Source : THE AGE NEWS
From her business overlooking the Elbe River in Hamburg, Germany, Captain Silke Lehmköster is constantly wrestling with the same query: Is it suddenly safe for her to buy five of the container ships that have been stranded in the Persian Gulf to leave via the Strait of Hormuz?
The response was no for almost two decades. Finally, in the early hours of last week, she saw an opportunity and authorized a vessel’s crossing of the peninsula.
One of her ships, the Tema Express, crossed the sea on Monday just before midnight under a fresh sun and with hardly any storm. The ship was the first of its kind to cross the lake since the start of the war, and it then anchored off the coast of Oman, close to Muscat.
Another large business vessels encountered difficulties shortly after the passing. On Wednesday, Egyptian forces seized and seized two European-owned vessels, one of which was attacked by a gunboat without any prior notice. They are being held close to Iran’s beach.
Since March, more than 20 business boats have been attacked in the sea. The attacks began soon after the United States and Israel launched their first strikes on Iran, which sparked the Egyptian military’s response by throttling traffic along the coveted waterway.
Ten sailors have been killed and many others have been hurt in the hits. Around 20 000 team members on some 1600 warships have been stranded in and around the sea, where about one-fifth of the country’s oil had already passed before the battle, because shipping companies are hesitant to navigate these dangerous waters.
Lehmköster, who is the fleet managing director at the transport giant Hapag-Lloyd, reviewed established expert notices on Thursday morning, consulted with cleverness sources, and spoke with seafarers.
Top leaders discussed the escalating dangers for the agency’s boats still stuck close to the sea as reviews continued to flow in about the two seized vessels. The business ships targeted on Wednesday were Iran’s second commercial ships since the start of the war.
The US Navy has taken control of Iranian-flagged boats in the Arabian Sea and Indian Ocean over the past year. US President Donald Trump announced on Thursday that he had instructed the army to destroy any ships that lay mines in the Strait of Hormuz.
In the hallways of Hapag-Lloyd’s six-story headquarters in Hamburg, which are adorned with reminders of the company’s long history, including a nine-foot-long ( 2. 7-meter ) model of the Imperator, a steamer that launched in 1912, employees speak a mix of English and German. The location of the royal Ballindamm boulevard, which is named for European Jewish shipping giant Albert Ballin, who contributed to the creation of what is now known as Hapag-Lloyd into a worldwide conglomerate in the late 1800s and early 1900s. The business is currently the fifth-largest box delivery company in the world.
Workers in the company’s ground-floor businesses chamber used computers to monitor weather conditions and monitor customers on a huge monitor where warships were tracked in real time. Other shipping companies have similar control centers, with the majority of the world’s attention being drawn to that one strait, a strangle point whose impact has become dangerously obvious.
Before granting orders for the other four tankers to proceed, Lehmköster said she would need assurances from the United States and Iran that passage was protected as well as information about how to avoid the naval mine planted in the sea. These assurances have not arrived.
In an interview, Lehmköster stated that the stranded ships have no means of defense and that “you’re basically sending someone unarmed into war.”
Lehmköster declined to comment on the Tema Express’s route across the strait. According to industry analysts, it most likely traveled along a path that most closely resembled the coast of Oman, which some ships have done without Iranian officials ‘ approval, which has resulted in more stringent strait controls.
The decision to send a vessel through the strait is personal for Lehmköster, 39, who herself worked at sea for 15 years, and the responsibility of overseeing ships stranded in a war zone was important.
Around 100 seafarers are stranded on the four Hapag-Lloyd ships, including Ukrainians, Russians, Vietnamese, Sri Lankans, Romanians, Filipinos, and others, all trying to get home, she said.
Staying put can also pose a risk. After shrapnel from an Iranian missile or drone fell on their ship, setting it on fire, the crew of a Hapag-Lloyd ship woke up in the early morning hours of the morning. The ship is in good repair, maneuvering but with difficulty, and no one was hurt.
With events like barbecues, foosball tournaments, karaoke and movie nights, ship captains are attempting to keep seafarers ‘ spirits high. They are keeping up the routine maintenance, lookout, and cargo checks that they do on a regular basis, which include items like furniture, electronics, fruit, and frozen fish and meat.
It’s difficult to assess the risks of crossing the strait, especially from afar, as a result of the conflict between the Iranian and American authorities ‘ imposing rival blockades and traffic restrictions on the Persian Gulf. The strait has been declared open one moment and closed the next during an uneasy ceasefire that is now in its third week.
Other significant shipping companies, such as CMA CGM of France and MSC of Switzerland, have recently moved some ships through the strait. The ships that the Iranians seized this week were MSC’s property or business.
Seven ships stranded in the area have been deemed to be too dangerous for ships to transit by Danish shipping giant Maersk.
” If you are successful, you receive a great reward.”
The economic benefit, especially as oil, gas, and other commodity prices have soared, is worth the risk for some businesses. ” Typically, if you are successful, you get a big reward,” said Jakob Larsen, chief security officer at BIMCO, the largest shipping organization in the world.
The lengthy journey through the Strait of Hormuz can be exhausting even in more serene circumstances.
It has a lot of traffic and is narrow at its narrowest, 21 nautical miles wide. Small fishing boats and oil rigs must be navigated by captains. The heat frequently causes fog in the air.
Captain Alexander Meier, 48, who most recently led ships through the strait for Hapag-Lloyd three years ago, tries to convey a sense of calm to his crews while passing through Iran, he said. The captain should never feel anxious, he said. However, when he succeeds, he always lets out a sigh of relief. If you pass there, there will always be some tension, he said.
Charalampos Kiakotos, a ship captain who has traversed the strait more than a dozen times, claimed it was one of the most challenging passages. He claimed in a call from the Mexican Port of Dos Bocas that being stranded in a war zone would be particularly stressful because of the pressure to transit as quickly as possible while also looking out for the crew members.
Everyone will hold the captain accountable if something goes wrong, and they will claim it was their choice, according to Kiakotos, 45, a worker for a Greek shipping company.
” So I will have the final decision at the end of the day.
