Coast Guard detains 19 Cubans after vessel runs aground

MIAMI (CNN) -- Coast Guard officials said Saturday they were investigating a Cuban ship that ran aground several hundred yards off Marquesas Keys, a ring of small islands about seven miles west of Key West.

The Coast Guard apprehended 19 Cubans who had waded to the islands, and were talking with four more who remained on the 70-foot vessel, said Petty Officer Roger Krass, of the Coast Guard's District 7 headquarters, in Miami.

The vessel -- a freighter or a fishing boat -- refloated itself after the tide came in and was anchored off the Keys, the Coast Guard said.

The Coast Guard was investigating reports that the vessel had been hijacked from Cuba.

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