India advises against crew deployments through strait
In the early hours of Sunday, Herambh Karmarkar’s wife received two messages from her seafarer husband, who was aboard a ship that had just safely crossed the Strait of Hormuz. “Great!” she replied, from her home in Pune, India, according to a screenshot of the messages seen by The Wall Street Journal. Before dawn broke, an Iranian missile and drones struck the rear of the GFS Galaxy, a containership that had left the port of Jebel Ali in the United Arab Emirates, setting it ablaze nine nautical miles off the coast of Oman.
Karmarkar, a 30-year-old third engineer, was trapped in the engine room when it caught fire, according to a U.S. official familiar with the attack. Crew members fought the fire but eventually abandoned ship, according to Vanguard, a maritime security company. Karmarkar’s family later learned he had died. One of 24 crew members aboard went missing. Vevek Tandoan, Karmarkar’s father-in-law, said the ship’s manager, Dubai-based Global Feeder Shipping, sent the family condolences midweek and was coordinating with the Omani navy and Indian Consulate in Dubai to return Karmarkar’s remains.
At least 17 seafarers have died since the war began, according to the International Maritime Organization. The current phase of the conflict has concentrated in Persian Gulf waters, with supremacy over navigation the focal point for attacks from both sides. Iran says it retains sole charge of the flow of ships. The U.S. has responded by reimposing a naval blockade on Iranian ports.
Iran has attacked commercial vessels on and off throughout the conflict, often when it felt its influence over the Gulf was being challenged, according to the Journal. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has mostly used one-way drones or other short-range projectiles launched from fastboats or from the coastline. Those caused damage but often resulted in no injuries or fatalities. Some ships, such as the Singapore-flagged cargo ship Ever Lovely and the Panama-flagged crude oil tanker Kiku, continued sailing after being hit.
The IRGC’s use of cruise missiles in recent days has increased the damage. “The recent U.S. attacks on IRGC coastal targets has made it more difficult to launch drones,” said Chris Long, head of intelligence at maritime security firm Neptune P2P. But “cruise missiles can be launched from further inland,” he said. Satellite images show fastboats have been hit hard by U.S. attacks.
Two cruise missiles were used by the Revolutionary Guard in attacks on two Emirati oil tankers over the weekend — the Mombasa B and Al Bahyah, operated by a subsidiary of Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. — causing at least one fatality and 14 injuries, according to the IMO. The UAE Defense Ministry confirmed the missiles were used on those vessels. A cruise missile was also used on Karmarkar’s ship.
The strikes’ modus operandi was unusual, according to one current and one former regional security official cited by the Journal. Iran’s anti-ship cruise missiles are generally long-range, able to strike across 217 miles while remaining accurate. But they are also among the costliest weapons in Iran’s arsenal to produce, and their solid fuel relies on chemicals imported from China that Iran possesses only in limited quantities, the officials said.
The U.S. on Wednesday struck an Iranian vessel steaming toward Iran’s oil hub on Kharg Island — the first American hit on a commercial ship since a memorandum of understanding in mid-June — and boarded another tanker on Thursday as part of the blockade.
Strait of Hormuz traffic slowed to a trickle. The number of transits fell to eight on Thursday, the lowest level in three weeks, according to ship-tracking firm Kpler. Half of those vessels were Iranian-flagged, and all but one went through an Iranian-controlled route that swings near the country’s coastline. By comparison, an average of 30 vessels a day crossed the strait last week using a combination of routes, still below the roughly 130 crossings a day before the war.
Ship crewing companies have been paying seafarers premiums for working in the Gulf, often doubling pay to pass through the strait. But with thousands of sailors stuck in the Gulf for months and the death toll mounting, some are reaching a breaking point, according to Dimitris Maniatis, founder and chief executive officer of maritime risk company Marisks. “It’s not about money anymore or some higher callings,” he said.
India’s Directorate General of Maritime Administration, the government body responsible for seafarer welfare, advised companies Wednesday not to deploy Indian crew members on vessels going through the Strait of Hormuz until further orders. India is home to thousands of seafarers who work on ships around the world, often for months at a time.
On the GFS Galaxy, the fire was contained to the engine room and a team of firefighters was sent to extinguish it Monday, according to a person familiar with the ship’s situation. The vessel was then towed toward Khor Fakkan in the UAE. Global Feeder Shipping did not respond to a request for comment.