The Liberty's captain, Commander McGonagle, was wounded during the air attack, but

he remained in command on the ship's bridge. He testified, at the Naval Court of Inquiry,
that "about midway during the [air] attack Ensign Lucas was noted on the bridge and at
that time he became my assistant and assisted me in every way possible." Further, he
testified that during "the latter moments of the air attack, it was noted that three high
speed boats were approaching the ship from the northeast on a relative bearing of
approximately 135 [degrees] at a distance of about 15 [nautical] miles. The ship at the
time was still on [westward] course 283 [degrees] true, speed unknown, but believed to
be in excess of five knots." McGonagle "believed that the time of initial sighting of the
torpedo boats...was about 1420" (2:20 PM local time). He testified that the "boats
appeared to be in a wedge type formation with the center boat the lead point of the
wedge. Estimated speed of the boats was about 27 to 30 knots (56 km/h)," and that it
"appeared that they were approaching the ship in a torpedo launch attitude." McGonagle
"told a man from the bridge...to proceed to [machine gun] mount 51 and take the boats
under fire." He then testified: "When the boats reached an approximate range of 2,000
yards, the center boat of the formation was signaling to us. Also, at this range, it appeared
that they were flying an Israeli flag." It was not possible to "read the signals from the
center torpedo boat because of the intermittent blocking of view by smoke and flames."
McGonagle "realized that there was a possibility of the aircraft having been Israeli and
the attack had been conducted in error." So, he "yelled to [the man in] machine gun
[mount] 51 to tell him to hold fire." But the man "fired a short burst at the boats before he
was able to understand" McGonagle's order. At this same time, McGonagle realized that
"machine gun 53 began firing at the center boat," and he observed that its fire was
"extremely effective and blanketed the area and the center torpedo boat." Machine gun
mount 53 was located on the starboard amidships side, behind the pilot house.
McGonagle could not see or "get to mount 53 from the starboard wing of the bridge." So,
he "sent Mr. Lucas around the port side of the bridge, around to the skylights, to see if he
could tell [Seaman] Quintero, whom [he] believed to be the gunner on Machine gun 53,
to hold fire." Lucas "reported back in a few minutes in effect that he saw no one at mount
53." McGonagle expressed that he felt "sure that [the torpedo boat captains] felt that they
were under fire from USS Liberty".[9](pages 37, 38, 39, 40)
Ensign Lucas testified at the Naval Court of Inquiry that he left Liberty's bridge during
the air attack and returned during the torpedo boat attack, before the torpedo hit. While on
the bridge, he assisted Captain McGonagle and wrote entries in the Quartermaster's
notebook. He stated that Liberty was "attempting to get away from the area as fast as
possible, on an approximate course of 000" (north) during the air and torpedo boat attack.
After the torpedo hit, Lucas stated there was "some firing from the patrol boats", and that
the "man in charge of mount 53 [the starboard amidships machine gun], Seaman
Quintero, hollered to me, 'should I fire back?', and I gave him an affirmative on that. This
was before he [Quintero] and the other men in mount 53 had been chased away by the
fire and flames from the motor whaleboat." During a lull in firing from the torpedo boats,
Lucas stated that "it sounded as if [mount 53] was firing at the patrol craft." Captain
McGonagle sent him to tell the men to stop firing, but he found nobody manning the gun.
Lucas speculated that the firing may have been ammunition "cooking off and firing", due
to the nearby whaleboat fire. Additionally, at some point during the torpedo boat attack,
Lucas recalled that a Seaman either volunteered or was ordered to go to the forward

starboard machine gun mount and fired one shot before Captain McGonagle ordered him
to cease fire. At about this same time, "the patrol craft were bearing approximately 160
relative", and one of them was trying to signal via blinking light. Lucas stated that
"smoke from the motor whaleboat almost completely obscured the patrol craft", making it
impossible to read the signal.[9](pages 14, 15, 16, 26, 27)
The Israeli torpedo boats attacked with cannon fire and launched five torpedoes at
Liberty [25]. One hit Liberty on the starboard side forward of the superstructure, creating
a 40 ft (12 m) wide hole in what had been a former cargo hold converted to the ship's
research spaces and killing 25 servicemen.[26] It has been said that the torpedo hit a
major hull frame which absorbed much of the energy; crew members reported that if the
torpedo had missed the frame the Liberty would have split in two. Russian linguist and
Marine Staff Sergeant Bryce Lockwood later commented: "I would never deny that it was
God that kept the Liberty afloat!".[2]
Most of the U.S. deaths and injuries in the incident were caused by the torpedo blast.
According to some witnesses, the torpedo boats then approached Liberty and strafed
crewmen (including damage control parties and sailors preparing life rafts for launch) on
deck. (See disputed details below.)