A Greek panamax bulker struck by a Houthi missile on Tuesday appears to be still immobile, anchored in the Red Sea on Wednesday.
The 76,800-dwt Minoan Courage (built 2008), however, is probably not the ship the Houthis were after and appears to have been hit only because the Yemeni group was chasing a different vessel nearby — the 163,300-dwt Cordelia Moon (built 2013).
Experts from the Combined Maritime Forces, a naval coalition operating in the area, assessed in a briefing on Tuesday that the Minoan Courage “was an unintended casualty due to its close proximity to [the] Cordelia Moon, which was attacked earlier in the morning the same day [Tuesday]”.
As TradeWinds reported, the attacks were the Houthis’ first assault on commercial vessels in a month.
The theory that the Minoan Courage was hit by mistake is bolstered by the fact that the Houthis never officially assumed responsibility for the attack against that vessel.
That is in stark contrast with the Cordelia Moon, which the Yemeni group acknowledged attacking “with eight ballistic and winged missiles, a drone and [an] unscrewed surface boat”, according to a statement late on Tuesday by its military spokesman Yahya Saree.
As it was facing a barrage of missile and drone attacks early on Tuesday, the Cordelia Moon was just 4 nautical miles (4.6 km) away from the Minoan Courage when the Greek bulker was hit by a missile as well.
The master of the Cordelia Moon told naval authorities at 04:15 GMT that he saw the Minoan Courage being impacted and smoke rising from the vessel.
The Minoan Courage suffered damage to her engine and was not underway at the time.
Vessel tracking websites showed the ship was still immobile — but anchored — late on Wednesday off the Eritrean city of Asmara.
Executives at the vessel’s Greek owner Modion Maritime have not responded to requests for comment.
None of the ship’s crew has been reported injured.
‘Targeted due to affiliations’
The same applies to the Cordelia Moon, a suezmax tanker ballasting in the Red Sea after delivering a cargo of Russian crude to India.
As TradeWinds reported, a sea drone punctured one of the tanker’s ballast tanks. The Combined Maritime Forces, however, confirmed on Wednesday that the Cordelia Moon did not require assistance and that it continues its voyage northward.
Vessel trackers are currently showing the tanker underway in the central Red Sea.
The Combined Maritime Forces estimated, without elaborating, that the Cordelia Moon “was likely targeted due to affiliations within the vessel’s operational structure”.
In their statement on Tuesday, the Houthis described the Cordelia Moon as a “British oil tanker”.
Shipping databases show the ship since November 2023 under the ownership of Ultrapetrol Bahamas, an entity registered in Nassau.
Its technical managers are India-based Margao Marine Solutions of India.
The ship was previously owned by Greece’s Thenamaris.
The 5,000-teu Marathopolis (built 2013), a Costamare container ship that the Houthis claimed to have separately hit with a drone in the Arabian Sea on Tuesday, appears to be sailing normally and was laden off Oman on Wednesday, heading east towards India.
No maritime intelligence source has confirmed a Houthi strike against the Marathopolis.
