From here to Eternity C

THE modern iteration of the Middle East hostage drama commenced with the capture of 66 Americans at the US embassy in Tehran in 1979 and the seizures of Terry Waite, John McCarthy and Brian Keenan in Lebanon in the following decade.

The crises continue to this day, with the abduction of 257 people from Israel by Hamas in October 2023, with 50 still under lock and key. It is almost certain some of them will be sent back in a body bag.

All these incidents rightly received huge publicity in the mass media, routinely dominating newspaper front pages and leading television news bulletins.

But unfortunately it falls to Lloyd’s List as a specialist shipping website to draw attention to the latest episode, with the Houthis holding 10 seafarers and a security operative from bulk carrier Eternity C.(IMO: 9588249).

There is no widespread public outrage here. It’s not as if we are talking about 11 middle-class European tourists, after all, in which case uproar would know no bounds, and probably accompanied by renewed bombing campaigns to placate revenge-hungry electorates.

On the upside, at least we know they are alive, which is more than can be said for four of their colleagues, killed in the onslaught on their vessel.

This is because the survivors were forced to star in a grotesque six-minute propaganda video on behalf of the Yemeni Islamist faction.

The Houthis paint their endeavours as a “rescue” and insist the men have been moved to a safe location, are being allowed contact with their families and in receipt of any necessary medical care.

But the patently flimsy veneer of humanitarianism fools nobody. We suspect the victims will not be repatriated any time some and instead detained against their will indefinitely.

That is involuntary imprisonment. It is sweepingly disingenuous to dress it up as the outcome of some noble endeavour to meet Solas obligations to those in distress at sea.

The government of the Philippines has verified that nine of the 11 are Filipinos, making them a random cross-section of the 400,000 Filipinos grafting on merchant ships worldwide.

The Houthi footage shows one of them claiming that Eternity C was due to call at the Israeli port of Eilat, accurately or inaccurately contradicting owner Cosmoship Management’s assertion it was heading to Jeddah for refuelling. At this point the others join in to simultaneously apologise to the people of Palestine.

But the fighting in Gaza is not their war; given their nationality, most of them will be Catholics.

Nor will they possess the postgraduate degrees in conflict studies or international relations conducive to understanding the nuances of regional politics.

Let it just be said that the dialogue appears to be a consequence more of scripting than early onset spontaneous Stockholm syndrome.

If they are being allowed internet access, they may just get to see these words. If so, we can only send them warmest regards — on behalf of the maritime industries as a whole, we are sure — and wish them the strength to endure their ordeal.

Cosmoship ‘deeply relieved’

But the obvious question is why the crew of Eternity C are where they now find themselves.

Cosmoship has issued a statement, insisting that they are “deeply relieved” that their employees are safe, a development which apparently brings the company “great comfort”.

Yet the inescapable fact remains that Cosmoship knew what risks of sending the ship through the Red Sea were. And decided to take them anyway.

The Houthis have openly proclaimed that recent Israel port calls by vessels in the same fleet — which Cosmoships bulkers have undertaken — are a prominent factor in their targeting criteria.

So substantial were the chances of an attack that Travelers — the marine insurer with Eternity’s C annual war risk placement — declined to accept the breach premium for the trip.

Marine war risk underwriters are a famously hard-nosed bunch, and pride themselves on willingness to write any business so long as the price is right.

Its refusal to provide cover should at least have set off a 140 decibel warning klaxon at Cosmoship head office.

However much that the booking paid, it wasn’t enough. The ship is now a total loss. As it was not insured, the assumption in the market is that the loss will fall directly on the company.

And speaking of famously hard-nosed bunches, that brings us to other Greek shipowners. They are not wimps either, frequently evincing untrammelled readiness to transit war zones where so doing is sufficiently lucrative.

But multiple leading lights — including such big names as Polys Hajioannou, John Xylas and Angeliki Frangou — have proclaimed point blank that they are not currently taking Red Sea bookings, precisely on account of the Houthi threat.

It matters not that this stance is commercially rather than morally driven. It is the right one, and other owners should follow their example.