A vessel was reported struck by a projectile east of Khasab on Saturday, the sixth entry the maritime log has taken in that stretch of water in nine days
The fire is out and the crew are safe.
United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations logged the incident on 8 August as Warning 108-26 and placed it 18 nautical miles east of Khasab, Oman. A vessel was struck by an unknown projectile, the strike caused a fire, and the fire has been extinguished. The entry reports no environmental impact and says the vessel and crew are safe. No ship is named. Nobody is blamed.
This site read the log at about half past two on Sunday afternoon Eastern time, which is a day after the entry went up. The entry is still the newest one on the page.
The run
Take the six entries the log has placed in the approaches to the Strait of Hormuz since the end of July and set them side by side.
101-26, 31 July, 11 nautical miles northeast of Lima, Oman. A tanker struck by an unknown projectile, damage to the engine room, the vessel not under command.
102-26, 31 July, 21 nautical miles northeast of Khasab. A large splash and an explosion close to a tanker, no damage reported.
103-26, 2 August, 20 nautical miles northeast of Khasab. A master reports an explosion in close proximity, vessel and crew safe.
104-26, 3 August, 20 nautical miles northeast of Al Khasab. A cargo vessel broadcasts on VHF channel 16 that it has been hit by an unknown projectile.
107-26, 5 August, 9 nautical miles southeast of Kumzar, inside the strait. Two explosions heard. Later reclassified from attack to advisory because the intended target could not be conclusively identified.
108-26, as above.
Six entries, nine days, all of them within a short run of the same peninsula. Three of the six report a vessel actually hit.
What the label does not tell you
Five of the six went out under the attack classification and one now sits under advisory, and sorting them that way separates the wrong things. Two of the attacks are explosions heard near a ship with nothing touched. One of them is a projectile through an engine room. The classification records how the centre assesses the report at the time, and 107-26 is the case that proves the assessment can change afterwards.
Read the descriptions instead of the headers.
Two blank days, then this
Nothing was logged on 6 or 7 August, and the page held 29 reports when this site read it on Friday morning against 30 now.
An empty date is weaker evidence than a full one, and it always will be. Reports reach the centre 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 a quiet log is not a quiet sea. What the last two days demonstrate is the narrower version of that point. The pause did not mean the run was over.
What the entry says about its own sourcing
One line in 108-26 is worth noting because the earlier entries do not carry it. The report time is marked to be confirmed, and where the older entries name their origin as the master or the company security officer, this one reads "Source Verified" and describes a verified source reporting that the vessel was struck.
The log does not say what verification means here. Neither does this.
