No survivors were found. CASE INVESTIGATOR: Marie Levine

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1 ACTIVITY: Shipwreck CASE: GSAF / SA-209 DATE: Late April 1971 LOCATION: The incident took place in the Indian Ocean about 240 miles northeast of Beira, Mozambique. NARRATIVE: The 1689-ton Portuguese coaster Angoche sailed from Ncala in northern Mozambique for Porto Amelia with military supplies, a crew of 23, and one passenger. The coaster sailed regularly from Lourenco Marques and Beira carrying stores and military supplies to Portuguese forces fighting the Frelimo rebels in northern Mozambique. She was found on April 23, 1971, five days after she left port, burning and deserted, except for a cat, by the Liberian tanker Esso Port Dickson. The fire was extinguished and the coaster was taken in tow. An investigation by the security officers and naval authorities revealed that 10 to 12 kilograms of explosives wired to timing devices set to detonate after the coaster left port, had been secreted on board by the Lisbon-based pro-communist organization ARA (Armed Revolutionary Action). INJURIES: Examination of the vessel led authorities to believe that half of those on board had survived the blast. It was thought that they dived overboard to escape the flames and blood from their wounds, together with the sounds of the explosion, attracted the sharks. But others strongly believed the crew either mutinied or had been taken hostage by Frelimo guerrillas. No survivors were found. CASE INVESTIGATOR: Marie Levine Marie Levine, All rights reserved. This report may not be abridged or reproduced in

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3 The Mercury (Durban) May 8, 1971 Several crew members of the Portuguese coaster Angoche are believed to have taken part in an act of high-seas piracy which reduced the vessel to the burnt-out wreck. This possibility was suggested yesterday by Portuguese Navy and Army Authorities Investigating the incident. A likely explanation for the possible kidnapping of the crew is they might be exchanged for two or three senior Tanzanian officials allegedly held by English forces at Tete. But for a blunder on the part of the terrorists, it is thought the Angoche would have been sunk, leaving no trace of the boarding. It Is believed that they set the wrong hold afire. No. 2 hold, carrying general cargo, was fired, while No. 1 hold, which was laden with arms, petrol, TNT, oxygen and other explosives, was left untouched. At gunpoint Experts feel a second attempt to sink the Angoche might have been made by the pirate ship or ships dropping charges alongside her stern. This would explain the torn and buckled plates on the outside of the ship, thought to have been caused by an explosion. Defence experts claim the attack on the Angoche was pre-arranged and coincided with the appearance of the unidentified foreign warship on the scene. They say the ship's officers were held at gunpoint while most of the crew were asleep. The ship's communications system was destroyed and when the pirate ship drew alongside the Angoche, she was rammed in the starboard side. Members of the pirate ship boarded the Angoche while their terrorist crew members held their officers at gunpoint. It is believed that special care was taken to capture the coaster's crew alive. They were told to strip off shoes and socks and their given the ship's lifebelts to wear.

4 When the Angoche arrived in Lourenco Marques lifebelts were the ship's missing and the crew's clothing was found on board. Meanwhile the security forces are remaining tight-lipped about the mystery.... 'My man would have stayed' From LEON Mellet LOURENCO MARQUES THE wives of the missing crew of the ill-fated English coaster, Angoche have been left guessing about the fate of their husbands by the Security Police in Mozambique. In an exclusive interview yesterday, the wife of the master of the Angoche, Mrs. Bernardino, told of her anxious wait for news of her husband's fate. She said the Security Forces had kept them guessing by not making any statements about the possible whereabouts of the crew and what could have happened to them. Regular run This was her husband, Captain Adolfo Manuel Bernardino's last trip aboard the Angoche which he mastered for the past three years. Captain Bernardino is 38 years old and the father of a daughter and a son of eight of five. He was due to return to Portugal after this trip. According to his wife, he was extremely fond of the Angoche and often told her the ship was very safe and well kept. He called her from Beira and also wrote her a letter the day the Angoche sailed from Nacala on her ill-fated journey to Port Amelia. He did not mention anything of importance about the crew or office. He only gave the dates of his expected arrivals at Port Amelia and other ports along the Mozambique coast. The Angoche was expected back in Lourenco Marques this week. "My husband had the premonition anything was wrong. He did not mention any specific office or any ill feeling among the crew before his departure. "I accompanied him on a journey three months ago and the Angoche was caught in a cyclone and extremely rough seas. My husband steered the ship through it all without fear. Never! He would NEVER have abandoned his ship unless it was absolutely necessary. Neither would the Majority of the crew who have sailed with him since he took command of the Angoche." She did stress, However, a few of the crew were new to the ship - most were Africans. She did not know how many were new. She said the owners of the Angoche have been most helpful and aiding financially. BOTHA WARNS OF TERROR ON CAPE ROUTE CAPE TOWN - Mr. PW Botha, Minister of Defence, said yesterday the alleged terrorist attack on the Portuguese freighter, Angoche, might be the sort of threat to the Cape sea route which he had warned against. "It is to guard against this sort of attack that we want modern maritime equipment to ensure the safety of the Cape route is all," he said. Sources have suggested the Angoche was carrying munitions for the Portuguese forces in

