On Tuesday, the tanker Elpis was heading out of the Strait of Hormuz. Suddenly — though, for big ships “suddenly” can take a while — it reversed course and headed back towards Iran. How do we know? Because anyone with internet access can watch ships’ movements on various vessel tracking platforms, and because ships are meant to transmit constant data about their identity and destination through an AIS (automatic information system) transponder, according to international shipping regulations. It sounds like a great system. The Elpis used to be known as the Chamtang. It was flying the flag of the Comoros…
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