Jamshedpur: City-based captain Manish Kumar has returned home after 45 harrowing days stranded in the Strait of Hormuz, where he and 40 Indian crew members lived under constant threat amid airstrikes and maritime disruptions caused by the West Asia conflict.Speaking to TOI on Saturday, the veteran mariner recalled nights filled with fear as GPS systems failed, internet connectivity collapsed, warnings of underwater mines circulated, and drones targeted vessels nearby.“Amid the uncertainty in the waterway, we prayed for our safety and anxiously waited for navigation instructions through the volatile Persian Gulf,” Manish said.
He was commanding a vessel carrying 40,000 tonnes of oil when the conflict erupted on Feb 28, after the ship had entered about 10 km into the Strait of Hormuz. The biggest fear, he said, was an airstrike hitting their tanker.“Even as we witnessed airstrikes on cargo ships around us, our concern was that even a spark on our vessel could ignite the cargo, potentially triggering fires on ships within a 50-km radius,” said Manish, a 1997 graduate of Indian Maritime University, Chennai.To avoid detection, the crew kept the vessel’s lights off at night. Communication was another major challenge. With GPS and internet services down for days, the crew often could not reach company officials or their families.“Due to the communication breakdown, we were unreachable for days at a stretch,” said Manish, who was ferrying fuel from Iraq’s Khor al Zubair port to South Korea.Citing official secrecy, he declined to name the vessel. He added that GPS disruption made it difficult to determine the ship’s exact position, raising fears of grounding or striking underwater mines.“We depend heavily on GPS for route plotting and collision avoidance,” said the captain, who has over 25 years of experience at sea.Sensing trouble before departure, Manish had stocked extra food supplies. “Before boarding the vessel, I felt war was coming, so I brought additional supplies that helped us survive for one and a half months,” he said.Back home, his family endured their own ordeal. His mother and wife tried calling him every two hours, but patchy connectivity often made contact impossible, deepening their anxiety.Relief finally came after the April 7 ceasefire announcement. Manish returned home on April 16.A resident of Mango, Manish studied at DAV Chaibasa and completed his higher secondary education at DAV Chennai before pursuing maritime engineering. His late father, Shyam Deo Chaudhary, was a general manager with Bank of India.