding no offensive weapons on the loaded cargo ship, permitted her to proceed to Havana. Two destroyers took part in the search, the first of a Soviet-controlled ship in the blockade of Cuba that was put in effect by President Kennedy Wednesday. (Pictured below is a U.S. naval squadron off the coast of Cuba.) One of the destroyers was the Joseph P. Kennedy Jr., named after the President’s brother, a Navy flier who was killed in World War II. The other was the John R. Pierce, named for a Navy submariner who died in the same war. The boarding took place 180 miles northeast of Nassau in the Bahamas. There were no incidents and the freighter crew cooperated fully.
