Wobbles states that under Howard, navy ships were initially directed to use all means short of sinking boats to force them to turn back.

In the case of SIEV4 (of Children Overboard fame), they used loudhailer warnings, then repeated volleys of cannon and machinegun fire across the bow, then dangerous close-quarters blocking maneouvres, and then aggressive boarding actions by armed assault teams.

To obtain an insight of the actual behavior of the asylum seekers refer to the Senate Select Committee investigation entitled A Certain Maritime Incident.

The behavior of asylum seekers is outlined in Appendix 1 entitled The Pattern of Conduct.

http://www.aph.gov.au/Senate/Committee/maritime_incident_ctte/report/f04.htm

An example:

SIEV 12

SIEV 12 was intercepted by HMAS Leeuwin 30nm north-west of Ashmore Island on December 16, and boarded before sunrise on December 17.

The boarding initially proceeded calmly, before a group of young men started ‘yelling and screaming and inciting others to resist us’. According to one of the boarding party,

I saw several of the young males destroy the boom that was being used as a support for a tarpaulin on the foredeck of the SIEV. They then proceeded to tear apart the tarpaulin and they attempted to throw part of it over the side. I saw one of the [unauthorised arrivals] threaten two members of the boarding team with a piece of this boom. At the same time I saw flames coming from the fore part of the vessel. The ship’s boarding party quickly extinguished the fire. I then saw several [unauthorised arrivals] dropping paper, cardboard and other items into the forward hold and noted they were attempting to ignite these items. I also saw several [unauthorised arrivals] freely jumping over the side of the SIEV whilst wearing lifejackets