U.S. Coast Guard pulls over Chevy truck

The National Post (Canada) ^ | 2003-07-25 | National Post news services

[DTA]

U.S. Coast Guard pulls over Chevy truck in Straits of Florida 12 Cubans aboard ═

National Post news services

Friday, July 25, 2003

WASHINGTON - The crew members of the U.S. Coast Guard cutter could not believe their eyes.

Chugging along at a steady 13 kilometres per hour in the Straits of Florida was a bright-green 1951 Chevrolet truck with 12 Cuban migrants aboard.

The ingenious craft was kept afloat by 12 250-litre drums strapped to its sides. The wheels were still in place and the engine was running, turning a propeller attached to the drive shaft.

There was even a captain at the wheel.

"We've seen surfboards, pieces of Styrofoam, bathtubs, refrigerators. But never an automobile," Petty Officer Ryan Doss of the U.S. Coast Guard said yesterday.

The Coast Guard was called in after a U.S. government plane spotted the truck last week in the Straits of Florida, about 64 km south of Key West, just more than halfway between Cuba and the United States.

The Coast Guard took all the passengers on board. Then they sank the vessel, deeming it "a hazard to navigation."

A photograph taken by the Coast Guard shows the craft cruising on calm seas.

Several men, all wearing bright red life jackets, sat on top of the green truck. The other travellers, who included two women and one child, were apparently riding under the bright yellow canopy that covered the back of the vehicle.

Since Fidel Castro's 1959 revolution, desperate Cubans have tried to flee the Caribbean island on rudimentary rafts, on the inner tubes from giant trucks, in stolen boats and planes, even by windsurfer.

In recent months several planes and boats were stolen or hijacked by people trying to reach Florida.

Under the U.S. immigration policy known as "wet foot, dry foot," Cubans who manage to set foot on U.S. soil are usually allowed to stay, while those stopped at sea are routinely sent back to Cuba.

This meant the 12 Cubans who had exhibited such painstaking ingenuity in turning the truck into a boat got no marks from the United States for their creativity. They were automatically barred from entering the country and were returned to Cuba on Sunday.

The following day, the United States returned a group of people who had hijacked a boat to leave the country after Havana agreed to limit jail terms to 10 years for any found guilty of illegal migration. The boat was intercepted at sea last week.

In March, six Cuban migrants landed their homemade boat on guarded U.S. Navy property in Key West, then wandered the streets downtown before authorities caught them.

[TigersEye]

They should have let them stay. I have a '49 Chevy in pieces in my mom's garage. They could fix it up for me.

All kidding aside, they should get asylum here. Mexico sucks but it ain't Cuba. No analogy can be drawn there.

[Only1choice____Freedom]

Is that a plow on the front?

If so, what would you need a snow plow in Cuba for?

It's a crying shame these guys were sent back.

You can tell there was some real engineering going on here.

Good looking truck too. Do you think that maybe they loved the truck so much that they wanted to keep it in America?

And when they sank it, I'll bet the refugees felt like they lost a friend.

[Blood of Tyrants]

They have to keep those cars running, there have been no replacement cars for the average citizen since Castro took over.

[Rummyfan]

That these resourceful people were repatriated to Cuba is a crime. Anyone with the ingenuity to build this 'boat' and the guts to go out on the open sea on it deserve to be let into the country!

[IYAS9YAS]

Yep, I have a '51 Chevy 3100 (1/2 ton). Good old truck. I know farmers in my area that still use them to haul crops.

[IYAS9YAS]

The wipers sucked, literally. They were vacuum driven.

Tell me about it. Speed up, they slow down, slow down, they speed up...it's a riot in a downpour.

[IYAS9YAS]

We updated the 6-volt to 12-volts. Horn really sounds funny because it's still the old 6-volt. Put a 1958 235 in it for oil pressure (216 had a splash system that wouldn't get oil to the piston wrist pins at speed). Other than that, she's as she was 52 years ago.

Wife loves the truck, but we do really need seat belts in it. Got a little one on the way and I haven't let her drive or ride in it since she got preggers. That truck'll be around when Junior needs a driving lesson.

It's perfect for teaching standard transmissions. Get them used to the clutch with the "granny" gear. It'll learn him real quick on the gas/clutch combo too (touchy accellerator). GRIN!

[IYAS9YAS]

True. I read in National Geographic a few years back about mechanics who kept their vehicles running by making parts out of anything they could. Coffee can piston rings and so forth.

[Itchen]

Move over "Junkyard Wars" You got nothing on this talented group. I say let them stay also... for most original vehicle adaption in an illegal entry attempt.

[farmguy]

A nine window cab version no less

[Cincinatus' Wife]

They sunk the truck. I wonder where the greens are. What about all that danger to sea life?

[FreeInWV]

It's perfect for teaching standard transmissions.

That's just downright mean. When junior gets out in the real world, he won't be able to find the gearshift or the starter button. LOL!

[Blood of Tyrants]

Lisa Douglas head gaskets?

[azhenfud]

I went from the 6 to 12 too. Mine was a '51 Ford truck with a 65 hp flathead sporting two waterpumps. I never could get the thing to be reliable until I twelved it. My father-in-law showed me how to add a lug into a 12v battery (a lagscrew stud screwed thru the hull top into the plates below) to pull six for lights, horn, etc. and use the 12 only for the starter. The truck had a 6:17(?) rearend (six lugs) and would average abt. 8 1/2 to 10 mpg.

I replaced the wood in the body with Juniper - but it proved to be much too soft.

The guy that bought her wrecked it within a year.

[azhenfud]

Did you see the USCG fire on the thing? They shot about two dozen projectiles into the water with only a very few hitting it. Poor marksmanship - yet effective with the couple that did hit home.

[Catspaw]

I was really disappointed when the USCG sunk it. It should've been towed to Key West & put on display.

[Luis Gonzalez]

"I'll bet the refugees felt like they lost a friend."

These men were sent back to Cuba last weekend.

All of Miami feels like we've lost a friend...in the White House.

[discostu]

Looks like Junkyard Wars is finally being seen in Cuba. Good for these guys, Bowser is a good guy to steal designs from.

[discostu]

Junkyard Wars, that design is right out of season 2, only the Moshers used a Land Rover (all Mosher designs seemed to start with a Land Rover).

[IYAS9YAS]

Hey, that's how my Daddy taught me...

Yeah, by the time he gets old enough to learn, it'll probably be illegal to drive it. Oh well, nothing like a little civil disobedience.

As far as the starter button goes, it's to the right of the gas pedal. Get in, turn the key on and hit the gas pedal a few times, then press both starter and gas at the same time. I've had people freak out when I talk to them (both hands on the wheel) and the truck just starts (apparently by itself)...what a riot. There was another car (Buick, I think) that actually had the starter button under the gas pedal.