Junid. The ship was captained by Eric Harcis, a British citizen from Orkney, Scotland. Pre-raid sabotage rumors The IDF or the Mossad may have sabotaged three of the ships before the raid. According to the National Post, Israeli deputy defense minister Matan Vilnai hinted that Israel had exhausted covert means of stalling the vessels. He said: "Everything was considered. I don't want to elaborate beyond that, because the fact is there were not up to 10, or however many ships were [originally] planned." A senior IDF officer hinted to the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee that someone had tampered with some of the vessels to halt them far from the Gaza or Israeli coast. According to UPI press coverage, the officer alluded to "grey operations" against the flotilla and said that no such action had been taken against the Mavi Marmara out of fear that the vessel might be stranded in the middle of the sea, endangering the people on board. Israel was accused of sabotaging activist ships in the past but no evidence has been found to back up these claims. Three ships – the Rachel Corrie, the Challenger I and the Challenger II – were damaged or malfunctioned. While the Challenger I continued, the Challenger II turned back halfway through the journey and Rachel Corrie docked for repairs in Malta. Greta Berlin of the Free Gaza Movement said someone may have tampered with electric wires. Interception and boarding The Israeli military sent three warnings to the Rachel Corrie asking it dock in Ashdod, change course, or face a naval takeover. The ship was shadowed by two Israeli Navy vessels, and its radar was jammed. After trailing the Rachel Corrie for several hours, Israeli commandos boarded the ship from speedboats at around noon on 5 June 2010, in international waters around off the Gaza Strip, Preliminary reports indicated that there was no resistance. The boarding involved about 20 combat soldiers. All the crew were arrested by these forces as reported by veteran war correspondent Ron Ben-Yishai. The commandos forced the ship to sail to the Israeli port of Ashdod, where the crew were taken into custody by immigration authorities. Greta Berlin, a spokeswoman for the Free Gaza group, said the takeover was "another outrage to add to the nine murdered" and denied an Israeli statement that troops had been invited aboard. The Gaza-bound vessel was addressed as Linda