Risk Strait of Hormuz or Wait? Shipping Companies Face a Costly Dilemma.

Pankaj Khanna, the chief executive of Heidmar Maritime Holdings, knows what it’s like to be stranded at sea in a war zone.Long before he became a shipping executive, he was a seafarer himself, a crew member on a ship during the Persian Gulf war of 1991 as a Scud missile flew overhead.

He recalled the paralyzing fear of some seafarers on board.Today, the stress on the roughly 11,000 stranded sailors in the Persian Gulf may be even greater.Seafarers now have internet access and are often watching livestreams of attacks happening around them, while also seeing explosions from their ship decks.“The fact that they are sitting on board the ships with real-time information — it is psychologically very traumatic,” said Mr.

Khanna, 55.Three commercial vessels have been hit by U.S.forces this week.

One of the strikes killed three people, bringing the number of seafarers killed since the start of the war to 14.All told, there have been 46 attacks on international ships in and around the Strait of Hormuz since Feb.

28, most by Iran and some by the United States.The war in Iran is approaching its 15th week.For the shipping industry caught in the middle, pressure is mounting — on the sailors, the shipowners and operators losing hundreds of thousands of dollars a day, and the customers awaiting the delivery of oil and goods.

At stake is not only the safety of those in the line of fire but the functioning of the global economy.A tense calm prevailed in the Gulf on Friday on hopes that a deal to end the fighting could be near.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe....