Seafarer update on the Strait of Hormuz

We continue to remember seafarers caught up in the conflict in the Gulf area and the Strait of Hormuz. The maritime threat environment, per JMIC report, across region remains critical. The duelling blockades of the Strait of Hormuz continue. A small number of ships are transiting, but the challenge of potential renewed tension remains high.

Industry groups ICS, BIMCO, INTERCARGO, INTERTANKO, IMCA, and OCIMF have worked together to produce guidance aimed at assisting ships in transiting the Strait of Hormuz. The document (20 May) complements the Best Management Practices Maritime Security (BMP MS) and is intended to support voyage-specific threat and risk assessment. Section 5.3 Crew and Crewing has these recommendations:

• Assess and confirm crew readiness, taking into account fatigue, welfare and psychological conditions and ensure compliance with applicable MLC and safety obligations.
• Consider disembarking non-essential personnel (trainees, cadets, shore workers, service engineers, riding squads, etc.) prior to transit.
• Ensure crew are aware of available support (BMP-MS Annex B helplines).
• Ensure any minimum crewing levels are tested and have sufficient redundancy to accommodate contingency situations and watchkeeping requirements.
• Carefully plan fatigue mitigation and rest hours management for the transit.
• Fatigue, psychological stress and other human factors should be treated as critical risk multipliers for all identified hazards, particularly during prolonged high-threat operations, as they may reduce the quality of situational awareness and the effective use of available information, with consequent impacts on communication and decision-making.

Other news:

• The Washington Post (May 19): The crew members had huddled on the cargo ship’s bridge to cast a final vote: Should they risk the perilous six-hour journey, made treacherous by mines and Iranian attacks? Although the path was closed to most international traffic, there was no way out but through. Their worst fears came to pass: As the vessel navigated the Strait of Hormuz, it met with a hail of bullets that shattered windows and pockmarked it with dents. … Before each of the five votes the sailors wound up holding ahead of their passage, the captain printed and handed out copies of letters from the Greek shipping company managing the vessel, urging them in increasingly strident terms to go for it, and expressing what sailors, some paid as little as a few hundred dollars a month, described as “great disappointment” at their refusal, according to two seafarers who took part.
• Financial Times (16 May): Seafarers understand and feel for each other. At the same times on every ship, watches are changed, meals eaten, stores counted, decks washed, fears and longing nursed in cabins. Sailors say that only the Mission to Seafarers, the sea priests found in major ports, really understand their lives, their griefs and losses and needs. The Mission has priests in the Gulf ports who are in daily touch with crews in the Strait of Hormuz. One agreed to answer my questions on condition of anonymity; everyone is scared of anyone being identified.
• Tradewinds (14 May) Seafarers have lodged the first insurance claims for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) after months of being stranded under fire in the Middle East Gulf. The claims are not limited to seafarers on the 34 vessels that have been struck but reflect the sustained stressful conditions across the region, according to Lloyd’s Market Association (LMA), which represents underwriters.
• Reuters (20 May) Late on May 10, screens lit up with the icon for the Agios Fanourios I. But as the tanker passed Hormuz Island, it was stopped by Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps speedboats, according to an Iranian official. The IRGC fighters patrolling the strait, who had initially let the vessel through, now ordered the ship to halt. The Iranian official said there was a suspicion of smuggled cargo and they wanted to inspect the ship. Several hours later, the vessel received Iranian authorisation to continue, turning what is typically a five-hour transit through the strait into a two-day ordeal. “Once we were informed Agios passed Hormuz, we breathed a sigh of relief,” said one of the people monitoring the journey.