L.A. Nomad hostage

The L.A. Nomad hostage was a hostage situation when a group of criminals held the passengers and crew of the ferryboat L.A. Nomad.

Background
Some of the events that happened that lead up to the situation are as shown.


 * 1972: The car ferry L.A. Nomad begins operating for the Los Angeles Ferry Company.
 * 1974: The group that would soon perpetrate the incident, the "Free-Thinking Group" is formed.
 * 1978: The group comes under fire due to their "radical" nature.
 * 1979: American politician, Edd Albinson becomes a target for the group when he condemned the group during a rally saying "-in regard to the 'Free-Thinking Group' I personally say that their ideas are dystopian and the opposite of our American Dream."
 * 1980: The group learns that Edd Albinson and a couple other of their political enemies are inbounded for the Vlokozu Union for political relations onboard the car ferry, L.A. Nomad,

Before and during the boarding
At 7:00 AM on March 25th 1980, the L.A. Nomad departs Los Angeles inbound for the Vlokozu Union with Edd and other politicians onboard along with 293 other passengers and crew, about twenty minutes later, six members of the Free-Thinking Group rent a small speedboat secretly carrying guns with them (however most are unloaded) around 7:45 AM, the Nomad's second officer named Stephen Albertson alerts the crew of an approaching speedboat whose crew has weapons, immediately sensing the danger the crew ordered everyone inside as the crew tried to fight them off using firehoses, however by 8:00 the six men had boarded and searched for the politicians which was unsuccessful as when realizing what the politicians were dealing with, they sneaked away with some other passengers into the engine room, the men announced on a TV camera that was onboard when the leader, Ian Orville, made the hostage offer to all vessels nearby, a transcript of this message is provided below: " Ladies and Gentlemen, I come to you today aboard the car ferry, Nomad, me and my men have been able to capture this ferry and everyone aboard it, we are doing this to protect the image of our group, if you want your people back, a sum of one million dollars must be payed in the next 50 hours or else everyone onboard will be killed, Thank You " - Ian Orville, March 25th 1980

The first vessel to respond was a fishing trawler called the Sea of Eden who alerted the coast guard who notified the military, now the thing is that the military was not going to pay a million dollars, yet they were not going to let almost 300 people die either, in a matter of hours they came up with a plan, they were going to pose like they were going to transfer the money via the escort cruiser, the USS King County, and when the men were onboard they would arrest them, the plan was put in motion and after the men agreed to the deal, the King County was travelling toward the L.A. Nomad's location.

The recapturing
At 5:32 AM on March 26th, 1980, the USS King County approached the ferry where the six men were on deck waiting for the money, however then the men realized that this was a trick they retreated and even tried to open fire on the cruiser injuring eight people onboard, thankfully the vessel still got close enough for ten soldiers to capture and arrest the six men, the L.A. Nomad was soon towed back to Los Angeles a couple hours later.

Afterwards
The Free Thinking Group was disbanded shortly after the incident and the six perpetrators were arrested and then sentenced from thirty to thirty-five years in prison with a chance of parole, the group's leader Ian Orville was the last one to get out of prison in April of 2015, the L.A. Nomad after the incident was drydocked for two weeks until the end of the trial before reentering service until 1996 where the vessel was then sold to Francisco Lines who then revamped the vessel into a cruise ship and changed its name to the Oakland Nomad where it still serves to this day, along with the Sea of Eden who kept its original name and is still serving of the Los Angeles coast.