Life and Death Aboard Ships Stranded Near the Strait of Hormuz

On the 19th day that the oil tanker ASP Avana was stuck in the Persian Gulf, its 47-year-old captain, Rakesh Ranjan Singh, died. Singh had boarded the vessel in early February and sailed to the Persian Gulf to load crude. But his journey back to Asia ground to a halt Feb. 28 when U.S. and Israeli forces struck Iran. With no ships allowed to cross the Strait of Hormuz, under threat of attack, his ship was stuck off the coast of Dubai. Singh's family heard on March 18 from the tanker's operating company, Elegant Marine Services, that the captain had suffered a medical emergency. Crew members tried to give him first aid, but to no avail, said Alok Singh, the late captain's brother-in-law. With no air ambulances allowed to fly in to help, the captain was transferred to shore on a speed boat and taken to the Rashid Hospital in Dubai. By then, it was too late. The cause of death, the brother-in-law was told, was cardiac arrest. Elegant Marine Services didn't respond to requests for comment. There are roughly 2,000 ships stuck in the Persian Gulf with more than 20,000 seafarers on them, according to the International Maritime Organization. Most have been stuck on board more than a month, because fewer than 200 ships have managed to slip through the Strait of Hormuz. In normal times, 20% of the world's oil flows through the narrow waterway to global markets, along with critical supplies of natural gas, fertilizer and other cargo shipments. It's unclear when the vital shipping lane will get back to normal. Fresh vegetables and freshwater are running out on many ships, so the sailors are using social media and very-high-frequency marine radios to share survival tips and tactics. Some Chinese crew members have filmed themselves collecting condensate from air-conditioning units to shower and wash laundry. Others have taken to fishing over the side of their tankers, catching tuna, squid and largehead hairtail to cook. Restocking supplies has become difficult -- and expensive. The Port of Fujairah in the United Arab Emirates, where ships usually turn to, has been repeatedly attacked. Companies that provide fresh food to ships are charging more. The going rate for mangos is now $31 for a kilogram, or roughly 2.2 pounds, and oranges are $15 a kilogram for about three large pieces of fruit, according to screenshots of supply price lists reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. Flying in crews and swapping them out remains tough because flights to major crew-change locations, including Dubai, are still relatively scarce and expensive. The International Transport Workers' Federation, a labor union based in London that represents a million seafarers, has received about 1,000 inquiries since the start of the conflict from crew near the strait, asking for support. A growing number report vessels are running out of food, while 200 seafarers wanted help getting off a ship to go home. More than half of the calls have been about pay and other contractual entitlements while in the war zone. "We don't understand how some shipowners are still taking their vessels there, exposing seafarers. It's absolutely unacceptable," said Mohamed Arrachedi, who handles requests from seafarers in the Arab world and Iran for the federation. "Seafarers should be able to go home when they ask for it. They don't want to be heroes." Commercial sailors typically spend six months at sea each year, with some Chinese and Southeast Asian seafarers staying out up to 10 months, without breaks. War has driven up the price of cargoes, and shipowners have been willing to pay hefty raises to seafarers willing to go to the Gulf. Crew staffing companies in China are offering double compensation in some cases, according to job advertisements. A captain can now earn more than $26,000 a month for a journey through the Strait of Hormuz. Pay varies dramatically, depending on the ship-management company and the crew member's seniority level. A boatswain on a merchant ship, who supervises the deck's seamen and manages equipment like ropes and cables, can earn nearly $5,200 a month. Wartime hazard pay is warranted because the dangers are real, several seafarers said. On March 2, crew members on ships anchored near MKD Vyom, a Marshall Islands-flagged oil tanker, heard a conversation crackle to life over the marine VHF radio, between the tanker's captain and an Omani navy ship. "Missile attack. Starboard side," the captain said, according to a recording shared with the Journal. "An explosion inside the engine room." The ship was loaded with 59,463 metric tons of gasoline, and a junior seafarer was dead after the ship, bound for a port of Saudi Arabia, was struck by a remote-controlled boat about 50 miles off the coast of Muscat, Oman, the recording showed. Crew members abandoned the ship and were rescued by another vessel. The body of the dead crew member was left in the engine room because there were no more firefighter suits left, the captain said on the recording. The ship's operator couldn't be reached for comment. The same day, two other commercial ships were hit. At least 10 were hit that week, according to data from Lloyd's List Intelligence. A 30-year-old Chinese seafarer on a vessel waiting to sail into the Persian Gulf describes, night and day, seeing missiles and drones flying overhead. Navtex messages, a form of automated, short-range maritime-safety text broadcasts transmitted directly to ships, communicate which vessels have been attacked or sunk, according to several seafarers and Navtex messages seen by the Journal. Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps frequently calls out to ships via marine VHF to warn them not to cross the strait, according to one 32-year-old Chinese seafarer whose vessel -- carrying liquefied natural gas -- has been stuck 25 nautical miles northwest of Dubai for weeks. A few days ago, he was jolted awake by a loud bang around 5:40 a.m., he said, adding that a nearby ship had thick smoke billowing from it. "I am, of course, scared, but I don't dare to tell my family. I just tell them all is well," he said. The LNG shipowner has repeatedly told the crew to cross the strait, the seafarer said, but the captain and other crew members have all refused. The crew will only proceed, he added, when they get two specific signals: the U.S. must take control of two key islands near Iran and the Iranian navy must explicitly announce over VHF radio that normal traffic through the strait has resumed. Another Chinese worker, a 48-year-old on a ship moving Iranian goods to China, described slipping across the strait in late March after being stuck for three weeks. It required contacting agents in Iran for a safety code and sailing to a designated location near Iran's Larak Island to submit that code to the Revolutionary Guard, who then allowed the vessel to pass. It's now bound for China. "We only proceeded with loading after the entire crew voted in favor of it," he said, "and the shipowner also provided us with a war zone allowance."