Five embargoed gunboats slipped out of France on Christmas morning

Five unarmed gunboats left Cherbourg early on Christmas Day, 1969, heading away from a French embargo and toward Israel. France had built the vessels for the Israeli Navy, which had already paid for them. Getting them out required a paper transaction, concealed crews and fuel waiting at sea.

Naval historian Abraham Rabinovich's account for the US Naval Institute describes the central ruse. Israel surrendered its claim on the boats, while a Norwegian shipowner offered to buy them for work supplying North Sea oil installations. French customs granted permission for the vessels to leave under that commercial explanation.

The Israeli purchasing chief in Paris, retired admiral Mordecai Limon, feared the arrangement would unravel under scrutiny. Rabinovich describes naval crewmen traveling in civilian clothes to Paris and then in small groups to Cherbourg. They hid below decks as the remaining boats neared the moment of departure.

Weather nearly blocked the escape. A fierce gale delayed sailing; the boats finally cast off as the wind shifted. The Defense Ministry had arranged merchant vessels with extra fuel equipment, making it possible to refuel outside port. Entering a foreign harbor would have created another opportunity for the boats to be detained.

Contemporary reporting captured the diplomatic explosion. In its January 2, 1970 dispatch, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency said France had suspended two senior Defense Ministry officials pending an inquiry. Paris also demanded that Israel recall Limon. An arms embargo had become an international argument over five conspicuously missing vessels.

The commercial explanation survived into the arrival announcements. JTA reported officials presenting the renamed Starboat vessels as oil-prospecting craft, stressing that they had no weapons aboard. It also recorded their intended capacity to carry Israeli Gabriel missiles. The distinction between their immediate fittings and their naval purpose was central to the affair.