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Comment by SilverElfin | Hacker News Reader

I think this is really because ship crews are abused and have no choice. The companies don’t have executives on ships. It’s some maritime crew, often from India, that’s told to just take the risk with their own lives. And if they want to keep their jobs they have to comply.

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> And if they want to keep their jobs they have to comply.

Worse still, many mariners are effectively prisoners and can become trapped if corporate decides to cut them loose without also providing passage off the vessel

Stranded sailor allowed to leave abandoned ship after four years https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-56842506

Stuck at sea for years, a sailor’s plight highlights a surge in shipowner abandonment https://apnews.com/article/abandoned-seafarers-labor-unpaid-...

What would have happened, in that first story, if he had left the ship and swam to a passing boat? Or swam to shore? He was apparently able to leave as later in his imprisonment, the boat drift closer to shore and he swam from there. Why not just leave?

Abandoned crew members often remain on the ship in the hope of eventually getting paid their overdue wages after the legal issues are sorted out. If they leave the vessel then that weakens their negotiating position.

I would think that the shipping executives are less willing to take the risk to run the strait than the crews are. Being stuck for months with very little freedom, uncertain future, uncertain supplies, missiles and drones flying overhead, it sounds like hell.

Not to say you're wrong, but I got a different impression from this report:

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/29/podcasts/the-daily/iran-s...

From this report, I'm getting the feeling that they're running out of time to just float around and it's now or never.

But who insures the ship and its cargo? And what's the premium? No one cared about sailors before either. But if the ship sinks then you cash out from Lloyds. But if the risk premium increases by a lot, then that adds to the cost of the cargo.

And eventually it's just not worth transiting the strait no matter how "open" it's claimed to be, if there are still unacceptable risks.

All of the major maritime insurers will issue war risk policies at a small premium over the usual rates. This isn't anything new. Back during the Iran-Iraq war both sides were hitting tankers occasionally but insurers wrote policies and the oil continued to flow.

The premiums went from 0.5% to 7.5% during the war. That's not a small difference, particularly for large amounts of expensive cargo.

This big question now is how many of them will travel back in there and potentially being stuck for months, or just swap ship if their current ship is headed there.

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