Seatrade-Maritime: Container ship fired on in Hormuz, heavy damage to bridge

A container ship has been fired upon without warning by an Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) gunboat without warning.

The UKMTO said the incident took place 15 nm northeast of Oman in the Strait of Hormuz at 03:55 hrs UTC.

“The Master of a Container Ship reported that the vessel was approached by 1 IRGC gun boat, no VHF challenge that then fired upon the vessel which has caused heavy damage to the bridge,” a UKMTO warning said.

Maritime security firm Vanguard said the container ship was Liberia-flagged and that the Master said the vessel had been informed it had permission to transit the Strait.

UKMTO said that no fires or environmental impact had been reported and all the crew were reported to be safe.  

Based on the location of the vessel it is likely to be the Liberia-flagged Epaminondas owned by Technomar Shipping and operated by MSC according to Pole Star Global’s PurpleTrac database. The vessel had its AIS turned off until around 04:30 hrs UTC.

Epaminondas was one of six MSC vessels reported by Linerlytica to have managed to sail through the strait with their AIS switched off. However, at the time of the of Linerlytica report on 21 April the vessel’s position was unknown as its AIS transponder was switched off.