A vessel was reported sunk off Yemen, and the newest Hormuz entry was downgraded from attack to advisory because the intended target could not be identified
The crew got off. The vessel did not.
United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations logged that one as Warning 105-26 and timed it to 0730 UTC on 4 August, 9 nautical miles southwest of Al Mukha, Yemen. The report reached the centre late and came from the vessel's company security officer rather than from the bridge. What it says is that the vessel was attacked by an uncrewed surface vessel, that the attack caused a fire on board, that local authorities rescued the crew and that they are safe and well, and that the vessel has been reported as sunk. No ship is named. Nobody is blamed.
It is one of four entries the log has gained since this site last read it on 3 August.
The four
104-26, classed as an attack, 2200 UTC on 3 August, 20 nautical miles northeast of Al Khasab, Oman. A cargo vessel broadcast on VHF channel 16 that it had been hit by an unknown projectile. Authorities are investigating. The entry says nothing about the crew.
105-26, as above.
106-26, classed as an attack, reported at 1430 UTC on 5 August, 95 nautical miles southeast of Aden, Yemen. The master of a tanker reported hearing a loud explosion in close proximity to the vessel. All crew accounted for and safe, no environmental impact reported.
107-26, dated 5 August, 9 nautical miles southeast of Kumzar, Oman, inside the strait itself. Another late report. The master of a tanker reported hearing two explosions while transiting, and the crew and the vessel are safe.
The one that was downgraded
Entry 107 is worth reading twice, because it says two things and the second one revises the first.
It went out as an attack warning. It now carries an update recording that the warning "has been reclassified to ADVISORY 107-26" after a review determined that the intended target could not be conclusively identified. That is the centre changing its own classification in public, on the record, and leaving both versions visible. It is also the second time in a week the log has landed on the lighter of its two labels for an event in that stretch of water.
The geography moved
The three nights this site covered on 2 and 3 August all sat within roughly twenty miles of the same Omani peninsula. Two of the four new ones do not. Al Mukha and Aden are on the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden approaches, a different body of water with a different history and a different set of actors, and the sinking is one of those two.
What the log does not carry
Nothing after 5 August. The page held 29 reports when it was read at about 2 a.m. Eastern on Friday, against 25 on 3 August, and 107-26 was still the newest.
An empty two days is weaker evidence than a full one. Reports reach UKMTO through the master of the vessel or through military authorities, so a ship outside the voluntary reporting scheme can generate no entry at all, and an absence in the log is not the same as an absence at sea.
None of the four names a vessel, an owner, a flag or a cargo. None of them attributes responsibility to anyone.
