By Michael Grey*

You have to hand it to the Houthis, for their ability, with limited resources, to cause an extraordinary amount of trouble in the world. From financial crises in Egypt, with the Suez Canal now working part-time, to weather-induced casualties on shipping diverted around the Cape, it is all down to their malevolent behaviour. They can even chalk up, along with the huge costs of diversions and longer voyages, their signatures on the “net zero” account, with all that extra fuel consumed by ships speeding up to get their goods to market, before the people who ordered them along the supply chain lose heart.

The spectacular outrage of the firing of the fully laden Sounion might be thought of as something of an own-goal, if all the Houthi-claimed littoral is swamped in crude oil. But even here the High Command of this pirate kingdom has reclaimed the high ground, by generously permitting the salvors to tow away the stricken hulk, thus saving the environment which their own over-enthusiastic unit had first put at such risk. They are giving the impression that the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden are firmly under their control, with scarcely a day going by without reports of attacks by their missiles, drones, and remote-controlled speedboats. None of which seems to reflect terribly well on the forces of law and order.

There are triumphant reports of coalition warships shooting down the odd missile, but nothing appears to be happening to degrade the ability of these bandits to attack merchant shipping at will.

And of the various navies whose units are engaged on protective duties, it is still only the US, and occasional UK forces, which are prepared to do anything other than defend themselves against the hardware launched from Houthi-controlled territory. The case of the tanker Sounion, which eventually made it into the mainstream media after the fuss about the tragedy off the Italian coast had died down, seemed to exemplify the inability of the defenders against Houthi freedom of the seas.

The ship was hit by a number of missiles, and abandoned in the middle of the southern Red Sea. The crew was rescued and taken to safety. But no naval protection appeared available to watch over the derelict, which was then boarded by the pirates, who detonated explosives strategically located around the ship, setting off huge fires, while their triumph was being professionally filmed by camera crews specially tasked to produce the best-possible propaganda for their cause.

The whole situation, a bit like the wrecked tanker itself, appears to be drifting, with the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden hostilities seen by governments as a by-product of the more serious conflict in Gaza that will just have to be tolerated.

It is difficult to guess what these mighty strategists are thinking, but they could now believe that the shipping industry has more or less adjusted to the new normal, the casualties are mostly those who are prepared to take the risks, and all the costs are covered by insurance, or by the customers of all those goods on the long haul around Africa.

The flags of convenience factor

 It is a wholly unworthy thought, but the lack of urgency to act in a more robust fashion against Houthi High Command and its military, might also have something to do with the way in which shipping these days is owned and managed, under largely convenient flags, which of themselves have exceedingly little defensive or even diplomatic firepower. The Houthis, whose intelligence service may not be terribly accurate about the supposed Israeli connections of their targets, seem clever enough not to attack a ship emblazoned with the COSCO logo on its side. They also know that the FOC states have no ability whatever to strike back, when they fly their explosive drones into ships registered in these far-off places.

In this miserable stasis, we are left with the fact that nobody, other than the noble welfare agencies and the unions, seems unduly exercised by the lives being led by the crews of merchant ships running the gauntlet through these hostile waters. And that should shame us all. The various industry institutions, even the S-G of IMO, raise their voices, but these are seldom heard against the backdrop of the wider hostilities. And we need to remember, lest we forget, the crew of the car carrier Galaxy Leader, held hostage by the pirates since hostilities began, all those months ago.

(Photo from Houthi Military Media)    

*Michael Grey is former editor of Lloyd’s List. This column is published with the kind permission of The Maritime Advocate.