Following the Rickmers Group’s urgent request to Iranian authorities, a representative of the company has been allowed on Thursday to board Maersk Tigris that was seized by Iranian navy on Tuesday, April 28, the company said.
There are 24 seafarers on board the vessel.
“In his contacts with the crew our representative has been able to establish that all seafarers are safe and on board the vessel. Given the current circumstances they are all in a good condition, ” the company said in an update.
The 2014-built Maersk Tigris is at anchor in the Persian Gulf, around 7 nautical miles off Bandar Abbas and since its seizure is under control of the authorities.
Maersk Tigris is a time-charter (T/C) vessel managed and crewed by Rickmers Shipmanagement, “on-hire” with Maersk Line and deployed in Maersk Line’s ME3 service (Black Sea – Persian Gulf).
The seizure of Maersk Tigris is related to a cargo dispute with Maersk Line, which dates back to 2005.
“We would like to stress that Maersk Line is not the owner of Maersk Tigris and has no involvement in the day-to-day-operation of the vessel,” Rickmers explained.
“As we believe our crew, the vessel and our company have no part in the current issue between Iran and Maersk Line we see no valid reason for the detention of the ship and would therefore like to do an urgent and strong appeal to the Iranian authorities for the immediate release of our seafarers and the vessel.”
Rickmers emphasized that the company takes its responsibilities as an international service provider to the shipping industry very seriously complying with all applicable laws and regulations “as we have done on our scheduled commercial voyage from Jeddah to Jebel Ali.”
Image: Iran’s Ports and Maritime Organization