Seatrade-Maritime: Three container ships come under fire from Iran in Hormuz

A total of three container ships are reported to have come under attack in the Strait of Hormuz by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in the space of a few hours.

In addition to a container ship Epaminondas that suffered heavy damage to its bridge after coming under from the IRGC 15 nm northeast of Oman the box ships Eurphoria and MSC Francesca are reported to have come under fire in the Strait. All three vessels are linked to MSC either through charter or ownership.

Vanguard Tech reported that the Panama-flagged MSC Francesca had been fired on around 6 nm off the coast of Iran while transiting southbound through the Strait.

“The vessel was hailed on VHF by the IRGC and instructed to drop anchor. The Master stated that the incident caused damage to the hull and accommodation,” it said.

Iran’s Fars news agency reported that the IRGC Navy said it has seized Epaminondas and MSC Francesca and guided the vessels to its coast. AIS tracking shows both vessels largely stationary a few miles west of the Iranian port city of Sirik. IRGC Navy Command said the two vessels endangered maritime security by operating without the necessary authorisation and manipulating navigation systems. 

In a third incident the UKMTO said in an alert, “A master of an outbound cargo ship reports having been fired upon and is now stopped in the water. Crew are safe and accounted for. There is no reported damage to the vessel.”

The vessel was 8 nm west of Iran at the time of the attack at 06:38 hrs UTC. According to maritime security firm Vanguard Tech the vessel involved was Panama-flagged Eurphoria. According to Pole Star Global’s PurpleTrac database the beneficial owner of the Eurphoria is MSC.

Based on AIS tracking the vessel has now resumed to sailing in the Gulf of Oman. 

As with the Epaminondas and the MSC Francesca were two 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 Epaminondas and the MSC Francesca positions were unknown as their AIS transponders were switched off.

With the surge in attacks on vessels in the Strait the UKMTO warned, “UKMTO is aware of high levels of activity in the SoH area and encourages vessels to report any suspicious activity.”