5 Mozambique, and was attacked in the high sea raid by one or more of the six Chinese gunboats operating out of Dar-Es-Salaam. Mr. Botha was not prepared to make specific comment on the theories of what actually happened to the Angoche. SERIOUS THREAT But he said: "If the theories about terrorism attacks are correct, then it could happen again pose serious threat the unless proper action is taken." Mr. Botha repeated que South Africa did not have an "insatiable hunger" for weapons. It merely wanted to defend its own freedom and to be in a position to "maintain our place on the most important sea route in the world." He had predicted last year terrorism would not remain confined to land operations. "Mercury" Correspondent Lisbon's top brass in Angoche talks LONDON - As the drama developed Angoche last night, said the report from Lisbon, Portugal's Higher Council for National Defence, the top policy-making body on military affairs, was meeting under the chairmanship of Prime Minister Marcello Caetano. The commanders of the country's armed forces were at the meeting, which Also was attended by General Antonio Spinola, the Governor of Portuguese Guinea, who is on a routine visit to Lisbon. Tanzanian diplomats in London, meanwhile, were unwilling to discuss reports that the crew of the Angoche may be hostages, in Tanzania, of Frelimo guerrillas who were given Red Chinese aid for the first high-seas raid by African terrorists.. ANGOCHE - WHITE SABOTAGE MOVE? The belief in East Africa The Star (Johannesburg) May 11, 1972 DAR ES SALAAM There is a growing belief in diplomatic and liberation circles that the sabotage of the Portuguese coaster Angoche was the work of an underground group known as Armed Revolutionary Army. Members of the underground, which in the past appears to have confined its activities to acts of sabotage within Portugal, are believed to be Whites and Africans. In March ARA claimed responsibility for the blowing up of 14 helicopters and three training planes at Tancos Air Force base 100 miles from Lisbon. In addition, last year they were reported to be responsible for attempts to blow up two ships in Portuguese metropolitan harbours.

6 TROUBLED The Portuguese Premier, Dr. Marcello Caetano, voiced the growing concern of his Government at a meeting at Oporto, northern Portugal, on April 3, when, in an apparent reference to the blown up planes, he said the war in Portugal s African colonies had no front and no rear. He accused fifth columnists of attempting to undermine the morale of the military and a spokesman for his government has directly accused the military arm of the underground Portuguese Communist Party of responsibility for the Tancos incident. The Portuguese say there is evidence of a battle for the Angoche, now a burnt-out hulk in Lourenço Marques, and that food was found in one of the holds implying there were stowaways. Now that details of the position where the Angoche was found have come out, diplomats here say it is quite clear that neither Frelimo guerillas nor Tanzania could have been involved. MATTER OF POSITION The burning vessel was found to the south of Port Mozambique, 10 miles off the colony s Mozambique Province coastline. She was reported missing five days earlier on a voyage from Nacala to Porto Amelia north of Port Mozambique and near Cabo Delgado Province in which Frelimo operates. Equally it is clear that Tanazania s tiny West German and Chinese gunboats used by the police coastal patrol units, could never have made the 800 mile round trip, which is more than three times their operational range. Diplomats here, after receiving reports from colleagues in Lisbon and Beira, believe that the ARA is responsible. If this is not the case, then the only other explanation is mutiny, one Western diplomat said. Frelimo s chief representative in Dar Es Salaam, Joachim Chissano, said their guerillas were not involved. We do not hold any Mozambique coastal areas and we are not operative south of Port Mozambique, he said. But he added that the most likely explanation was that it was the work of the ARA.