Vessel Hunter · Daily maritime briefing

Wednesday, 21 October 2026

Rescuer lost at sea, ST3 hit, US eases shadow fleet

A chief officer lost in the South Atlantic, a VLCC disabled off Al Jubail, sanctioned tankers for sale, and ABP and Salalah change hands

6 stories5 sections4 min readVessel Hunter newsroom

Casualties and security

7 stories

A laden container ship at sea seen from above, with smoke trailing from the funnel

**The bulk carrier Aeolian Arrow recovered all 28 crew of the burning containership Espirito Santo Express in very high seas, but lost her own chief officer overboard during the operation.** Portugal's GAMA has opened an investigation, and SMIT has been engaged under Lloyd's Open Form to salve the abandoned ship.

Aeolian Arrow chief officer lost after rescuing all 28 from Espirito Santo ExpressFull story · Incident

A magnifying glass held over the Strait of Hormuz on a map

**The VLCC ST3 lost power after a projectile hit 68 nm north-east of Al Jubail,** and UKMTO says most ships attacked in the region no longer report to it. It counted 12 attacks in the latest week, and on 18 October the tug JIF Barracuda was hit off Khor Fakkan.

VLCC ST3 hit off Al Jubail as UKMTO says ships stop reporting Gulf attacksFull story · Incident

NATO is sending additional maritime patrol aircraft, drones and radar systems to the Black Sea

after four merchant ships were attacked in Bulgaria's exclusive economic zone in a month, two of which sank. A US Navy P-8 Poseidon has started reconnaissance flights from Bulgaria, and allied specialists will help investigate the 13 October drone attack on Chelsea 3, whose 15 crew were rescued. Traffic to Varna and Burgas continues, according to Bulgarian authorities.

**The Bahamas-flagged tanker Sled drifted without propulsion in the Kadet Channel between Rügen and Møn from 18 October,** loaded with Russian crude from Primorsk, and anchored just outside Danish territorial waters while the German emergency tug VB Bremen Fighter stood by. She was under way again westbound on 19 October, with no leak or injuries reported.

**The cruise ship AIDAnova, sailing from Kiel to Bergen, picked up four fishermen from a liferaft in the Skagerrak on 18 October** after fire broke out on their Danish fishing boat. HRS Southern Norway coordinated the rescue and no one was hurt.

**The 292-metre capesize Aquacharm struck a wharf under construction at Dung Quat in Vietnam on 18 October,** tearing a gash of about 5 metres in her bow while carrying 170,856 tonnes of Australian iron ore. The 22 crew are safe, no oil was spilled, and the Quang Ngai maritime administration has opened an investigation.

**Ukrainian drones struck the petroleum product terminal on the waterfront of St Petersburg overnight on 17 to 18 October,** in an attack that also set the Ruchyi oil depot alight and led to restrictions at Pulkovo airport. The same terminal had been hit earlier in the summer.

Sanctions

1 story

A large tanker under repair and repainting in a shipyard

Washington will let approved investors buy, refurbish and re-trade sanctioned tankers,

but analysts count no more than 14 to 24 VLCCs that could realistically return. The EU has meanwhile given Operation IRINI a shadow-fleet task until 2029.

US to let approved buyers take sanctioned tankers as EU arms IRINI against shadow fleetFull story · Dark fleet

Ports

3 stories

Large ship-to-shore cranes over a container terminal quay

CPP Investments and OMERS are selling their 63.9% of Associated British Ports to a fund managed by IFM Investors,

in a deal reported to value the group above £10 billion.

IFM Investors agrees to take control of Associated British PortsFull story · Port activity

A container terminal with gantry cranes at sunset

Oman will not renew the APM Terminals-led concession at the Port of Salalah

when it expires on 1 November 2028.

Oman will not renew Salalah Port Services concession after November 2028Full story · Port activity

Iraq's national carrier, Iraqi Maritime Line, has returned to scheduled container shipping in the Gulf for the first time since the mid-1960s,

with the 902 teu Basrah on an eight-day shuttle between Jebel Ali and Umm Qasr. Since the Hormuz crisis began, much Iraqi cargo has moved through Aqaba, which handled 37,182 Iraq-bound transit containers from January to July against 3,599 a year earlier.

Sale and purchase, newbuildings

4 stories

**BW LPG India is selling the 2008-built VLGC BW Loyalty for continued trading in the low $80 million range.** BW Loyalty sold

BW LPG India sells 2008-built VLGC BW Loyalty for low $80 million rangeFull story · Vessel sales

**Chemikalien Seetransport has sold the 20-year-old LR1 London Star, 73,900 dwt, to Chinese buyers,** who have renamed her Tenyou. The Hamburg company now owns one LR1 and has sold 10 in two years.

**GNV has sold its oldest ferry, the 1981-built GNV Azzurra, for recycling in Turkey.** She had been laid up in Genoa since an engine room fire in June damaged two of her four main engines.

MSC has reportedly ordered another 20 container ships of 24,000 teu at Hengli Heavy Industries in Dalian,

taking its programme of ships above 20,000 teu at the yard to 62. Danaos has been linked to two 9,200 teu ships at Shanghai Waigaoqiao Shipbuilding for about $109 million each.

Offshore

3 stories

Transocean has won two contracts for ultra-deepwater drillships in the US Gulf worth about $550 million in backlog,

including a ten-well, 700-day campaign for Deepwater Proteus worth about $325 million from the first quarter of 2027.

**Havila Shipping has extended the charter of the PSV Havila Borg with Peterson Den Helder to 1 September 2027,** and Equinor has extended Eidesvik's Viking Avant to the end of 2027.

Woodside has resumed commissioning on its Scarborough floating production unit

off Western Australia after Greenpeace activists who occupied it over the weekend were removed. Two of them have been charged.

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