The crew of a US-owned oil tanker found themselves “fighting for their lives” earlier this week, after a “barbaric attack” by Iran left the ship engulfed in flames and forced all 28 seafarers to jump overboard in the middle of the night, the owner of the vessel said Friday.
“From our initial assessment after speaking to the surviving crew members, the attack appears to have been deliberate and calculated,” SV Anchan, the chairman of the New Jersey-based Safesea Group, told The Post.
Anchan explained that his tanker, the Safesea Vishnu, was struck while it was anchored in the Persian Gulf, near Khor Al Zubair, Iraq, just before midnight Wednesday – as some 53,000 metric tons of naphtha, a highly-flammable petroleum mixture, was being loaded aboard the vessel.
“Two unmanned boats with explosives rammed into the vessel’s portside,” he said. “This speaks about the extremists’ mindsets of the Iran regime.”
Anchan lamented that he’s also seen “unverified video footage” of people “cheering this barbaric attack by chanting ‘Allahu Akbar.’”
The crew of Safesea Vishnu was in an “extremely vulnerable position” at the moment of the attack, Anchan said, noting that evacuation routes were obstructed by the fire and another vessel it was taking cargo from.
“Lowering lifeboats on the port side became impossible due to the fire and damage,” he explained. “On the starboard side, a daughter vessel was double banked for cargo transfer operations, further restricting escape routes.”
“As the fire spread rapidly across the ship, the situation became desperate.”
A “narrow window for survival” finally presented itself when the mooring ropes on the daughter vessel gave way, causing it to drift away from the Safesea Vishnu and giving the crew an opening to jump ship.
“In those terrifying moments, all 28 crew members were forced to jump into the water to escape the burning vessel,” Anchan said. “Their courage and instinct for survival saved lives.”
Rescue efforts quickly mounted by the Iraqi Coast Guard and local authorities prevented “a far greater tragedy.”
However, one crew member lost his life in the water.
“The remaining 27 crew members survived and are currently safe,” Anchan said.
Safesea Group chairman fumed that his seafarers “are increasingly being placed at risk” because of geopolitical conflicts.
“These men and women are not soldiers,” Anchan noted. “They are not part of any military campaign. They are professionals who keep global trade moving — transporting the energy, food, and goods that sustain economies and societies around the world.”
Anchan argued the attack on the Safesea Vishnu “must serve as a wake-up call for governments, maritime authorities, and the international community.”
“Commercial shipping lanes cannot become battle zones. Merchant vessels cannot become targets. And the lives of seafarers must never be treated as collateral damage.”
At least 16 oil tankers, cargo and other commercial ships have been attacked in the Persian Gulf since President Trump launched military operations against Iran nearly two weeks ago, according to the New York Times.
The US military has taken out dozens of Iranian mining ships – and on Friday bombed military installations on Kharg Island – as part of an effort to prevent the regime from attacking shipping lanes in the Persian Gulf.
Iran’s new supreme leader has vowed to close the Strait of Hormuz in the Persian Gulf in response to the US military action.
