Container ship GFS Pride sinks near Hormuz after projectile hit, Iran cites mine

Two ships sinking near the strait

Maritime security sources said on 14 October that the container ship GFS Pride, flying the Singapore flag and rated at 2,824 TEU, has sunk near the Strait of Hormuz after a projectile struck it. Separately, the dry-cargo ship Cape Dao, flying the flag of Antigua and Barbuda, is going down in the same area. The British maritime risk firm Vanguard said the Cape Dao was hit by a projectile on 23 September and that attempts to save the vessel had failed.

The Pakistani hydrographic office warned other ships that the GFS Pride had sunk and that containers were floating on the water. According to International Maritime Organization data, the GFS Pride is the second vessel to sink since the war between the United States and Iran began on 28 February. GFS Pride is managed by GFS Ship Management FZE, while Cape Dao is managed by Peonies Shipmanagement FZE, and both companies are based in the United Arab Emirates. Neither operator could be reached for comment.

Conflicting accounts of the sinking

On 14 October the Iranian Revolutionary Guards said a freighter carrying more than 2,500 containers had caught fire after hitting a naval mine and sunk. The Guards said the ship had tried to pass through the strait on an unauthorized and dangerous route, and they did not say when the incident happened. Footage the Guards released showed black smoke above a ship and numerous containers drifting in the water.

It remains unclear whether the Guards' account and the Vanguard report concern the same vessel, since one describes a mine and the other a projectile. The Guards also called on ships and fishermen to take care in the area, and their statement was carried by state media.

Attacks on Tuesday and the wider shipping picture

The British shipping authority UKMTO announced on the evening of 13 October attacks on a tanker and a container ship. On 14 October it reported two more attacks from 13 October, in which two container ships were struck by projectiles of unknown origin and lightly damaged. Both continued their voyages, and no casualties were reported from those two attacks. Vanguard counted four ships attacked in total: the GFS Pride sank, the fate of the tanker Alfonso is unclear, and the container ships GFS Giselle and Al Saadiyat sailed on.

Tehran has claimed control of the strait since the Iran war began at the end of February, and it regularly attacks ships that it says are operating without permission. In response, the United States has imposed a naval blockade of Iranian ports. Before the war, about a fifth of the world's transported oil and liquefied natural gas passed through the strait.