MV ''Sea Isle City'', ex-''Umm al Maradem'', was a Kuwait Oil Company

oil tanker An oil tanker, also known as a petroleum tanker, is a ship designed for the bulk transport of oil or its products. There are two basic types of oil tankers: crude tankers and product tankers. Crude tankers move large quantities of unrefined cru ...

that reflagged during

Operation Earnest Will Operation Earnest Will (24 July 1987 – 26 September 1988) was the American military protection of Kuwaiti-owned tankers from Iranian attacks in 1987 and 1988, three years into the Tanker War phase of the Iran–Iraq War. It was the largest nav ...

. The ship was completed in 1981 by

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries is a Japanese multinational engineering, electrical equipment and electronics corporation headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. MHI is one of the core companies of the Mitsubishi Group and its automobile division is the predecessor of Mitsubishi Mo ...

, Japan, as hull number 1867, for the Kuwait Oil Tanker Company.

Missile attack

''Sea Isle City'' was struck during the

Tanker War The Tanker War was a protracted series of armed skirmishes between Iran and Iraq against merchant vessels in the Persian Gulf and Strait of Hormuz from 1984 to 1988. The conflict was a part of the larger Iran–Iraq War. Background Prior to ...

phase of the

Iran–Iraq War The Iran–Iraq War was an armed conflict between Iran and Ba'athist Iraq, Iraq that lasted from September 1980 to August 1988. It began with the Iraqi invasion of Iran and lasted for almost eight years, until the acceptance of United Nations S ...

by an Iranian

Silkworm missile The SY (), and HY () series were early anti-ship cruise missiles (ASCM) developed by the People's Republic of China from the Soviet P-15 Termit missile. They entered service in the late 1960s and remained the main ASCMs deployed by the People's ...

launched from the Iranian occupied Al-Faw Peninsula at 05:30 A.M. on 16 October 1987. The missile struck the wheel house and crew quarters of the ship. The ship was not carrying oil at the time it was struck and was moving to be loaded. The ship's

master Master or masters may refer to: Ranks or titles * Ascended master, a term used in the Theosophical religious tradition to refer to spiritually enlightened beings who in past incarnations were ordinary humans *Grandmaster (chess), National Master ...

, a US citizen, was blinded and a total of 18 crew members were wounded. ''Sea Isle City'' was in Kuwaiti waters and was no longer under the protection of US escort ships. ''Sea Isle City'' was heavily damaged by the missile and it took 4 months to repair the damage to the bridge and crew area.Counter-Memorial and Counter-claim submitted by the United States of America
. 23 June 1997. The US later undertook

Operation Nimble Archer Operation Nimble Archer was the 19 October 1987 attack on two Iranian oil platforms in the Persian Gulf by United States Navy forces. The attack was a response to Iran's missile attack three days earlier on , a reflagged Kuwaiti oil tanker at an ...

in response to the attack, destroying two oil platforms in the Rostam oil field that were not in production and being used as tactical communication relay points, radar tracking stations and as bases of operations for helicopter and speed boat attacks on maritime shipping in international waters. According to documents seized during the raid on the platform, the Rostam platform's radar had tracked the convoy containing ''Sea Isle City'' while it was en route to Kuwait and relayed this tactical information via communications gear on the platform. ''Sea Isle City'' lookout Victorino Gonzaga, a

Philippines The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no), * bik, Republika kan Filipinas * ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas * cbk, República de Filipinas * hil, Republ ...

national, was also blinded in the attack and treated at the

Bascom Palmer Eye Institute Bascom Palmer Eye Institute is the University of Miami School of Medicine's ophthalmic care, research, and education center. The institute is based in the Health District of Miami, Florida, and has been ranked consistently as the best eye hospit ...

, in

Miami Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a coastal metropolis and the county seat of Miami-Dade County in South Florida, United States. With a population of 442,241 at ...

, where doctors were forced to remove both of his eyes. Gonzaga and his wife filed suit against Iran, naming Chesapeake Shipping Co., the Kuwait Oil Tanker Co., Kuwait Petroleum Corp. and Gleneagle Ship Management Inc. as co-defendants. The companies named settled out of court for $750,000. 14 months after the suit was filed, a Miami judge found the Government in Tehran liable and awarded $1.2 million to him and $500,000 to his wife. No representatives for Iran ever appeared before the court and at the time it was unclear if he would ever receive the compensation.

Fate

Some of the reflagged tankers returned to Kuwaiti flags in January 1989, but ''Sea Isle City'' and several others remained US-flagged. ''Sea Isle City'' was operated on a Persian Gulf to Indonesia route by

Keystone Shipping Company Keystone Shipping Company of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania is a major shipping and transportation company. Keystone Shipping Company operates a fleet of ships for both dry bulk cargo and tankers. Since World War I, the Keystone Shipping Company ha ...

in the 1990s and early 2000s. The tanker was listed out of service in May 2002 in the United States Coast Guard database. and scrapped in India in August 2002.

References

External links

Silkworm's Sting

Time (magazine) ''Time'' (stylized in all caps) is an American news magazine based in New York City. For nearly a century, it was published weekly, but starting in March 2020 it transitioned to every other week. It was first published in New York City on Mar ...

. Michael S. Serrill. 26 October 1987.
U.S. Flag Tanker Struck by Missile in Kuwaiti Waters; First Direct Raid

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

. 17 October 1987. {{DEFAULTSORT:Sea Isle City Tankers of Japan Ships built by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries 1981 ships Tankers of Kuwait Tankers of the United States Maritime incidents in 1987 Oil tankers Iran–Iraq War