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

Kuwait Oil Company Kuwait Oil Company (KOC), an oil company headquartered in Al Ahmadi, Kuwait, is a subsidiary of the Kuwait Petroleum Corporation, a government-owned holding company. Kuwait was the world's 10th largest petroleum and other liquids producer in ...

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

that reflagged during

Operation Earnest Will Operation Earnest Will (24 July 1987 – 26 September 1988) was an 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 na ...

. The ship was completed in 1981 by

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries is a Japanese Multinational corporation, 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 prede ...

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

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

Missile attack

''Sea Isle City'' was struck during the Tanker War phase of the

Iran–Iraq War The Iran–Iraq War, also known as the First Gulf War, was an armed conflict between Iran and Iraq that lasted from September 1980 to August 1988. Active hostilities began with the Iraqi invasion of Iran and lasted for nearly eight years, unti ...

by an Iranian

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

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, master's or masters may refer to: Ranks or titles In education: *Master (college), head of a college *Master's degree, a postgraduate or sometimes undergraduate degree in the specified discipline *Schoolmaster or master, presiding office ...

, 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 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, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...

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 hospi ...

, in

Miami Miami is a East Coast of the United States, coastal city in the U.S. state of Florida and the county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade County in South Florida. It is the core of the Miami metropolitan area, which, with a populat ...

, 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 The Persian Gulf, sometimes called the Arabian Gulf, is a Mediterranean seas, mediterranean sea in West Asia. The body of water is an extension of the Arabian Sea and the larger Indian Ocean located between Iran and the Arabian Peninsula.Un ...

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania, between the Indian Ocean, Indian and Pacific Ocean, Pacific oceans. Comprising over List of islands of Indonesia, 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, ...

route by Keystone Shipping Company 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 as ''TIME'') is an American news magazine based in New York City. It was published Weekly newspaper, weekly for nearly a century. Starting in March 2020, it transitioned to every other week. It was first publishe ...

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

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. 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