Ship veers across the Gulf of Aden after Houthi attack

A cargo ship caught fire after being attacked by two missiles in the Gulf of Aden, the UK Navy said. 

Maritime security firms Ambrey and Diaplous said the vessel was sailing under the flag of Palau and diverted its path by 90 degrees after the attack. That fits the description of a ship called the Islander, vessel tracking data compiled by Bloomberg show.

The vessel suffered “minor damage” in the incident, the UK navy said in a follow-up post on X.

The fire represents the latest major incident in under a week, after a previous attack forced the crew of a vessel to abandon the ship near the narrow Bab El-Mandeb chokepoint. Its operator said on Wednesday that that carrier was half underwater with a salvage effort was underway.

Both carriers are relatively small and old general-cargo transporters by the standards of international shipping.

The operator of the Islander is a company called Gemstone Marine Ltd., which is based in Liberia and only owns that ship, according to the Equasis maritime database. Its technical manager is a Romania-based business called African Express Ltd. 

Several major international maritime databases don’t provide a means of contacting either firm.

A database maintained for the International Maritime Organization says that the ultimate owner of the Islander is a firm called Joahar Group Ltd. A company official for an Oulton Broad, England-based firm called Jaohar UK Ltd. said it didn’t own the Islander.