Commercial Traffic Resumes Following U.S.-Iranian Clashes : For Persian Gulf Tankers, It’s Back to Business

Like a battle-scarred whale, the Liberian-registered crude oil tanker Peconic plowed through the Persian Gulf’s late-afternoon calm, once again on its way north to take on cargo.

Some 25 miles northwest of this gulf trading center, the Peconic, its rusted, patched hull riding high in the water, had rejoined the flow of tankers that carry an estimated one-sixth of the world’s oil, despite an increasingly lethal hit-and-run war against them.

Following Monday’s clashes between Iranian and U.S. warships, the flow stopped--but only briefly.

Undeterred by war and a doubling of insurance rates announced this week by Lloyd’s of London, it was gradually becoming business as usual by Friday for tankers passing through the Strait of Hormuz at the entrance to the gulf.

Certainly, raids on commercial ships are nothing new to gulf traders. Marauding vessels have been part of life since the merchants of Basra used their experiences to build the legend of Sinbad the Sailor from their passages through here to China and the East Indies centuries ago.

The Portuguese systematically plundered Arab shipping as a way of imposing their hegemony in the area during the 16th Century, while Arab raiding became so bad in the early 1800s that the British renamed the region the Pirate Coast.

But in a part of the world where trading is not so much a vocation as a way of life, Iran’s war against neutral shipping is seen more as a bothersome inconvenience than a catastrophe.

Veteran observers of the so-called tanker war note that one South Korean-owned ship has been attacked on four separate occasions yet still continues its runs.

And as the Peconic wallowed slowly north toward Kuwait on Thursday, scars of a previous attack were visible along its hull.

On this occasion, it seemed to be taking additional precautions, sailing far from the Iranian coast, well south of the normal shipping lanes. It also traveled with two tankers sporting large, freshly painted Japanese flags on their sides.

No One Is Immune

As Iran’s largest crude oil customer, Japan is said to have received assurances from Iran protecting its ships against attack, but experience has proven that, in these waters, no one is completely immune.

Well west of the Peconic, not far from the blackened hulk of the Iranian Sirri oil platform destroyed Monday, the U.S. destroyer Lynde McCormick and the guided missile frigate Jack Williams patrolled, quickly challenging any vessel that ventured too close.

“This is a U.S. Navy warship. You are approaching me on a bearing of 225 degrees,” came the crisp American voice across the radio. “Identify yourself and state your intentions.”

Television camera crews, veterans of the tanker war, claim that of all the Western navies now operating in the gulf, U.S. ships tend to be the most prickly, often issuing warnings for helicopters to come no closer than three to four miles.

At the other extreme, ABC cameraman Ron Bagnulo recalled that a British navy commander responded to his request to come in close for some pictures by stating, “Just a minute, let me get the ship in position for you,” then proceeded to maneuver in a series of dramatic turns for the camera.

Behind the visual calm of the southern gulf, it is radio traffic on the emergency Channel 16 that usually conveys the first sign of trouble.

On this channel, tankers are challenged by Iranian forces. Here, Iranian and Western navies establish contact. Here, attacks and other emergencies are declared.

Both Routine and Bizarre

Usually radio traffic is routine, sometimes tense, occasionally bizarre.

According to one U.S. Navy officer, the captain of the Iranian frigate Sabalan had acquired the habit of challenging a neutral tanker, firing on it, then wishing its shaken crew a nice day.

Alternatively, this commander could be heard wishing a tanker captain a safe journey after challenging him, then after a few minutes’ pause, opening fire on the unsuspecting vessel.

The Sabalan was one of two Iranian frigates hit by U.S. laser-guided bombs during Monday’s clashes.

Other, potentially dangerous amateur radio operators punctuate the emergency channel with songs, obscenities and insults. If bored, tanker captains reply in kind.

The most notorious of these radio intruders, known only by his own identification, “Filipino Monkey,” has sometimes caused consternation among tanker captains.

In one instance, an Iranian naval commander challenging a merchant ship, demanding to know its cargo and destination, heard a voice reply, “Rockets, grenades, tanks, missile launchers, all bound for Iraq.”

Within seconds, the ship’s captain radioed frantically, “That was not me! That was not me!”

“Filipino Monkey,” or one of his imitators, has also broken into sensitive transmissions between Iranian and U.S. warships, on one occasion informing an Iranian vessel, “Now, I’m going to blow your ass out of the water”--a declaration hastily overridden by the American ship.

51 Vessels Attacked

According to Lloyd’s of London figures, 51 commercial vessels have been attacked in the gulf during the first four months of this year.

During the past 12 months, veterans of the gulf war say the formal, disciplined challenges of the Iranian navy in the gulf’s southern reaches and the Strait of Hormuz have gradually given way to the more volatile Revolutionary Guards traveling in high-speed, 30-foot boats armed with rocket-propelled grenades and machine guns.

It was Revolutionary Guard gunboats that attacked a U.S.-flagged service vessel and a British-owned tanker Monday off the coast of Sharjah.

The results of these Iranian gunboat attacks vary widely. Sometimes, damage is slight and tankers carry on their journey. Occasionally, catastrophe is only narrowly averted.

After being attacked and set on fire by Iranian gunboats last month near the small island of Abu Musa, 50 miles north of Dubai, the Cypriot-registered tanker Haven drifted out of control toward the United Arab Emirates port of Mina Saqr.

With crude oil pouring from ruptured tanks, the stricken ship finally ran aground, still on fire, less than a mile from a major gas refinery.

In the emirate of Dubai, which once made its living off a lucrative gold-smuggling trade before cashing in on the oil boom, a major dry-dock and ship-repair facility built during the 1970s does a brisk business from all sides in the tanker war.

Here, the U.S. frigate Samuel B. Roberts, which struck a mine recently, is undergoing repairs, while in an anchorage a few miles away, an Iranian-operated tanker, hit during an Iraqi air attack last month, awaits repair work.

Oil Slicks Common

The heavy shipping traffic, commercial oil drilling and the oil spills resulting from the frequent attacks have left their toll on the gulf in the shape of a proliferating number of small oil slicks, which now dot the surface in several locations.

But for the most part, the brilliant turquoise and deep blue gulf waters still justify Marco Polo’s assessment that if the world was a ring, then Hormuz was its jewel.

From a helicopter, through the heat of a late spring day, sea turtles, dolphins and schools of tuna are all clearly visible well below the surface.

Although brief, violent storms can brew in minutes, it is the shamal, a steady breeze from the northwest, that usually prevails.

The majestic, sail-powered dhows, which once rode the shamal carrying the bulk of the gulf’s trade to East Asia and Africa, are rare now. When they are seen, they are dwarfed by the region’s new commercial backbone--the targets of the gulf war, supertankers.

As these large tankers resumed their travels through the troubled gulf late this week, few believed the present lull in armed attacks would last.

After listening to a helicopter pilot report that the area was unusually quiet, a local traffic controller responded laconically, “Stick around for a few days.”