The Adeline-C made waves in Halifax and beyond
asserted
C → make → Halifax
'I fell in love with the boat and I bought it and I've regretted it ever since,' says one-time owner
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owner → fall → it
Journalist Rob Gordon was at the courthouse on Upper Water Street in downtown Halifax one day in 1981 when he overheard a sheriff say something that piqued his interest.
"Oh, we were just on a boat, you know, and we seized a couple of guns and stuff," said one of the sheriffs.
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one → overhear → sheriffs
Gordon, who later retired as a CBC News journalist, was covering courts then for the Chronicle-Herald newspaper.
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who → retire → newspaper
On his lunch break, he headed down to the waterfront to check out the Adeline-C.
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he → head → waterfront
The 32-metre trawler with a maximum width of seven metres had arrived in Halifax on Oct. 31, 1981, and was abandoned by most of the crew.
But it would be years later that the Adeline-C's role in a complex U.S. drug smuggling operation worth as much as $200 million US became fully known.
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role → arrive → operation
Based out of the small coastal city of Newport, R.I., it involved purchasing around 100,000 pounds of marijuana and hash from the Middle East and Far East.
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it → base → East
The operation was financed by a fraudulent bank loan in the Channel Islands that paid for the drugs, ships and manpower needed to run the scheme.
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that → finance → scheme
This Sept. 3, 2013, photo shows Guernsey, one of the Channel Islands in the waters between England and France.
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photo → show → England
A loan was obtained from there due to the territory being an offshore tax haven.
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territory → obtain → ?
Gordon found the ship tied up near Historic Properties.
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ship → find → Properties
On board were two shady characters who had joined the ship in Florida and travelled north with it.
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who → join → it
Gordon knew them and they welcomed him aboard to have a look around.
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they → know → look
Underneath the floorboards of the engine room were rolled-up marine charts for places like the Mediterranean, Florida and Lebanon, a major player in global hash production in the 1980s.
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charts → roll → 1980s
"This is a dope smuggling ship and they're hiding the charts," Gordon realized.
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Gordon → smuggle → charts
He later interviewed U.S., Canadian and British police to piece together Adeline-C's origins for some stories in the Chronicle-Herald.
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He → interview → Herald
Retrofitted to smuggle drugs
Other features advantageous for drug smuggling that had been retrofitted on the 1963 trawler were high-capacity fuel tanks and winches, elevators and cranes that made it easier for the mother ship to carry out hefty cargo transfers to smaller ships at sea.
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ship → retrofit → sea
The smaller vessels then smuggled the drugs into ports along the East Coast, targeting the U.S. and possibly Canada.
uncertain
vessels → smuggle → U.S.
A spokesperson for the Halifax sheriff's department told the Toronto Star in 1982 he was perplexed by the situation.
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he → tell → situation
"She has a 1,000-horse diesel [engine] aboard and that would drive her right smart through anything," he said.
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he → have → anything
"No one in his right mind would walk away from something like that.
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one → walk → that
But abandoning a valuable ship was just a minor business expense for the people who owned the Adeline-C.
"What they were making was so much more," said Gordon.
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Gordon → abandon → What
The Federal Court ordered that the Adeline-C be sold in late 1982, with the sale planned for January 1983, but the Toronto Star reported another round of bids might take place because the highest original bid was $76,000 "from a bargain-hunting local fisherman."
uncertain
bid → order → fisherman
An article in the Sept. 14, 1986, Chicago Tribune included a photo of Robert Christopher (Chris) Murray, the alleged mastermind behind the drug operation.
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article → include → operation
He was never tried for his alleged role in the drug ring because he fled.
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he → try → ring
Ultimately, its buyer was a Dutch man named Erik van Veenen.
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buyer → name → ?
At that point in his life, he was living in Alaska, running a trading post and a hunting business.
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he → live → post
After a ship purchase in Nova Scotia fell through, a lawyer involved with the failed transaction tipped him off about the Adeline-C.
After seeing the ship and the equipment on it, he figured it was worth a million dollars.
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it → fall → it
"So I fell in love with the boat and I bought it and I've regretted it ever since," said van Veenen, now 82 and living in Germany.
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Veenen → fall → Germany
He believes he paid around $100,000 US for it.
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he → believe → it
Two people walk hand in hand on April 8, 2020, in Newport, R.I.
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people → walk → Newport
The drug scheme was based out of the small coastal city.
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scheme → base → city
One day as he worked to get the ship ready to go back to Alaska, he pulled up the floorboards in the engine room, much like Gordon had done.
"I came across this big, blue logbook, all handwritten with the complete description of the journey of the boat: Amsterdam to Gibraltar to Cairo through the Suez Canal to Djibouti and then on past Singapore," said van Veenen.
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Veenen → work → Singapore
He believes the ship wasn't just into drug running, but was used for transporting weapons as part of the Iran-Contra affair, in which the U.S. made a deal to secretly sell weapons to Iran in exchange for the release of hostages being held by the Iranian-backed group Hezbollah in Lebanon.
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U.S. → believe → Lebanon
While conducting interviews and reading through court documents and dozens of newspaper articles to research this story, the reporter did not come across any references to the Iran-Contra affair.
The Gesmer I, formerly the Adeline-C, is shown in St. John's Harbour in 1992.
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I → conduct → 1992
When van Veenen left Halifax, his plan was to sail the ship south along the Atlantic coastline, cross through the Panama Canal and then head north to Alaska, but financial troubles killed the plans.
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troubles → leave → plans
The Adeline-C was costly to run and a sale of his trading post soured, leaving him financially squeezed.
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sale → run → him
At some point, he'd changed the name of the ship to Thackeray C, in honour of his then wife.
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he → change → wife
Van Veenen said he posted the trawler for sale in a boating magazine, and the next buyer was based in Quebec.
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buyer → say → Quebec
By October 1984, the Adeline-C — now operating as the Thackeray C — was briefly accused of being the mother ship in a high-seas transfer of arms destined for use by the Irish Republican Army.
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C → operate → Army
…and 38 more, not listed.
The Aporia
