On 17 May 1973, the British trawlers left the Icelandic waters, only to return two days later when they were escorted by British frigates. The naval deployment was codenamed Operation Dewey. Hawker Siddeley Nimrod jets flew over the contested waters and notified British frigates and trawlers of the whereabouts of Icelandic patrolships. Icelandic statesmen were infuriated by the entry of the Royal Navy and considered to appeal to the UN Security Council or call for Article 5 of the NATO Charter to be implemented. According to Frederick Irving, US ambassador to Iceland at the time, Icelandic prime minister Ólafur Jóhannesson demanded that the US send jets to bomb the British frigates. There were major protests in Reykjavík on 24 May 1973. All the windows of the British embassy in Reykjavík were broken.
