Three generations of the Oliver family of Edgartown had sailed their 22-foot Hereshoff Seasons from Mattapoisett on Tuesday, catching three nice bluefish for dinner on the way, when six-year-old Elizabeth Oliver became the center of a confrontation with the U.S. Coast Guard that devolved into a noisy standoff over individual rights, maritime authority and child safety, not to mention the issuing of six violations and numerous threats of legal counteraction.

A Coast Guard cutter with two officers from station Woods Hole on board was in Edgartown Harbor on routine patrol, because someone was playing music nonstop on channel 16, which mariners normally use to call for assistance.

There they saw young Elizabeth on the bow of Seasons and called out on their megaphone for her to be moved to an enclosed area of the boat. Her elders refused. On this much, if little else, all parties agreed.

As the confrontation escalated, Elizabeth climbed down to be replaced at the bow by her grandfather, Daniel Oliver, in a deliberate challenge to the Coast Guard’s contention that the child had been bowriding.

The Coast Guard requested to board the boat, but the Olivers, near their Water street dock, cruised on, telling the officers they could follow if they wished. The officers did, though they required a ride on the harbor master’s boat to navigate to the dock. When they arrived, the Olivers protested they were trespassing and the Edgartown police were called (the police officer stayed on a boat off the dock).

Bowriding can constitute negligent operation, a criminal offense, though there was heated debate on the dock about the interpretation as well as the particulars. The child was wearing a lifejacket and holding the mast and stay, Elizabeth’s father, Drew, and grandfather, both lawyers, pointed out, while Seasons was moving slowly without much traffic. They called the officers’ request arbitrary and challenged them to hold sailors in weekly races to the same standard.

“You are abusing your authority,” Drew Oliver said. “I don’t want my six-year-old being yelled at by a guy who looks like you ... dressed in guns .. because she was doing what everyone does.”

Officer James Alan O’Neill 3rd countered that the Coast Guard would always act in a situation they considered dangerous. “We’re considering a child’s life,” he said, prompting the child’s father to reply: “Outrageous.”

The standoff continued while the Olivers refused to recognize the Coast Guard’s authority to board Seasons for a routine inspection. Drew Oliver told the Gazette about the morning’s catch and sighed, “If I have to sacrifice the fish for individual rights, I will.”

But eventually the prospect of cleaning the blues with his kids became too attractive and he left the two Coast Guard officers on the dock, promising to file a complaint and making clear he did not want them on the boat or the dock.

Yesterday the Coast Guard report was still unavailable, but Lieut. Erik Halvorson confirmed that the Coast Guard, deriving its boarding authority from 14 US Code 89, had issued six violations: not displaying a state vessel number on the hull; not having a certificate of state registration; not having a documentation/official number; not having a sound producing device; not having working navigation or anchor lights; and obstruction of a boarding.