The Rubymar, a vessel hit by missiles from Houthi rebels in the Red Sea on Feb. 18, sank on March 2, according to the US Central Command on X, formerly known as Twitter. The crew had abandoned ship soon after the attack.
The Command said the ship was carrying some 21,000 mt of ammonium phosphate sulfate fertilizer that presents an environmental risk to the Red Sea. The Command said the vessel also poses a subsurface impact risk to other ships. The vessel was the first to sink since the Houthi militants heightened their attacks.
In a separate attack, two crew members from the Philippines and another from Vietnam died on March 6 when the Yemen-based Houthis attacked the bulk commodities vessel True Confidence in the Gulf of Aden, according to Bloomberg. At least two other sailors were injured.
The carrier’s 20-person crew was forced to abandon ship due to the strike and were taken to Djibouti by an Indian navy vessel. The damaged ship, which was hauling a cargo of steel products, was drifting well away from land while salvage efforts were underway.
The incident marks the first deaths of crew members in the militants’ campaign against commercial shipping in one of the world’s busiest waterways. It also raises questions about how much risk shipowners are willing to accept while trying to keep their crews and cargoes safe. Most merchant vessels are avoiding the region by sailing around Africa’s Cape of Good Hope.
“It is time for those shipowners who are continuing to transit through the Red Sea to reassess the necessity of their decision considering recent events,” said David Appleton, Head of Professional and Technical at Nautilus, which represents more than 20,000 maritime workers. “The utmost priority should be the safeguarding of the lives of seafarers.”
“We call on the industry to divert ships around the Cape of Good Hope until safe transit through the Red Sea can be guaranteed,” the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) said in a statement. “No delivery window is worth the loss of seafarers’ lives.” The ITF lobbies for seafarer rights by acting alongside more than 700 affiliate trade unions.
The Iran-backed Houthis escalated their attacks in November, first targeting vessels that they said had ties to Israel in protest against its military campaign in the Gaza Strip. More recently, the militants have widened the strikes following American and British military efforts to keep the shipping lanes open.