The psychological impact on seafarers of a Houthi attack

In a panel session – Conflict and Geopolitics: Protecting and Supporting Seafarers – the psychological impact on the crew of container ship that was involved in an attempted strike by a surface drone was described.

Nigel Griffiths, Chairman, Marine Advisory Medical Services, told the conference the incident had involved a vessel sailing from Jeddah to Port Klang. The crew was able to effectively defend the ship from attack by an uncrewed surface vessel by firing upon it as it approached. The drone boat was detonated at a safe distance from the merchant vessel with “minimum effect” on the ship itself.

While the ship itself escaped serious damage and the crew were physically unharmed they experienced a wide variety of psychological impacts. The crew comprised a Vietnamese Master, 14 Filipinos, as well as Indian, Ukrainian, Russian, and Pakistani nationals.

Upon arriving in Port Klang, Malaysia the crew underwent a psychological debrief to determine what the impact had been.

Griffiths said the comments from the crew were “diverse” with five of them considered to be in need of immediate psychological support upon arriving in Malaysia. Some of the seafarers wanted to go home while others didn’t.

He said that some were keen to return to sea as soon as possible and “get on with it”. Other said they wanted to avoid vessels that transited the Red Sea complained of flashbacks. Some said the had super alertness, others a lack of concentration and frustration.

Related:Thousands of seafarers still at risk in Red Sea

Among the Filipinos some said, “We are Filipinos. What have we done to deserve this a byproduct of the of the disagreement between two other nations.”

For two crew who had served in the Navy they said they “switched into combat mode”. A former Army officer himself Griffiths said that “combat mode” is something that kicks in very quickly.

Session moderator Punit Oza, Founder of MaritimeNXT, questioned if there was enough awareness in other parts of shipping about the issues seafarers face in geopolitical conflicts. He noted that as someone from a commercial background, “I was always told that the seafarers are doing their job, somebody else is managing that and essentially ‘you don't have to get worried about  supporting seafarers that somebody else's job’.”