For 75 days, an Indian oil tanker captain and his 23-member crew were stranded in the Strait of Hormuz as war raged around them. Missiles flew overhead. Explosions shook the ship. Supplies dwindled, families waited anxiously and the crew faced pressure to carry out a risky cargo transfer. Through it all, the tanker remained loaded with 110,000 tonnes of cargo. This episode is a first-hand account of life aboard a merchant vessel caught in a conflict it had no part in — and of the seafarers who keep global trade moving while remaining largely invisible, unarmed and vulnerable.
Raman Kapoor’s first person account, narrated by Anirban Chowdhury