THE VOYAGES OF OLIVER NORTH’S VESSELS

April 28, 1986: Iranian-born California businessman Albert Hakim, acting at the direction of Lt. Col. Oliver L. North, purchases the Danish ship Veralil for 2.5 million Danish crowns, or about $312,500. The owner of record is a dummy Panamanian firm, Dolmy Business Inc.

May 5: Hakim changes the ship’s name to the Erria and registers it in Panama. At roughly this time, the Copenhagen shipping firm Queen Shipping ApS contracts to finance and manage the Erria under Hakim’s direction, with expenses to be repaid later.

July 10: The Erria docks at Szczecin, Poland and loads 158 tons of AK-47 rifles, hand grenades and ammunition paid for by Energy Resources Inc., another Panamanian firm with links to the Swiss firm Compagnie de Services Fiduciaires, fiscal agent for a number of firms linked to the Iran arms deals.

July 19: The Erria docks at Setubal, Portugal and takes on 200 tons of Portuguese munitions, including 14 tons of land mines, paid for by Energy Resources. It departs, saying it is bound to Yemen.

Aug. 15 to Sept. 8: The Erria returns twice to Setubal, claiming it needs to repair engine and propeller damage. It first declares it is bound for Puerto Barrios, Guatemala, then for Cherbourg, France.

Sept. 12: Queen Shipping charters a second vessel, the Iceland Saga, in Flossing Roads, Netherlands and orders it to sail to Cherbourg.

Sept. 13: The Erria docks in Cherbourg, unloads its entire 358-ton cargo of munitions and leaves empty a week later, bound for Cyprus.

Sept. 14: The Iceland Saga docks at Cherbourg, loads the Erria’s 358-ton cargo and leaves six days later, saying it is bound for Puerto Barrios.

Oct. 1: The congressional ban on U.S. military aid to Nicaraguan rebels expires.

Oct. 8: The Iceland Saga docks at the U.S. Army’s main East Coast munitions depot, at Sunny Point, N.C., and unloads 268 tons of arms. It unloads another 90.3 tons of ammunition for the Defense Department in nearby Wilmington. Its charter contract with Queen Shipping now ended, it leaves empty for Quebec and other business.

Jan. 12, 1987: With the Iran- contras affair under U.S. investigation, the Erria returns to the Danish port of Korsor. Its eight months of covert operations have cost Queen Shipping upwards of $500,000.

Feb. 12: A Danish court orders the Erria seized in a dispute between Queen Shipping and Albert Hakim over $200,000 in debts from the ship’s operations.