Here were the previous posts in this series.

The photos in today’s post all come from the Marinetraffic site, and in cases where the photographer’s name is mentioned, I’ve kept that info.  I’m sure the photographers appreciate that their work is shared with their name attached.  My question is this:  what do they have in common?

Danum 93, built 2009, registered in Malaysia, 115′ x 36′

danum93

SL Tiger, 2012, registered in Cyprus, 108′ x 43′

sl-tiger

Theresa, 1978, registered Mongolia, 131′ x 32′

theresa

Jawar Basra, 2015, registered St. Vincent/Grenadines, 105′ x 43′

jawar-basrah

and finally, Al Muthanna, 2014, Iraq, 121′ x 36.’

al-muthanna

And the common thread is that as of last evening,  all were located at the “top” or NW end of the Persian Gulf,  all west of a line drawn between Ahmadi Kuwait and Al Faw Iraq.  I was just curious what tugboats one would see in that area.  The photo of Al Muthanna may have been taken in Umm Qasr, a port near which I spent over three months back in late 1990.  I tell a story about that here, an account that needs to be refocused and possibly shortened.

This reminds me of a project I did back in 2008, which resulted in my tracking down photos for Osen-Hunter of a hijacked tugboat used as a  mothership by pirates off Somalia.  More about that story is here.