Two Hellfires into a merchant ship

At 07:15 UTC on Tuesday 11 August the master of a container ship in the Gulf of Oman reported an incident involving military forces to United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO), the Royal Navy cell that merchant captains signal when something happens to them at sea. Advisory 109-26 named no vessel, established no cause and recorded no casualties or damage ¹. The crew reported first, and knew least.

Hours later US Central Command (CENTCOM), the American military command covering the Middle East, said what had happened to him. A US Navy MH-60, a helicopter flown from warships, had put two Hellfire missiles into the engine room of the Panamanian-flagged M/V Vela Nova, disabling her steering gear. On CENTCOM's account the vessel ignored warnings and tried to evade the blockade of Iranian ports. Its statement did not address crew casualties ^{2 3}.

Those are two accounts of one incident, not two incidents. PortNews identified the container ship in Advisory 109-26 as the Vela Nova, about 71 nautical miles off the Pakistani coast near Gwadar, a distance that is PortNews's own and not in the advisory ⁴. The advisory first classified her as a tanker before correcting to container ship, which is the measure of what a first wartime report is worth. CENTCOM's running count since 14 July stands at 55 vessels redirected, three disabled and two boarded, against 49 redirected and two disabled a week earlier . The tally is climbing in the column that costs a charterer a delay, and it has now moved once in the column that costs an owner a ship.

A naval blockade of another state's ports is an act of war in customary law, and Washington has published no Security Council authority for this one. The Administration's answer is that Iran closed an international strait first and set six political conditions for reopening it . Set the helicopter beside what Donald Trump said the same day: "We totally control the strait of Hormuz. We have control over it. Nobody else. Only us." ⁵ Mohebbi, a spokesman for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), told Mehr that the United States has no warship left in the Persian Gulf ⁶; the Associated Press counts fifteen or more US warships and two aircraft carriers in the adjoining Arabian Sea ⁷.