Some ships accumulate trouble the way others accumulate barnacles. The vessel now known as Asphalt Princess has been launched, renamed, grounded, salvaged, renamed again, set on fire, grounded again, sold, and finally hijacked -- all across four decades and three oceans. Built in 1975 at Ankerlokken Glommen shipyard in Fredrikstad, Norway, she has carried bitumen and asphalt under five different names and four different owners, leaving a trail of incidents from the Gulf of St. Lawrence to the Gulf of Oman.
She was christened Joasla when she slid into the water on December 19, 1975. By 1979 she was Orinoco, and by 1981 Rio Orinoco. Under that name, in October 1990, she went aground on Anticosti Island in the Gulf of St. Lawrence and spilled 200 tonnes of oil before being freed. The Canadian shipping company Groupe Desgagnes acquired her as a salvage reward and towed her to MIL Davie Shipbuilding in Lauzon, Quebec, for a thorough rebuild. She re-entered service in 1993 as Thalassa Desgagnes and spent the next two decades hauling asphalt from Venezuela to ports along the Atlantic coast of North America.
The Desgagnes years were eventful. On February 13, 2010, while moored in Montreal, welding work sparked a small explosion and fire aboard the vessel. Her holds were empty at the time, and the fire was quickly extinguished, though one person was injured. Four years later, on January 6, 2014, ice accumulation caused her to run aground on the St. Lawrence River between Montreal and Trois-Rivieres. In July 2015, Groupe Desgagne announced they would replace her with a newer vessel powered by less polluting natural gas engines. By 2017, Asphalt Princess Shipping had purchased the aging tanker and given her the name she carries today.
On August 3, 2021, the Asphalt Princess was traveling from Khor Fakkan in the UAE to Sohar, Oman, when the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations issued a warning: a "non-piracy" incident was unfolding 61 nautical miles east of Fujairah. By the following morning, UKMTO had upgraded the alert to a "potential hijacking." Eight or nine armed individuals had reportedly boarded the vessel without authorization and ordered the ship to sail to Iran. The 21 crew members aboard were caught in a standoff that lasted hours. By 05:32 UTC on August 4, the boarders had left the vessel and the ship was declared safe.
Iran denied involvement, with the Foreign Ministry calling the reports "completely suspicious" and an armed forces spokesman dismissing them as "psychological warfare." Hours later, Al Jazeera reported that Iran's armed forces claimed to be "providing assistance and security for merchant ships" and were ready to send relief units. Oman confirmed the hijacking in a statement on August 4, and the Royal Navy of Oman deployed ships to help secure international waters. The incident was one of several maritime confrontations in the Gulf of Oman during 2021, reflecting the broader tensions between Iran and Western naval powers over shipping security in one of the world's most strategically vital waterways.
The 2021 hijacking occurred at approximately 24.60N, 57.29E, about 61 nautical miles east of Fujairah, UAE, in the Gulf of Oman. The open water location is featureless from altitude. Nearest airports are Fujairah International (OMFJ) and Khasab (OOKB). The Strait of Hormuz lies to the northwest.