The Daily View: Eternity C and Magic Seas: shipping and marine insurance in shock
ONE marine underwriter I spoke to today described the Eternity C (IMO: 9588249) casualty as “a shocker”. And he is indisputably right.
The Greece-owned bulk carrier was struck by a Houthi missile attack on Monday. So far, four of the 25 people on board are confirmed dead, with a further five still missing. Another six are being held by the Yemeni rebel faction.
The incident follows an earlier assault on another Greek bulker, Magic Seas (IMO: 9736169), on Sunday. Luckily, everybody on that ship is safe and accounted for.
The Houthis commenced their campaign against merchant tonnage in November 2023, ostensibly in solidarity with the Palestinian side in the Gaza conflict, and paused it in December 2024.
The onslaught now seems to have resumed. To date, their activities have targeted around 100 vessels that Lloyd’s List Intelligence knows about — and probably more that we don’t — sinking four of them and seizing a fifth.
But it is impossible to detect even the slightest leverage on the actions of Benjamin Netanyahu.
The geographical location of Yemen leaves the Houthis ideally placed to prey on one of the planet’s key waterways for ships that use the Suez Canal either way.
Owners of more valuable tonnage, particularly boxships, have given the Red Sea a swerve of late. They have tended to reroute round the Cape of Good Hope, even if that takes longer and costs more in fuel.
For those who insist on transits, protection is available from war risk insurers. But perhaps I should qualify that by adding “most of the time”.
As we report today, a big-name insurer declined to provide cover for Eternity C, despite being the vessel’s usual war risk insurer.
They were absolutely within their rights to do so, of course. Underwriters have no duty to insure if the risk doesn’t stack up as a commercial proposition.
It is unclear where the bill lands, but it may well be with operator Cosmoship Management.
Meanwhile, Vessel Protect, another firm, is thought to be facing a $40m bill for the total loss of Magic Seas.
It’s fair to say the mood within the London marine insurance market is jumpy right now. We hear that premiums are up to around 1% of hull value, an increase from 0.4% last week.
That outlay equates to hundreds of thousands of dollars in most cases, and could reach over a million for some. And remember, that’s per voyage.
But underwriters sit behind their desks on dry land. It is seafarers that are on the frontline.
David Osler
Insurance editor, Lloyd’s List
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