Keeping the night boring is now a convoy schedule

Attack reports to the UK Maritime Trade Operations centre reached a weekly record of twelve between 5 and 11 October, according to a BBC Verify count; six came on a single day, Sunday the 11th¹. Energy Intelligence, working from the same UKMTO reports, counts 26 commercial vessels attacked in the area from 1 to 14 October².

At the same time, US Navy data indicate that the number of vessels given assistance through the strait in the first ten days of October was up 85% on the same period in August¹. US Central Command says commercial traffic “continues to flow” with co-ordinated protection¹. Both statements can be true. More ships are being protected, and more are being hit.

The losses are no longer only cargo. The Singapore-flagged container ship GFS Pride sank after being struck by an unknown projectile in the strait on Tuesday; its 21 crew were evacuated¹. CNN reported two cargo ships sinking near the strait within 24 hours and, citing IMO data, called them only the second and third ships to sink in the Middle East since the war began in February³. Two seafarers from the tanker Petro Dolphin, hit near Oman’s Sohar anchorage, were still missing according to an Indian seafarers’ union¹.

Iran says the shuttle route that tankers use near Oman’s coast is “unauthorised” and insists that vessels sail closer to its own shore¹. That is the dispute in one line: not whether ships move, but whose lane they move in.

No chart today. A count of incident reports, compiled by different outlets on different date rules, is not yet a series worth drawing. When there is a consistent public dataset, the desk will draw it.