23APR

Hormuz transits crash to three as blackout extends

1 min read

08:02UTC

Windward logged only three Hormuz transits on 19 April, the lowest since the blockade began, alongside seven Very Large Crude Carriers (VLCCs) clustered near Chabahar with combined 14 million barrel capacity. The International Maritime Organization estimates roughly 20,000 mariners and 2,000 ships stranded in the Persian Gulf, with Iran's internet blackout passing 1,296 hours at 1-4 per cent of normal connectivity.

← Back to Pentagon: six months to clear Hormuz mines Jump to analysis ↓

ConflictDeveloping

Key takeaway

Three transits, seven anchored VLCCs, 20,000 stranded mariners and a 1,296-hour blackout mark the operational floor of Day 54.

Windward's maritime intelligence platform logged only three transits through the Strait of Hormuz on 19 April, the lowest daily count since the 13 April blockade began, alongside seven Very Large Crude Carriers (VLCCs) clustered near Chabahar with combined 14 million barrel capacity ¹. The transit floor fell the same day the USS Spruance interdicted the Touska , and continues the cluster pattern Windward documented on 20 April .

The International Maritime Organization estimates roughly 20,000 mariners and 2,000 ships stranded inside the Persian Gulf ². That is the concrete population IMO Secretary-General Dominguez's 17 April UNCLOS invocation was written to cover , and it is the fleet European officers at Northwood are now planning to escort home once a ceasefire trigger fires.

Iran's internet blackout passed 1,296 cumulative hours on Day 54 at roughly 1-4 per cent of normal connectivity ³, extending the 1,224-hour total recorded on Day 52 . The blackout is the longest sustained conflict-era internet restriction in modern history, and it continues even as Araghchi's Foreign Ministry tries to produce a unified Iranian position abroad through diplomats whose own population cannot see what they are negotiating.

Deep Analysis

In plain English

Windward is a maritime intelligence firm that tracks ship movements using satellite data and AIS transponder signals. On 19 April it counted only three ships transiting the Strait of Hormuz, against a normal pre-war daily average of around 135. That is roughly 2% of normal traffic. Seven very large tankers, each capable of carrying about 2 million barrels of oil, were waiting near the Iranian port of Chabahar rather than attempting the strait. Together they represent roughly 14 million barrels of oil sitting idle at sea. The IMO, which is the UN body that oversees international shipping rules, estimates around 20,000 sailors and 2,000 ships are currently stranded in the Persian Gulf with no safe route out. These are people unable to return home, on ships whose owners are paying full operating costs with zero income.

Sources:Windward·GlobalSecurity.org

Mentions:Iran →VLCC →Persian Gulf →Strait of Hormuz →Northwood →USS Spruance →Touska →Strait of Hormuz Toll System →Ministry of External Affairs (India) →Abbas Araghchi →Arsenio Dominguez →International Maritime Organization →Chabahar →Windward →

First Reported In

Update #77 · Pentagon: six months to clear Hormuz mines

Windward· 23 Apr 2026

Read original →

Different Perspectives

International human rights monitors (NetBlocks, IHR, Hengaw)

NetBlocks recorded 1,704 cumulative hours of near-total internet blackout for roughly 90 million Iranians on Day 74, while IHR documented ongoing executions under emergency provisions. These organisations are the only active monitoring windows into a civilian population cut off from the global internet for 71 consecutive days.

UK / France coalition

The Royal Navy confirmed HMS Dragon's Hormuz deployment on its own website on 11 May, converting a press-reported presence into declared force posture; UK and French defence ministers hosted a coalition meeting the same day. Britain and France are now the only named contributors to a Hormuz escort mission all five allies Trump originally asked had declined.

Saudi Aramco / Gulf producers

Saudi Aramco CEO Amin Nasser warned on 11 May that a Hormuz closure could remove 100 million barrels of weekly supply from global markets (roughly 15 million barrels per day for a week), a figure that dwarfs any OPEC+ swing capacity. The warning functions as both a price-floor signal and a public pressure on Washington to protect transit.

Beijing / Chinese Government

China has not publicly acknowledged the four Hong Kong-registered entities designated on 11 May or extended MOFCOM's Blocking Rules cover to HK-domiciled firms. Xi Jinping hosts Trump on 14–15 May having already de-risked state-bank balance sheets via NFRA's quiet loan halt, entering the summit partially compliant before any negotiation.

Tehran / Iranian Government

Foreign Minister Araghchi described Iran's 10-point counter-proposal as 'reasonable and responsible' via spokesman Baqaei on 11 May, and widened the mediator pool by meeting Turkish, Egyptian, and Dutch counterparts in a single day. Tehran is buying procedural runway while Trump's verbal rejection went unmatched by any written US counter.

Trump White House

Trump called the ceasefire 'on massive life support' and dismissed Iran's 10-point counter-proposal as 'a piece of garbage' on 11 May, while departing for Beijing two days later with no signed Iran instrument to show Congress. The verbal maximum and the paper void coexist: the administration is running a legal pressure campaign through Treasury while the president free-lances the rhetoric.