Letters: Adelaide’s Boarding Party

Author

Letter Writer

Subjects

Letter to the Editor

Tags

None noted.

RAN Ships

HMAS Adelaide II

Publication

September 2007 edition of the Naval Historical Review (all rights reserved)

Dear Editor,

Although I’m sure others will have already raised this, the one thing that the article about Adelaide‘s Boarding Party in the June issue failed to mention is that Iran does not recognise the same Territorial Sea Limits as the rest of the world. The difference is not only in the distance its Territorial Seas extend from the shoreline (or baseline) but also how Iran chooses to draw the line extending into the Arabian Gulf between Iran and Iraq.

So while Adelaide and her boarding team would have been in International Waters as far as the Australian Government and therefore the RAN is concerned, from an Iranian perspective the Boarding Team at least may well have been trespassing in or close to what Iran considers her sovereign waters. The charts used by the RAN do not normally show the Iranian claimed Territorial Sea boundaries, and unless drawn on by the NO would not be obvious to the Command Team.

Bill Davidson
LCDR RAN