The Peril of Piloting Ships Through the Strait of Hormuz

War in the

Middle East

live

Updates

April 24, 2026, 10:44 a.m. ET

U.S.-Iran Talks

Israel-Lebanon Truce

Strait of Hormuz

Generals Running Iran

Timeline of War

You have a preview view of this article while we are checking your access. When we have confirmed access, the full article content will load.

Silke Lehmköster oversees 310 vessels as the fleet managing director at Hapag-Lloyd, a shipping giant in Hamburg, Germany.

Credit...

Maximilian Mann for The New York Times

Skip to content

Skip to site index

The Peril of Piloting Ships Through the Strait of Hormuz

Controllers for shipping companies face a daunting decision as they try to free vessels trapped in the Persian Gulf: “Basically you’re sending someone unarmed into war.”

Silke Lehmköster oversees 310 vessels as the fleet managing director at Hapag-Lloyd, a shipping giant in Hamburg, Germany.

Credit...

Maximilian Mann for The New York Times

Supported by

SKIP ADVERTISEMENT

Listen

· 9:31 min

Share full article

By

Jenny Gross

Reporting from Hamburg, Germany

April 24, 2026

Capt. Silke Lehmköster, from her office overlooking the Elbe River in Hamburg, Germany, wrestles with the same question every day: Is it finally safe for her to order five of the container ships she oversees, which have been stranded in the Persian Gulf, to exit via the Strait of Hormuz?

For nearly two months, the answer was “no.” Then, early this week, she saw a window of opportunity and gave one of the vessels the green light to cross the strait.

On Monday, just before midnight, under a new moon and with hardly any wind, one of her ships, the Tema Express, crossed the strait without incident. The ship, which then anchored off the coast of Oman, near Muscat, was the company’s first to pass through the waterway since the start of the war.

Other commercial vessels that tried the crossing soon after were not so lucky. Two European-owned vessels were intercepted and seized by Iranian forces on Wednesday, one attacked by a gunboat

without warning

. They are being held near Iran’s coast.

More than 20 commercial ships have come under attack around the strait since March. The attacks started shortly after the first strikes on Iran by the United States and Israel, which prompted the Iranian military to retaliate by throttling traffic through the vital waterway.

The strikes have

killed 10 seafarers

and injured many others. With shipping companies

reluctant to navigate such treacherous waters

, roughly 20,000 crew members aboard some 1,600 vessels have been stranded in and around the strait, where about one-fifth of the world’s oil had passed before the war.

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

.

Related Content

Advertisement

SKIP ADVERTISEMENT