Canadian sailors had limited to no experience in boarding potentially hostile ships at sea when they embarked on their mission to the Persian Gulf in August 1990. Yet this was to be one of their primary roles. Their British and American allies had marines and others specially armed for and trained in hailing foreign vessels and boarding them. Canadian sailors did the bulk of their training as they crossed the Atlantic from Halifax. They were understandably concerned as the three ships pulled into port at Manama, Bahrain’s capital city, before assuming their seaborne duties. During the stopover, headquarters staff assured them they had nothing to worry about. “The Brits and the Americans are saying ‘don’t worry about it, we rarely do boardings; we never do a boarding in rough seas;...