To avoid Houthi attacks while traversing the Red Sea, some shipping companies have resorted to putting messages indicating their neutrality or willingness to fight as their destination.
The Houthis began their attack against maritime shipping in the Red Sea on Nov. 19 after declaring war on Israel, the first major expansion of the Israel-Hamas war. The attacks have ground shipping in one of the busiest trading arteries in the world to a halt, leading to a U.S.-led intervention.
Though many shipping companies have halted operations in the area, seeking to avoid the wrath of the Yemeni militant group, others are seeking to continue shipping unrelated to Israel. As the Houthis have declared that only vessels related to or bound for Israel would be targeted, shipping companies aim to signal their neutrality in the conflict, ostensibly sparing them from Houthi attack when traversing the Red Sea or Gulf of Aden.
Vessels typically insert their destination and official port destination into a database, which is monitored and displayed by marinetraffic.com. Following the Houthi declaration and attacks, many are using the option to communicate messages to the group instead.
The Panamanian-flagged Star Blessing, bound from the Russian port of Novorossisk, put “NOT RELATE TO ISRAEL” as both the destination and official destination port — a port not recognized by marinetraffic.com. The Vietnamese-flagged Innova put as its destination and official port destination “VSLNO CONTACT ISRAEL.” More than a half dozen other vessels in the Gulf of Aden had some variation of this message.
Another prominent tactic was to indicate the presence of armed guards, signaling that an attack by Houthi vessels or helicopters would incur casualties.
The Panamanian-flagged ship Oel Shasta, in port at Djibouti after setting out from Singapore, has the message “ARM GAURDS ON BOARD.” The Liberian-flagged CETUS bulk carrier, traversing the Suez Canal, had the message “ARMGUARD ONBOARD.”
The Marshall Islands-flagged Beks Force, bound from the Russian port of Murmansk, decided to play things extra safe, combining the two messages with a jumbled “NOCONWISRAEL/ARMGUAR.”
Other vessels take advantage of their affiliation with China — which has both failed to take action against the Houthis and condemned the U.S. “aggression” against the group.
The Chinese-flagged Tian Zhen cargo ship, bound from Barcelona, Spain, put as the destination and official destination port “CHINESE OWNER&CREW.” Several ships around it had similar messages, such as “ENNORE/ALL CHINESE” and “SINGP/ALL CHINESE.”
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The Panamanian-flagged Lyra crude oil tanker, which passed through the Red Sea to Suez on the way from Singapore, put in as its destination “SUEZ ALL CREWS CHINA.”
Though the messages are often crude and in jumbled English, they appear to have worked so far — no such vessel has come under attack as of yet.