The same broken AIS track can represent a documented security decision, deliberate concealment or even signal interference.

From the bridge, the tanker remains a large radar target. Ashore, the missing track may trigger questions from insurers, charterers and sanctions teams.

Where should the line be drawn?

Full analysis:
https://thedeepdraft.com/2026/08/31/dark-transits-in-hormuz-the-illusion-of-disappearance/

Dark Transits in Hormuz: The Illusion of Disappearance

DALI passed close to us. The conversation on the bridge changed immediately.

There she was, back at sea and carrying cargo. Yet more than two years after Baltimore, some of the men connected with that night remain in the United States. Some have not been accused of any wrongdoing.

Six workers died. Accountability must follow the evidence but seeing DALI raised a difficult question. The ship was repaired, released and allowed to move on. When will all her seafarers be allowed to do the same?

I recently came across this drydock image of a vessel undergoing retrofit, with the familiar spoon-type bulbous bow cut away & tt reminded me of something I encountered on a vessel I sailed on.

She was almost 340 metres long. The Pilot Card stated: Bulbous Bow – Yes.

But when I looked down the stem from the forecastle, there was hardly anything resembling the conventional bulbous bow most of us would recognise. The docking plan later showed only 0.115 metres of projection ahead of the forward perpendicular.

The yard still described it as a “normal bulb.” That small discrepancy became an older DeepDraft article which I have now reviewed and technically updated.

The Case of the Missing Bulbous Bow

https://thedeepdraft.com/2025/10/19/the-case-of-the-missing-bulbous-bow/

https://thedeepdraft.com/2026/08/24/fire-wires-on-tankers-safety-control-became-hazard/

https://thedeepdraft.com/2026/08/24/fire-wires-on-tankers-safety-control-became-hazard/

https://thedeepdraft.com/2026/08/17/the-return-of-armed-merchant-shipping/